The topic of this study was student motivation and intention to graduate at a for-profit university. The research problem addressed is only 23% of bachelor's degree-seeking students at for-profit universities persist to graduate within six years. Students who leave without graduating incur more debt and earn less money over time. Grounded in an…

High-ability students have special education needs that are often overlooked or misunderstood (Blaas in "Aust J Guid Couns" 24(2):243-255, 2014) which may result in talent loss (Saha and Sikora in "Int J Contemp Sociol Discuss J Contemp Ideas Res" 48(1):9-34, 2011). Educational acceleration can help avoid these circumstances…

The aim of the current study was to obtain information from students in higher education on different motivational profiles that resulted from the combination of three academic goals (i.e. learning goals (LG), performance-approach goals and performance-avoidance goals). Moreover, information related to the relevance of each goal within each…

This article reports on the development of a theory-informed assessment instrument for use in evaluating environmental education programs. The instrument involves coding learners' brief reflective writing on five established educational and social psychological constructs that correspond to five important goals of environmental education:…

In this study, the role of gender and course format in college students' perceptions of classroom motivational climate (i.e., sense of classroom community and perceived classroom goal structure) was examined. Participants were 722 college students from a variety of majors at a comprehensive Midwest American university. Female students felt a…

There is a limited body of research examining how students' beliefs about intelligence and about their abilities relate to different learning environments. As reported here, I examined secondary school students' beliefs, goals, and expectations guided by Zimmerman's (2000) model of self-regulated learning. In this exploratory study, 230 secondary…

This article presents and discusses the results of a national survey of social work PhD students, faculty, and administrators (n = 416), conducted by the Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education in Social Work (GADE), in December 2012. The survey was undertaken to inform the updating of GADE's 2003 "Guidelines for Quality in Social…

The aim of this study was to compare the goals and aspirations of learners from single- and two-parent families. The study used a quantitative methodology with a cross-sectional comparative group design. The sample consisted of 853 Grade 11 learners from secondary schools in the Northern, Southern and Metro Central education districts in the…

This study explored factors associated with both career and student development, and with persistence decisions. Findings revealed differences in which students perceived their abilities, responsibilities, adaptability, and connections between academics and vocation among those at a liberal arts college who intended to return to the institution…

This study explores the educational achievement of immigrant youth in Spain employing data from 3 waves of the Longitudinal Study of Families and Childhood (Panel de Families i Infancia), a representative sample of children in Catalonia first interviewed at ages 13-16 in 2006 (N = 2,710). Results suggest consistent disadvantage in achievement…

The purpose of this study was to integrate domain-learning theory and goal theory to investigate the learning processes, achievement goals, social goals, and achievement of 141 college students. Cluster-analytic procedures were used to categorize participants at different levels of expertise based on their responses on knowledge, interest, and…

The aim of the present study was to re-examine the relationships between achievement goals and perceived purposes of PE, perceived motivational climates, attitudes towards PE teachers and affective outcomes using the 2 x 2 achievement goal framework. Questionnaires were completed by 493 secondary school students (222 males, 262 females, 9 missing)…

Related variables measured in 1975 to smoking status in 1978 using multivariate statistical procedures. Variables included sociodemographic characteristics, smoking environment, school performance, attitude toward smoking, and knowledge about smoking effects. Cross-sectional analysis of variables measured in 1978 revealed that six variables…

It is widely postulated that school context characteristics and sex may influence students' motivational orientations. However, relatively little empirical evidence exists to support this postulate. Hence the present study sought to examine both the individual and interactive effects of school and sex differences on students' motivational goals.…

A 12-week study of two groups of 14 college freshmen music majors was conducted to determine which group demonstrated greater achievement in learning auditory discrimination using computer-assisted instruction (CAI). The method employed was a pre-/post-test experimental design using subjects randomly assigned to a control group or an experimental…