Tested a structural model of mathematics achievement and attitude with a probability sample of 3,116 adolescents from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth. Concluded that prior achievement and home environment influenced subsequent achievement most powerfully and that previous attitude had the most powerful influence on subsequent attitude.…

Self-worth-related consequences of success and failure for low and high performers under cooperative and competitive reward structure were compared in 282 middle school students solving puzzles. Results illustrate that, regardless of reward structure, success and failure play a critical role in reducing the impact of individual performance…

Indepth research on Chinese students questions Western notions regarding motivation and memorization. Chinese educators believe creativity and understanding require much effort, repetition, and attention. Time on task and behavioral problems may be less relevant. Reform efforts using transplanted ideas must consider both societies' contexts.…

Defines the distinction between a "doing to" approach to children as the imposition of adult will on children and the "working with" approach as good listening, responsive teaching, and a collaborative approach of community-building. Challenges Montessori teachers to improve their craft and move from "doing to" to…

Describes success of an academic booster club as a rural middle school strategy to improve student test scores, attendance, grades, community perceptions of the school, and student behavior. Notes how during two years the club raised over $20,000 and fostered improvements in average daily attendance, achievement test scores, honor roll…

An increase in nontraditional students in traditionally white South African universities suggests the need for a new learning environment. Semistructured interviews with six Rand Afrikaans University students focus on this transformation process and the various ways to manage it, with implications for the university discussed. The interview…

For two summers, week-long residential mathematics programs were held for high school women, with the primary goal of encouraging them to continue their study of mathematics. The activities were designed to rekindle their excitement about mathematics and to support the idea that women should learn advanced mathematics. This paper reports the…

The purposes of this study were to evaluate a pilot, dropout prevention program designed to provide academic tutoring and supplemental enrichment to 9th graders and to examine additional data on adolescents' motivators and role models related to high school dropout and completion. The program targeted 9th graders because many adolescents decide to…

Rogers' diffusion of innovation model was used to examine the adoption and contribution of a web-based course management system at a college campus. This study surveyed 196 students. It was found that Rogers' model successfully explained the adoption of the innovation. The adoption of the innovation also led to increased interaction between…

This research investigated the impact of personalizing mathematical word problems using individual student interests on student problem-solving performance. Ten word problems were selected randomly from a mathematics textbook to create a series of two assessments. Both assessments contained problems exactly as they appeared in the textbook and…

Given the important role of the affective variables in the process of learning, this paper examines ways of overcoming negative effects (i.e. anxiety, boredom) of the contextual factors. Exemplifying the uses of humor through context-specific, purpose-driven jokes, it maintains that humor can be utilized to produce a resourceful, encouraging and…

Just-in-Time Teaching (ITT) is a teaching and learning approach that combines the best features of traditional in-class instruction with the communication and resource potential available via the Web. We describe here how ITT can be used to teach biology to undergraduate and graduate level students, both science majors as well as non science…

This study explored the social networks and sources of social support for rural high-school adolescents and how these are related to educational and psychological outcomes. We examined quality, frequency. and nature of social relationships of high school students to understand how size, density, heterogeneity, compositional quality of social…

The recently mandated, National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) electronic submission format poses a significant challenge to teacher educators charged with compiling a program report for the purpose of securing national recognition from NCATE. The program report guidelines stipulate that compilers may use a maximum of only…

This study examines whether two online courses offering educational support for junior faculty have a positive effect on their attitudes to learning and curriculum and teaching capacities (CTC). The data used in the analysis are from two 2005 online university training courses. The tasks the online courses assign to faculty, the resources they…