Many current curricula, in going beyond traditional goals, increasingly foster creativity in science classrooms, declaring creativity a core skill of the 21st century. For enhancing creativity in science classrooms, the subject Arts is considered to offer a potential way from STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) to STEAM (STEM with…

The graduate labour market is highly competitive but little is known about why students vary in their development of employability. This study contributes to the literature by applying goal-setting theory and the job demands-resources model to investigate how motivational processes influence students' proactive career behaviours. We tested four…

Mental toughness is linked to attainment and progression in education, as well as wellbeing. Whether it changes across development has not been thoroughly studied. Mental toughness, and related constructs were measured in 293 participants aged between 7 and 16. Mental toughness, self-efficacy, wellbeing, positive motivation and positive engagement…

The aim of the project was to motivate school students to learn about the national literature of their own and others' countries. Engagement was fostered via the creation of digital artefacts (or "e-artefacts") such as online comic strips, live videos or animations. The pedagogical rationale was based on Papert's constructionism and…

Research predicated on self-determination theory (SDT) has established a positive relationship between autonomy-supportive teaching and a range of desired student outcomes. Therefore, the enhancement of autonomy-supportive teaching is a legitimate focus of efforts to improve student outcomes. In this study, we compared self-reported levels of…

Motivational factors play an important role in (language) learning processes and research indicates that this is also true for telecollaboration exchanges (Jauregi, de Graaff, van den Bergh, & Kriz, 2012; Melchor-Couto, 2017; in press). This short paper will introduce a study into how motivational factors play a role in telecollaboration…

We investigated academic buoyancy (a response to challenge) and adaptability (a response to change) among a sample of 12-16-year-olds in China (N = 3617) compared with same-aged youth from North America (N = 989) and the United Kingdom (UK; N = 1182). We found that Chinese students reported higher mean levels of buoyancy and adaptability. We also…

Exploring the popular explanation that the global spread of English may demotivate students with English as their first language to learn other languages, this study investigates relations between student motivation and perception of Global English and tests for differences between traditional "campus" and distance university students…

The use of large online discussion forums within online and distance learning continues to grow. Recent innovations in online learning such as the MOOC (massive open online course) and concomitant growth in the use of online media for the delivery of courses in traditional campus based universities provide both opportunity and challenge for online…

Work-integrated learning (WIL) provides an opportunity to develop the skills, knowledge, competence, and experience, which increase employability and lead to more satisfying careers. Research indicates that WIL results in improved academic- and occupationally-related outcomes. However, there is a paucity of quantitative research examining the…

The relationship that exists between students and science and technology (S&T) is a complex and important one. If it is positive, then social, economic and environmental consequences are to be expected. Yet, many problems of interest/motivation/attitude (I/M/A) towards S&T have been recorded. A lot of research has been conducted on this…

The aim was to explore the predictive ability of sources of stress and a range of dispositional and coping behaviours on student satisfaction and motivation. Most research exploring sources of stress and coping in students construes stress as psychological distress, with little attempt to consider positive experiences of stress. A questionnaire…

Background: Several studies have examined young primary school children's use of strategies when solving simple addition and subtraction problems. Most of these studies have investigated students' strategy use as if they were isolated processes. To date, we have little knowledge about how math strategies in young students are related to other…

There is growing recognition of the special needs of mathematically gifted learners. This article reviews policy developments and current research and theory on giftedness in mathematics. It includes a discussion of the nature of mathematical ability as well as the factors that make up giftedness in mathematics. The article is set in the context…

This document summarizes research to demonstrate the difference that Building Schools for the Future (BSF) schools are making to young people's attitudes towards education and learning, as measured by their levels of engagement and enthusiasm for school. The key research objective was further broken down into a number of research questions: (1)…