This report compares two approaches to incentive motivation in 82 college juniors and seniors, average age 21 years. One method uses will as a motivator; the other method focuses on skill or effective strategy use for enhancing recall and understanding of a particular body of information. In the first approach, a semiweekly test or spotquiz was…

"Deep" approaches to learning, as defined by Biggs (1987) and others, would generally mean that a student is interested in the academic task, searches for meaning in the task, personalizes the task, integrates aspects of the task into a whole, sees relationships between this whole and previous knowledge, and tries to theorize about the…

A study examined the experiences and perceptions of 27 female welfare recipients who were required to go back to school or lose their welfare benefits. The women were observed as they participated in a highly interactive career and life planning (C&LP) class that met 5.5 hours per day 4 days per week for 1 month. A random sample of the women was…

Findings of a study that examined the relationship of students' perceptions of parents' and teachers' involvement and autonomy support to student motivation are presented in this paper. Based on a larger process model of academic achievement (Ryan and Stiller 1991), students' perceptions of parent and teacher autonomy support and involvement were…

Some affective/emotional factors in the foreign language learning situation that tend to hinder the learner in learning the target language are analyzed. Beginning with an explanation of theory concerning the "affective filter" and learning, the discussion proceeds to research findings on self-concept and their relationship to the affective filter…

Topic knowledge, discourse knowledge, and contextual awareness are now considered crucial for "good writing" by many writing researchers. It is time for writing instructors to stop conducting composition classes as though substantive knowledge is a far lesser issue than "rhetorical skill." Composition teachers can offer…

Examines current grading procedures and expresses the desire that children succeed in school, not because of the threat of grades, but because they are interested and motivated.

This article is a very general discussion of foreign language instruction and the nature of foreign language learning. (KM)

Using examples drawn from Transactional Analysis, the author explains the use of constructive criticism (the expression of the "Adult" state) as a positive motivating force, and comparesit to the debilitating effect of destructive criticism (expressing either the "Child" or the "Parent" ego state.) (AJ)

A discussion of the role of transfer of native-language knowledge to second language learning proposes that language transfer is as much a sociolinguistic process as a psycholinguistic one. The term "sociolinguistics" is used in a broad sense to incorporate all social factors that affect language, both the relatively static characteristics of an…

This monograph examines factors associated with adults' nonparticipation in organized learning. A deterrent to participation is defined as a reason contributing to an adult's decision not to engage in learning activities. First, existing models and theories that attempt to explain participation behavior are described. These include three recent…

A study examined the educational orientation of Nigerian adult learners to test the assumptions that there would be no difference in their reasons for engaging in educational activities and that there would be no difference between male and female Nigerian adult learners as to their educational orientations. Six hundred male and female adults…

Because low-achieving second-grade students were not motivated to acquire math skills, a teacher employed at a large, inner-city elementary school with a black student population implemented a practicum aiming to improve acquisition of mathematics skills. Major causes of the problem were the lack of manipulative materials for concept development,…

This paper reviews four categories of models of motivational design, which is an aspect of instructional design that refers specifically to strategies, principles, and processes for making instruction appealing. Grounded in psychological theories of human behavior, the models in the first three categories discussed are based on person-centered…

The effectiveness of two academic achievement courses in improving quality point averages (QPAs) of educationally disadvantaged students was compared. One of the voluntary study skills courses taught specific study skills (study orientation skills--SOS), while the other purported to teach students to think like achievers (achievement motivation…