In light of a new "student engagement" benchmark for teaching and institutional effectiveness in higher education, this study focused on the relationships between perceived instructor use of verbal approach and avoidance relational strategies and students' motives for communicating with their instructors. The data suggest that perceived instructor…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between academic self-regulation, self-efficacy, and two student self-belief systems, identity style and stage of change, for 210 college students enrolled at a private research university. High scores on the informational identity, contemplation stage, and action stage subscales and low…

This study explored nontraditional college students' perspectives on their college education. Forty-three undergraduate students with an average age of 38 years completed 60-minute structured interviews. Qualitative research methodology based on grounded theory was used in data synthesis. Results identified the central concept of hopefulness,…

Cluster analysis and analysis of variance procedures were used to identify students' domain-specific epistemological belief profiles and to examine differences in students' beliefs, motivation, and task performance. Four hundred eighty-two undergraduates completed measures regarding their beliefs about knowledge, competency beliefs, and…

It is important for college teachers to motivate their students because student motivation correlates with a student's academic achievement. This study was concerned with exploring what intrinsically motivates college students to continue attending class; what brings them to class because of a desire to be there, not because of external factors…

This investigation focused on the interrelationships among the frequency of cheating behaviors, impulsiveness, personal efficacy, and academic motivation. Sixty-one undergraduate students from a small private Catholic college in the Northeast completed the Academic Integrity Scale, subscales from Kurtines' (1978) Autonomy and Paulus' (1983)…

In this large-scale Australian study, we profile the background characteristics and teaching motivations for individuals entering teacher education across three major established urban teacher provider universities in the Australian States of New South Wales and Victoria. Our recently developed and validated "FIT-Choice" (Factors…

To improve the management of hybrid courses, the relationship between learner characteristics and learning performance was analyzed in two regular university courses. Undergraduate and graduate students participated in two 15-week hybrid courses which consisted of face-to-face lectures (Information Industrial issues), and the corresponding modules…

This study examined the effect of goal-orientation on subjects' metacognitive activities during problem solving. Twenty female undergraduate students were randomly assigned to a learning or performance goal-orientation condition. The subjects were given an open-ended problem-solving task with instructions highlighting their respective…

The coded elaborative outline (CEO) was evaluated as a strategy for helping students learn from text. CEOs are outlines of main points that include the coding of information read and elaborate on that information to enhance meaning. The following five conditions were compared: (1) required CEOs; (2) voluntary CEOs; (3) CEO instruction only; (4)…

Research has established the important and positive relationship between informal student-faculty interactions and student retention. To add to the scant research on out-of-class communication (OCC), a study investigated the relationship between OCC and instructor immediacy, trust, and conversation control, and student motivation for students and…

The purpose of this study was to identify the significant characteristics of distance education students who have dropped-out or continuously and successfully progressed in the distance education program at the NOU of Taiwan. The major focus was based on the found factors which might relate to the students' decisions for dropping out or staying in…

States that recent research advanced a causal model explaining the teacher immediacy/student learning relationship by positing the mediational effects of students' state motivation to learn. Argues for an alternative model which posits that affective learning is the central causal mediator. Tests the model with 224 students evaluating their…

Results of a study with 40 undergraduates indicate that those who expected that the instructor would call on them at random completed more assignments, recalled more from the assignments, and had more confidence in their recall. Results suggest the importance of in-class questioning methods for student accountability. (SLD)

Presents results of a study that evaluated using popular movie clips, shown in the first class meeting of an abnormal psychology course, in relation to student enthusiasm. Compares two classes of female juniors, one using clips and one class not using them. States that the films portrayed psychological disorders. (CMK)