Teachers' explanations for students' low achievement were reliably classified using Cooper and Good's (1983) attributional coding system. Teachers most frequently attributed low achievement to typical pattern of low effort. They viewed acquired student characteristics (low motivation, poor work habits) as more important than either teacher…

The best help parents can offer students with their homework is instituting a formal study program. Rather than assisting with reading, writing, and arithmetic, parents should spend more time teaching students to organize, budget time, plan ahead, concentrate, handle responsibility, and solve problems. (SM)

Examines the following study habits of postgraduate students who learn under the distance-education system of Madras University: learning patterns at home; kind of participation during the semester; learning habits before the examination; ways they answer during the examination; reasons for studying by distance education; and reasons for joining…

Explores the impact of unannounced quizzes on students' performance on examinations by comparing course segments with quizzes to segments without quizzes. Finds that test scores following quizzes averaged half a letter grade higher than scores from segments without quizzes; C students demonstrated a grade gain of 84% of a letter grade. (CMK)

An action research project report was complete to discuss how homework completion and motivation is an ongoing issue and debate within the public schools. This is especially true in the middle school setting. The teacher researchers of this project chose to conduct a study in order to increase homework completion and motivation of middle school…

This booklet provides a multi-curriculum collection of ideas and activities designed to improve the study skills of students in kindergarten through sixth grade. This collection of ideas and activities may be used to supplement learning activities in any classroom, and many of the booklet's pages may be duplicated for parent or student use.…

Discusses the concept of learner strategy in relation to language learning. Proposes that these strategies can be subdivided into four categories: strategies for coping with target language rules, strategies for receiving performance, strategies for producing performance, and strategies for organizing learning. Stresses the encouragement of the…

Compared the Scholastic Aptitude Test scores of college freshmen in 1969 and 1979. Results showed the class of 1983 (tested in 1979) obtained lower Scholastic Aptitude scores but higher scores on certain measures of study habits and attitudes. Differences in verbal aptitude between men and women may have narrowed. (JAC)

Studies of Australian and Canadian high school students point to at least a three-dimensional model of the study process domain, incorporating a complex of values, motives, and strategies. This complex mediates between personological and institutional variables on the one hand and academic performance on the other. (Author/SJL)

A gifted high school student recounts her childhood as a gifted child whose successes came too easily and without challenge, resulting in the development of poor work habits, low grades, and underachievement. She urges educators to stress personal excellence, help students overcome their fears of both study and possible failure, and foster a love…

Demonstrates how "academic ethic" (a student world view that emphasizes diligent, daily, and sober study) can be operationalized and measured. Provides evidence for its existence among students at Illinois State University. Finds a relationship between methodical, disciplined study and academic performance. (Contains references.) (CMK)

The authors extend the standard education production function and student time allocation analysis to focus on the interactions between student effort and performance over the semester. The purged instrumental variable technique is used to obtain consistent estimators of the structural parameters of the model using data from intermediate…

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…

A correlational study of 62 8th grade, 60 11th grade, and 58 college students investigated developmental differences in learning goals, study strategy beliefs and their inter-relationship for science classes. Questionnaires measured levels of task orientation, ego orientation, and work avoidance, as well as belief in the utility of two types of…

The progress of self-paced and instructor-paced students was examined with measures of achievement, course evaluations, and retention. Though the self-paced group procrastinated, and the instructor-paced group did not, they had similar test scores and were equally satisfied with the course. The number of completed units, grade distributions, and…