This article discusses the need, in 21st century university education, to encourage a "will to learn" in students, and explores its meaning using a variety of empirical evidence. It draws on previous studies related to academic understanding to introduce the idea of a "disposition to understand for oneself" and to consider how teaching-learning…

This paper focuses on young foreign language learners' attitudes and motivations. An overview is given of the main issues in this research area, based on key European studies. Approaches to studying these affective learner characteristics are described. Some attention is devoted to data elicitation techniques and the importance of triangulation.…

Direct behavior rating (DBR) has been described as a hybrid of systematic direct observation and behavior rating scales. Although single-item (DBR-SIS) and multi-item (DBR-MIS) methods have been advocated, the overwhelming majority of research attention has focused on DBR-SIS. This study employed generalizability theory to compare the…

Motivation is a well-researched construct; however, few studies have investigated how teachers perceive and make sense of situations in which learners are not motivated to learn. Thirty-two EFL teachers working in Japanese universities were surveyed and interviews with three of these teachers were conducted to reveal their perceptions of student…

The study assesses the effect of social and emotional learning (SEL) integrated in a literature class, named here "affective teaching," as compared to conventional teaching. Dependent variables include relationships, behavior, motivation to learn, and content knowledge. Participants were 36 teacher trainees in one college in Israel and…

The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of Facebook among college students in a cross-cultural collaboration project between Taiwan and the United States, and focuses specifically on Taiwanese students' perceptions. Questions explored are: (1) Is Facebook a feasible platform for cross-cultural collaboration? (2) How does this…

Boy culture is out of sync with school culture. There are several reasons for this, including zero tolerance policies that are too often taken to extremes, the lack of male teachers, and the compression of the curriculum. What's more, boy culture is not socially accepted, and boys quickly come to feel that they are not good at school. For many…

This paper examines the content-language integrated (CLI) second language (L2) education offered by the CCUEI Research Collaborative in China. It explores how CCUEI-developed curriculum reflects the theoretical foundations of an immersion experiment and how the research-based theoretical foundations of CLI L2 have been applied in practice. It…

Rewards are frequently used in classrooms and recommended as a key component of well-researched methods of cooperative learning (e.g., Slavin, 1995). While many studies of cooperative learning find beneficial effects of rewards, many studies of individuals find negative effects (e.g., Deci, Koestner, & Ryan, 1999; Lepper, 1988). This may be…

The article reports results of a study of beginner-level learners of Zulu in higher education in the UK, focussing on learners' linguistic background, their motivation and reasons for studying Zulu, and their self-assessed progress at the beginning of the second term of teaching. The study shows that participants typically studied Zulu as an…

Problem Statement: Research studies indicate that teachers with negative attitudes toward science tend to use didactic approaches rather than approaches based on students' active participation. However, the reviews of the national academic literature in Turkey located a few research studies on the relationship between playful science experiences…

This paper reports on the way in which Facebook Group used as a learning management system can enhance Thai students' effective language learning (positive attitude and motivation) in a private university in the vicinity of Bangkok. These two variables are seen to influence learners' achievement in language learning, and they also interdependently…

Technology enabled learning is becoming more popular and pervasive in education. While the effectiveness of distance learning versus traditional classroom education is strongly debated, human factors such as students' perception of their professors can influence their desire to learn. This research examines the perceptual effect of attractive…

Statistics indicate that demographically, Singapore's minority Malay community, unlike the other ethnic groups in the small multicultural, multi-religious island-state, has yet to 'mature' and contribute fully to the country's economy. A subsequent argument is thus made on the need to ensure that learners from the community be developed in the…

This research targeted the learning preferences, goals and motivations, achievements, challenges, and possibilities for life change of self-directed online learners enrolled in a massive open online course (MOOC) related to online teaching hosted by Blackboard using CourseSites. Data collection included a 40-item survey, of which 159 MOOC…