Describes students' views on how teaching methods could be improved. Suggestions for teachers include deemphasizing errors, providing a pleasant atmosphere, showing enjoyment, bringing in humor, admitting mistakes, giving homework, and letting students talk. (SRT)

How the topic of intrinsic motivation can be used as the theoretical framework to guide an undergraduate educational psychology course within the teacher education curriculum is described. Three motivation exercises, developed using the concepts of R. deCharms, are included. A preliminary assessment of the technique showed favorable results. (RM)

A study attempting to disambiguate earlier research on personality orientations and second language learning assessed the influence of ethnicity (English v. French), milieu (unicultural v. multicultural), and target second language (French, English, or Spanish) on the emergence of eighth graders' orientations toward the second language learning…

Examines the constructivist theory of knowledge which basically proposes that knowledge is constructed in the mind of the learner. Particular emphasis is placed on how a shift can be made from someone who teaches to someone who facilitates learning in a classroom environment in which the students are active participants in the learning process.…

Discusses how adult general education liberal arts requirements do not help adult students and how they may actually discourage students. Discusses alternative courses instituted by the University without Walls (UWW) program that provide lifelong learning activities incorporating liberal arts skills and knowledge with experiential learning. (JS)

Examines combinations of the following variables and their influence on student attitudes and intentions toward affective and behavioral learning: (1) teacher sex; (2) teacher sex-role orientation; and (3) teacher use of power strategies. (SR)

Self-regulated learning is an important component of learning for college students. Students must have greater awareness of their own behavior, motivation, and cognition and of positive motivational beliefs, and must practice self-regulated learning strategies. Faculty can model self-regulated learning and provide appropriate classroom tasks. (MSE)

Describes approaches for solving the problem of students' declining motivation and performance when they move to middle-level schools. Urges educators to examine school policies, practices, and procedures, and to make changes that will make it very clear to students that effort, challenge, improvement, and mastery are the goals of schooling. (16…

Describes a teacher-researcher's investigation into barriers to student adoption of an alternative referent for learning and its consequential learning strategies in an 11th-grade chemistry class. Suggests that various contextual factors influenced students' willingness to adopt the alternative referent, and that students' beliefs, trust of the…

Examines whether and to what extent differences exist between learners of French, German, and Spanish with respect to range of motivational or motivation-related factors and whether the factor time has any significant effect in this. Concentrates on general or institution-wide language programs in universities. (Author/VWL)

The attitudes of 100 Israeli-Jewish students toward learning Arabic and coexistence with Arabs within Israel were investigated, as was their evaluation of characters they read about in familiar and unfamiliar texts. The students were found to possess low instrumental and low indoors integrative motivation, but their army service motivation and…

Investigated the potentiality that culture studies has to motivate Tawainese junior-high-school pupils to learn English, and tried to establish the relations between pupil interests in culture studies and their orientations, attitudes, and motivation toward learning English. Grade 1 and 2 students (n=480) from Taipei City and Taipei County…

Examines the relationship between engagement in high school math and science classes, later academic performance, and choice of college major. Quantitative analyses are complemented by case studies of college students who exhibited high or low engagement in high school. (Author)

In a study of 696 learners, the authors found that stress associated with challenges in the learning environment had a positive relationship with learning performance and that stress associated with hindrances in the learning environment had a negative relationship with learning performance. They also found evidence suggesting that these…

The value of GIS within school curricula seems well perceived but ill-substantiated. This paper discusses the role of GIS in the development of higher order thinking skills and in motivating student learning. It then reports on attitudinal surveys undertaken before and after student exposure to GIS-related tasks. The tasks formed part of four…