The purpose of this monograph is to describe a number of studies that the author has carried out, which offer some evidence for the existence of a few environmental factors which appear to influence children's performance on both ability and attainment tests. The notion is developed of how children's motivation to learn, and hence their level of…

Learning in small groups is a practical way to bring about behavior change. The inquiry learning process is perceived to be the most natural and scientific way of learning. Skills developed include those of problem-solving task analysis, decision-making, value formation and adaptability. The art of small group interaction is developed. Factual…

The result of a study designed to assess student attitudes toward grading practices are discussed. Questionnaire responses of 3439 students in three institutions were tabulated. Responses were generally negative toward conventional grading systems. (MS)

This paper considers a number of diverse contexts in which English is learned as a second language and in which nonstandard dialects arise because of social and linguistic factors. The varieties considered here are immigrant English, indigenous-minority varieties of English, pidginization and creolization, local varieties of non-native English,…

The role of the museum as a source of information is discussed in response to the question about how museums can best augment school curricula. The relationship between schools and museums is investigated with respect to learning. Children must learn to learn--see, observe, conclude, and think--rather than memorize facts. Museums can teach this by…

Reveals the phases through which an apathetic eighth-grade class of poor readers went on their way to becoming active learners. The phases included: (1) discussing attitudes and goals; (2) positive environment; (3) sharing literature through oral reading; (4) reading for an audience; and (5) active learning. (SKC)

Offers strategies for increasing learning motivation in elementary school students that are borrowed from marketing techniques used by grocery stores including tie-ins, holiday or theme specials, shelving rules, and personalized attention. (SRT)

Educators and parents share a common goal: helping children and youth become successful in school and life. The basic principles of social and emotional learning serve as the underlying principles of motivation. Motivation is what stimulates and focuses actions. It is an internal state that can be thought of as "reasons for doing". Needs,…

This chapter examines how adolescents' self-concept beliefs are powerfully influenced by frame of reference effects, which involve students comparisons of their ability levels with those of other students in the immediate context as well as assessments of their own ability and academic accomplishments. Noting that academic self-concept is…

This paper discusses current perspectives on the education of young children in terms of five interrelated issues rooted in a developmental perspective: (1) the complexities of predicting the long-term developmental outcomes of early experience; (2) how to interpret gender differences in the long-term effects of different approaches to early years…

The goal of this book is to increase the usefulness and relevance of research to educational practice, particularly in the area of improving student learning. It proposes and describes an experiment: the establishment of a Strategic Education Research Program (SERP). The SERP plan calls for a large-scale and sharply defined program of research,…

The midcareeer learning of 120 professionals in 12 contrasting business, engineering, and health care organizations was examined to identify factors facilitating workplace learning. Individuals were interviewed regarding their current work and ways they acquired the necessary know-how and knowledge for their jobs and improved or extended their…

This document presents an action plan to solve the problem of inadequate English-as-a-Second/Other-Language (ESOL) instruction in high school content area courses and to increase effort and motivation among ESOL students. ESOL students often do not have sufficient command of English to do very well in content-oriented courses (such as history,…

This paper is an in-depth investigation of classroom language learning motivation in a Korean high school. Understanding the source of motivation and development of motivation is very important for educational and pedagogical purposes. This study surveyed 192 Korean high school students' orientations for learning English to discover what kinds of…

A balanced triad among students, teachers, and curriculum, with each consisting of three equally supportive components, is shown to be the most important foundation for learning. Teacher components are self-esteem, superiors, autonomy; student components are peers, parents, motivation; curriculum components are design, materials, pedagogy. (MH)