Teachers in the content areas of the curriculum must expend effort and use ingenuity in motivating students to learn the literacy skills of listening, speaking, thinking, reading, writing, and computing. To foster this enthusiasm for learning, seven elements are essential in any teaching strategy: interests (knowing the students' interests and…

A 2x2x3 randomized block design was employed with 117 seventh grade students to investigate the independent and combined effects of a learning game and student teams on students' attitudes and achievement in mathematics. Multivariate and univariate analyses of variance revealed that students in classes using games were more positive toward math…

A description of four research strategies which are different from the commonly used between-groups design: the sub-group method, the regression or correlation method, the case study method and the ethnography method. Two studies carried out in Montreal using the regression method are discussed. (AMH)

Elementary education majors might be better able to guide children in self-directed learning if they are exposed to such an experience in their formal training. A reading methods course stressing self-directed learning is described and a bibliography is provided. (JMD)

Defines and discusses the operating principles of the Explorative-Creative Way of language teaching, an approach in which the teacher encourages the students to investigate the target language and to tap the linguistic resources available to them in order to produce a maximum number of new meaningful utterances. (SED)

Examines advantages of using videogame format for training, including practicality, relatively inexpensive hardware, ability to use multi-purpose software modules, motivational advantages of increased student interest and instructional effectiveness, and instructional features such as the adaptive interactive nature of videogames. An example of a…

For children with poor vocabulary development, reading is intimidating rather than exciting. That is why elementary and middle school teachers need this activity-filled guidebook--to improve students' independent word learning skills and strengthen their comprehension so they will tackle their schoolwork with confidence. Teachers will start by…

A threefold approach, presented for combatting boredom in the classroom, involves (1) understanding the dynamics of boredom; (2) interpersonal skills to help students understand and manage boredom; and (3) guidelines for selecting classroom procedures to decrease boredom. (Author/PP)

A unified model of teaching and learning, representing a synthesis of internal and external forces influencing learning processes, diagrams interrelationships between the following processes: activator, situational evaluation, anticipated ends, stress, action, outcome, external evaluation, feedback, internal assessment, curiosity, and internal…

Reports that praise and extrinsic reinforcers, such as candy, increased the rate of letter recognition in preschool children and that the increase was partially maintained when the reinforcement was removed. (FL)

Three aspects of foreign students' resistance to learning English are examined: (1) preconceived ideas of learning and teaching; (2) attitudes to the culture and its effects on the student; (3) effect of the teacher and teaching techniques on motivation. (CHK)

Argues for a critical language awareness (LA) and for LA to be closely linked to the development of learners' practical language capabilities. The paper offers a critical evaluation of three major programmatic statements about LA: Committee for Linguistics in Education (1985); National Congress on Languages in Education (1985); and Hawkins (1984).…

Suggests that because the new methodological emphasis in intermediate-level foreign-0language courses has shifted from translation-based learning, which utilized literary texts extensively, to communication-based learning, literature has been overlooked as a viable tool of instruction. Argues that this shift does not allow students to develop an…

Argues that despite the decline in enrollments in German at elementary and secondary schools and colleges and universities, there is reason to hope that interest can be invigorated. Suggests that there are easy instructional methods and materials for developing a new motivation in learning the language. (Author/VWL)

This qualitative study investigated older Russian immigrants' reasons for studying English, their learning strategies, and barriers to their progress. Ten men and women in their 60s and 70s were interviewed. Data were analyzed using the constant comparative method. Findings indicated that the participants' motivation for learning English was to…