Describes the results of an ongoing course attrition study, designed to determine which classes were most often dropped and the factors impacting students' decisions to drop them. Students cited conditions both within and beyond the control of college administration as influential. (JDI)

Provides advice, models, and information concerning time management for higher education geography students. Reiterates the need for personal planning and scheduling. Addresses such issues as deadlines, reading time, field classes, work space, leisure time, and dissertations. Includes eight sample charts and schedules. (MJP)

Discusses the importance of mathematical skills in the workplace and the relationship between math anxiety and course completion rates. Describes a study evaluating the effectiveness of integrating motivational techniques and assessment practices into a developmental math course at a Texas university. Finds that the techniques enhanced student…

Examined the interrelationships between learning approaches, study motivation, hours of study, perceived workload, English language ability, and grade point average among 174 students in a mechanical engineering course at a Hong Kong university who completed a week-long study diary. Found that the variables were weakly interrelated. Perceived work…

Four studies examined preschoolers' use of the cue of action initiation to infer another's desired goal. Found that differences in action initiation play an increasingly important role in 3-year-olds' mentalistic explanations of action, and that this development may be related to other critical changes occurring in their developing theory of mind.…

Studies of the educational experiences of adults returning to high school in New Zealand and Canada report on adult students' perceived relationships with teachers and younger students, their motivation for returning to school, and the compromises they made in order to complete their education. Offers recommendations for educational policy and…

With visual aids to spark motivation and increase comprehension, with holiday storytelling to enhance interest and stir curiosity, and with techniques for mastering longer story selections, library media specialists can entertain children as well as add variety to the curriculum and develop an enriched language and learning environment.…

Focuses on the efficacy of computer use for learning Kanji characters and improving Japanese vocabulary levels, with reference to software designed to improve Kanji learning in a self-access learning mode. Findings reveal that all the students in an Australian university using the computer to learn Kanji increased their grades and that those most…

Results of an investigation involving 302 Nepalese undergraduates supported the cross-cultural validity of the Approaches to Studying Inventory (ASI) and provided evidence of a meaningful learning process underlying ASI responses. Self-esteem correlated significantly with a more versatile approach to learning. (SLD)

Reports on an action research project that involved strategy training for several groups of first-year undergraduate students at the University of Hong Kong. The strategy training was used to experiment with ways of making students more active participants in their language learning. (Author/CK)

Reports a study of first-year A-level college students studying a foreign language in southwest England. The results concern students' perceptions of the way they chose their A-level subjects and of those subjects a few weeks into the courses. Results reveal a lack of confidence among the girls despite their superior academic qualifications to the…

Investigated changes in high school dropouts' personal attributes between 8th and 12th grade. Data on several variables (e.g., academic achievement, motivation, relationships with peers and teachers, and self-esteem) from three waves of the National Educational Longitudinal Study indicated that in 8th grade, students scored at the national average…

Relates self-efficacy to retention for online psychology students. Discusses distance learning; distance learner characteristics and learning styles, including adult distance learners; faculty role; the implications of social cognitive theory; the concept of self-efficacy and its relationship to motivation and teaching practices; and online…

Describes changes in literacy engagement during Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI), a new approach to teaching reading, writing, and science that emphasizes real-world science observations, student self-direction, strategy instruction, collaborative learning, self-expression, and coherence of literacy learning experiences. Finds that…

Argues that the study of second-language acquisition theory can be enhanced through time-series research designs. Within the context of investigating the effects of second-language instruction, four main reasons for using T-S design are identified. (95 references) (Author/CK)