Discusses three classes of nonacademic outcomes to foster in students: (1) social, ethical, and civic dispositions; (2) attitudes toward school and learning motivation; and (3) metacognitive skills. Provides guidance about how to accomplish these goals. Suggests that this broader school reform agenda will promote dispositions needed to sustain a…

Too often adult literacy programs seem based on the assumption that, if learners work hard on skills for six months, they will have "acquired" literacy, as though it is a set of skills adults can "get" from a tutor (Kazemek, 1985). One study of 20 adult literacy classes in eight U.S. states found basic (not higher level) skills the predominant…

The aim of the present study is to define and describe second language L2 learners' motivational profiles by means of a statistical procedure that is relatively rarely used in L2 studies: cluster analysis. To achieve this aim, 5 broad dimensions of students' motivational and attitudinal dispositions toward 5 different L2s were measured and…

Among many studies focusing on the effect of learner and instructional variables on course outcomes, few studies have investigated the learners' study habits and the mediating mechanisms among the learner and instruction variables in their influence on course outcomes. This study examined differences in learner satisfaction and learning outcomes…

In the bilingual contexts of two regions of Spain, Asturias (Asturian/Spanish) and Eastern Aragon (Catalan/Spanish), and given the relationship between language attitudes and linguistic proficiency, our study has two objectives. Firstly, the attitudes to the two contact languages are described. Secondly, the variables that can explain such…

In many developed countries of the world, pupil attitudes to school science decline progressively across the age range of secondary schooling while fewer students are choosing to study science at higher levels and as a career. Responses to these developments have included proposals to reform the curriculum, pedagogy, and the nature of pupil…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among students' self-perception, attitudes toward school, study and organizational skills, achievement motivation, attributional style, gender, parental involvement and style, parental income and parental level of education, and students' academic performance or achievement. Using…

The role of motivation and collaboration in STEM learning and performance is paramount. A learning community represents an educational approach that can engage students in learning in a motivated, thoughtful, active, and collaborative way. The focus of this article is on the nature of students' interest, attitudes, learning experiences and…

This article reports on an investigation into the attributions of success and perceived areas of strength and weakness of adult learners of English as a foreign language in the Department of Continuing Education at Minsk State Linguistic University, Belarus. The students attributed their limited progress in learning the foreign language mainly to…

This paper reports on the results of an action research to explore the effectiveness of using cooperative learning strategies on students' academic achievement, their understanding of physics concepts and their motivation to learn in the physics classroom. The study involved a secondary four express physics class of 41 students in a neighbourhood…

The impact of interest on specific quantitative and qualitative measures was studied by examining the relationship between interest in research methodology by education students and knowledge in the area. The "Study Interest Questionnaire" (Winteler and Sierwald, 1987) and a questionnaire on interest in empirical research methodology were…

The study investigated whether performance levels of employed students receiving financial aid increase singnificantly as a consequence of monetary incentive, and whether there are result differentials for some students and not for others. The assumption concerning the incentive value of financial aid was not supported by the study's results.…

Aptitude is not a valid predictor of achievement in a foreign language. Studies show that motivation does affect achievement. Since the student's attitude and performance are affected by the teacher's attitude, teacher-learner interaction should be recognized as a major determinant of successful FL study. (KM)

The question examined by this study was: Are the traditional reinforcers common to many planned programs of reinforcement in the classroom relevant and meaningful to the pupils themselves? Data is reported from a questionnaire administered to seven-year-old pupils, ten-year-old pupils, and their teachers. A discrepancy was found between reward…

To examine what motivates mature people to begin a full-time educational program, a study was made of students at the Institute of Continuing Education (Londonderry, Northern Ireland), which runs a one-year, full-time, academically intense program in liberal studies for mature students with or without formal educational qualifications. The study…