Describes a beginning secondary mathematics teacher's professional growth before and after teacher education. Interviews, observations, and analyses of videotaped lessons suggest that, if teacher educators want to increase the power of professional preparation, they should strengthen the relationship between academic learning and practical…

The football program at DeMatha High School in Hyattsville (Maryland), illustrates ways in which a sports program can build unity and racial tolerance among students. The shared team effort carries over into schoolwork and life outside of school. (SLD)

A single-sex group learning project involving 100 seventh graders yielded positive results. Behavior improved without teacher intervention, particularly among the boys. Also, students' attitudes and motivation improved immensely, along with work habits and academic performance. Students reported that they enjoyed working and competing in teams.…

La Guardia Community College and Vassar College (New York) developed a successful residential summer learning experience to raise educational aspirations of poor/minority students and attract students to four-year colleges. Students were team-taught by faculty from both institutions, lived in a Vassar dormitory, and received instruction in the use…

Notes that teachers can make writing assignments more acceptable by using innovative techniques. Suggests that using letter writing for research projects is a good motivational technique. Asks students to assume roles of persons of a specific historical period and write from the first-person perspective. Includes sample letter. (NL)

Describes a report writing unit that is part of a three-year language/communication course for second language engineering students at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. States that the tasks motivated the students to develop their report writing and oral skills. (RS)

Asserts that music can maintain its own integrity as a discipline and still be part of a holistic educational experience for children. Describes how performance "showcases" or interdisciplinary student group presentations highlight student learning and enhance motivation. Discusses positive results and barriers to full implementation of…

Responding to foreign language learners' affective needs may help enhance learners' success in Japanese. American students face many linguistic and psychological barriers when learning Japanese. The article examines such affective variables as anxiety, risk taking, and motivation as significant contributing factors for differential success in…

An analysis is presented of a conceptual change model for describing student learning by applying research on student learning to the process of conceptual change. Four general motivational constructs are suggested as potential mediators of the process. The role of classroom contextual factors is also discussed. (SLD)

W. Edwards Deming rejects school-improvement proposals based on formulating higher standards and enforcing them with performance assessments. To Deming, the Bush Administration's America 2000 education strategy is "a horrible example of numerical goals, tests, rewards, but no method." Emphasizing rationalist performance measures…

High school students with learning disabilities (LD), low achievement, or average achievement responded, several times daily, to questions concerning levels of affect, activation, cognitive efficiency, self-esteem, motivation, and feedback from others. LD students reported feeling more positive and active than the other groups during school hours;…

The relationship of students' study skills to their locus of control, social interdependence, academic preparation, age, and study time was studied with 266 college students. Study skills were related to locus of control, age, expected course grade, and study time. The need to address attitudinal and motivational variables in study skills programs…

Describes the integral role of social teaching in Catholic education. In addition to reviewing past teachings, educators must train students to work toward achieving social justice. (YKH)

Investigates the role of key teacher characteristics in the development of students' musical ability. Finds that more successful learners rate their first teacher highly on personal dimensions and their current teacher highly on task-oriented professional dimensions. Highly successful learners, on average, study with more teachers and receive more…

Reports on a community service learning project in which 11 college students participated in conflict-resolution activities in a middle school. The students' reactions to the experience varied according to their different motivations for participating. Training and close supervision, partially accomplished through meetings and reading weekly…