Describes the development of a learning profile instrument prototype to help prepare college learners for learner-controlled instruction. Discusses learner strategies for increasing metacognitive and cognitive skills, academic motivation, required background knowledge, and self-efficacy, and reports results of testing that showed achievement gains…

Educational psychologists and practicing educators agree that student motivation is a central and often problematic issue for education. Understanding and working with those factors that influence students' ability and willingness to engage with curriculum content and intellectual challenges help teachers increase the likelihood that our students…

Self-efficacy is essential to motivation and learning. Compared to students with weak self-efficacy for academics, students with strong self-efficacy have higher motivation, make greater effort, persist longer, and achieve more. Unfortunately, struggling learners with weak self-efficacy often avoid academic tasks or give up prematurely, reducing…

This article reports a study in which student performance and approaches to study in a CD-ROM version of a chemical engineering course were examined. The study consists of three phases. The purpose of phase 1 was to evaluate of the efficacy of CD-ROM for this content and student population. Therefore, we compared the performance of students who…

The authors explored the relationship between motivation and affect in upper elementary mathematics classes from the perspective of flow theory. They also investigated the relationship between students' motivation and teachers' instructional practices. Students' reported classroom experiences formed 4 factors--Social Affect, Personal Affect,…

This paper takes a ethnomethodological look at a typical Experiential Self-Empowerment Approach (ESA)-using speech class to see how the ESA uses 12 assumptions as background expectancies (Heritage, 1984) to accomplish personal growth in college public speaking classes. The following assumptions are addressed: (1) students deserve "something…

Two studies of influences on self-regulated performance were conducted. The purpose of the first was to determine if the level of performance of college students would be higher if the allowable length of the assignment was greater or smaller. Subjects were 126 education majors at a large state university participating in an extra-credit program…

Classroom assessment events were studied by investigating students' perceptions of task, self-efficacy, effort, and goal orientations and achievement levels in third-grade language arts and fifth-grade mathematics and social studies. Whether student descriptions differ from one assessment event to the next was also studied. Subjects were students…

This paper examines how self-evaluation strategies contribute to helping students take control over their own learning processes. In addition to examining the role of self-evaluation when a student takes on and exercises control over an activity in the classroom, this paper takes into account homework assignments and the role of parents. Subjects…

A study examined how self-efficacy beliefs influenced motivation, affect, and adjustment in five students aged 9-13 with cancer, receiving educational services in a hospital setting. Education was an effective vehicle through which children with cancer could experience control and autonomy and also achieve many necessary developmental outcomes for…

One hundred thirteen undergraduates completed measures of career decision-making (CDM) self-efficacy, career locus of control, CDM attitudes, and CDM skills. Results proved the self-efficacy theory superior to the locus of control model in predicting college students' CDM attitudes. No significant gender differences emerged among the variables.…

Presents a framework for helping low-achieving pupils through reinforcement in technology at high school. Findings indicated an improvement in pupils' self-efficacy and increased motivation to study at the present and in the future. In the pupils' eyes, the main features were construction activities, team projects and free study, and the major…

This study uses the foreign language classroom to examine students' beliefs about learning, perceptions of goal attainment, and motivation to continue language study. Survey and interview results indicated students' attributions for success and failure and their expectations for certain subjects' learnability played a role in the relationship…

This study used cluster analysis to identify college orientation profiles of 115 Latino college freshmen from lower socioeconomic status backgrounds and examined the relationship of profiles to adjustment and academic outcomes. Participants were surveyed on personal and cultural types of motivation and college degree goals, degree confidence, and…

This exploratory study examined the range of gender-based achievement motivation patterns evident in a group of Australian final year high school students. Single, dual and multiple goal complexes were compared, enabling an evaluation of the relative impact of each of the goals on these patterns, as well as their relationships with academic…