In this article, we argue for a change in how researchers study motivation to learn. We believe that research can provide better explanations of the origins and outcomes of behavior, and thus be more useful, if we focus on how motivation develops and why it changes. We suggest reframing motivation research in education by extending the current…

Recent investigations of the effects on group output of competitive contingencies, reward deliveries to group members contingent upon achieving a higher or lower task rate than another group, have suggested that competitive contingencies are a positive function of group output. When rewards are contingent upon a higher comparison outcome, group…

Despite unfounded claims that scientific approaches to educational administration are irrelevant, research continues to clarify the nature of administration in practical ways. The author of this essay, a participant in the Cooperative Program in Educational Administration (CPEA) in the 1950's, first critiques Thomas B. Greenfield's 1981 paper,…

In this paper a broad perspective on the phenomenon of teaching and learning is presented. The complex dynamics of interaction between teacher, student, and educational researcher are explored. Conventional research in education is characterized as relying heavily on methods adopted from other types of research in such fields as agriculture and…

The purpose of this study was to develop an observation system which would describe some of the important phenomena in groups that have the task of making a decision about a controversial issue involving value conflicts. The basic design to develop the observation system involved the analysis of transcriptions of group discussions of controversial…

The study described in this volume investigated the talk of thirteen-year-old boys and girls, recorded while they were working in small groups on tasks set by their teachers. Specifically, research focused on the interplay between cognitive and communicative functions of speech in contexts planned for learning. "The Children and Their Talk"…

During the 60's, systems for the observation of classroom behavior have become an important area of educational research. Many new systems have been devised both for the evaluation of teaching techniques and for basic research into teaching processes. In the development of such systems the investigator must determine what behaviors are to be…

This annual report presents an annotated bibliography of the research reported from the Department of Education and Psychology, Linkoping University (Sweden) during 1997. The bibliography describes 21 research projects led by Education staff, 44 publications written by Education staff, 13 projects led by Psychology staff, and 64 publications…