Survey data were analyzed from 14- and 17-year-old Israeli students--1,990 ninth graders and 2,000 twelfth graders, respectively--involved in the Second International Science Study. The effects of ethnic origin (Afro-Asian versus European/American) and gender on high school student achievement, interest/motivation, attitudes, and self-concept…

A teacher educator gives a personal account of how her experience in trying to create an egalitarian, communitarian spirit in a graduate education course challenged her feminist notions of power, empowerment, and authority and provided insights into the practical aspects of developing instructor-student collaboration. (IAH)

This study examined the extent to which statistics and mathematics anxiety, attitudes toward mathematics and statistics, motivation and mathematical aptitude can explain the achievement of Arabic speaking pre-service teachers in introductory statistics. Complete data were collected from 162 pre-service teachers enrolled in an academic…

This study examined the effects of a Web site design project on students' motivation and achievement. Tenth-grade biology students worked together in teams on an ecology project that required them to locate relevant information on the Internet, decide which information should be included on their Web site, organize the information into Web pages,…

Extensive interviews were conducted with 12 young adults with learning disabilities who were successful at the college level, as well as with their parents, along with a thorough review of available school records, in order to examine how well high-ability students with learning disabilities succeed in academic environments. Most of the…

Focusing on the ethnic identity and achievement motivation of adolescents, this book reports on a study of Mexican-origin and Anglo American adolescents and sets it in sociopolitical, theoretical, ethnohistorical, and demographic contexts. The opening chapters examine public malaise over immigration and ethnic diversification in the United States…

This paper reports the effects of thematically integrated mathematics instruction on achievement, attitudes, and motivation in mathematics among middle school students of Mexican descent. A school-university collaborative effort led to the development and testing of a thematic approach undertaken as a means of contextualizing instruction for…

This study explored how motivational and achievement factors interact and affect persistence in minority undergraduate engineering students. Study participants were 38 entering Mexican and African American college students in an engineering program at a large, southwestern university in the Fall of 1990. Each student was assigned to a peer…

How students perceive standardized tests and routine classroom tests on subject matter units was studied by surveying 61 fifth-grade and 65 eighth-grade students in public schools in Michigan. It was hypothesized that older students would more often distinguish between the types of test and would be more cynical and less motivated than would…

"FUTURES with Jaime Escalante" is an educational video series aimed at increasing interest in mathematics. The series of 12 videotapes is aimed at junior high and early high school students and demonstrates that mathematics is a prerequisite for many careers. The series seeks to change students' attitudes toward mathematics and defuse…

This article reviews the existing anthropological and sociological evidence on school choice and educational stratification in Japan. Traditional linear models developed in the West have given little insight into how stratification processes actually occur. There must be analysis of the institutional linkages and organizational cultures of schools…

When Japanese education is considered from a Western perspective, the stereotypical image seems to be that of a rigid, achievement-oriented, and traditional system, producing technologically-focused human beings. This presentation focuses on the human and cultural dimensions of Japanese society and on how Japanese children are motivated to achieve…

A program is being conducted by New Hampshire Vocational-Technical College in partnership with Sanders Associates, Inc., a rapidly growing electronics company, to retrain Sanders employees as electronic technicians. The program, requiring 720 hours and taking 13 months to complete, allows students to acquire more than half the credits needed for…

The relationship between high school students' feelings of efficacy and efforts to study and teachers' classroom testing practices was examined. Questionnaires were administered in four high schools in biology, geometry, English, and United States history classes; a total of 69 classes participated. Some teachers were also interviewed. Students'…

Creating a writing workshop atmosphere using computers in the English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom improves the opportunities for integrating all language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The computer also represents a new way of learning, emphasizing students' problem solving strategies and learning processes. Teachers…