The purpose of the current study is to determine main demotivating factors affecting Turkish EFL university students' English language learning process and to identify the ways they apply to cope with these negative experiences from their own perspectives. The participants were 469 first and second year Turkish EFL university students. Both…

Original narratives from six high-achieving African American junior high school students discussing their goal-setting and goal-pursuit processes in light of being Black youth in America are presented. The study purpose was to begin the work of identifying the substance of productive behaviors among the most frequently noted population of…

The purpose of this study was to: examine differences in students' perceptions of their noncognitive skills and school environments by race/ethnicity, and explore whether students' perceptions of their noncognitive skills and school environments were related to three outcomes that have been identified in the research as mattering most for a…

Despite the increase in their college enrollment, nontraditional students in U.S. postsecondary institutions are less likely to stay in college until they earn their degree. What could explain nontraditional student high attrition rates and overall success beyond what their demographic characteristics reveal? The purpose of this study was to…

This Grounded Theory study utilized Self-determination Theory to analyze the interview results of 18 community college African American and Latino males. The goal was to learn what helped participants to succeed and persist in developmental and transfer-level writing courses despite the obstacles that they faced. Three major themes emerged: (a)…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore African American female students' beliefs, and self-perceptions about their mathematics experiences. This study used mathematics autobiographies, focus group interviews and individual student interviews to generate data that was analyzed for emerging themes and patterns as to how the…

This was the first study to integrate Rosenbaum's concept of learned resourcefulness with Dweck's implicit theories of intelligence in predicting university students' academic self-control behaviour and year-end grades. Rosenbaum highlights the prominent role that learned resourcefulness skills play in promoting mastery responses and goal…

Many colleges continue to report high attrition rates among distance education students. This study included a survey of students at Coastline Community College to determine why they dropped or failed their distance-learning courses and to identify methods that might improve their success and retention. Questionnaires were sent to a group of…

Perfectionist students are not satisfied with merely doing well or even with doing better than their peers. They are satisfied only if they have done a job perfectly. Problems associated with forms of perfectionism that focus on seeking success are relatively minor, but problems associated with forms of perfectionism that focus on avoiding failure…

Perfectionist students are not satisfied with merely doing well or even with doing better than their peers. They are satisfied only if they have done a job perfectly. Problems associated with forms of perfectionism that focus on seeking success are relatively minor, but problems associated with forms of perfectionism that focus on avoiding failure…