Second Life is a three-dimensional (3D) electronic environment where members can socialize, hold virtual meetings, or conduct economic transactions. Utilizing virtual environments like Second Life is believed to provide educators with a new medium for teaching and information dissemination that bypasses the normal boundaries associated with…

Instructors and trainers are increasingly using online education and technology-mediated learning (TML) to supplement or replace traditional approaches to classroom teaching. Because mandatory involvement requirements may not intrinsically motivate learners to achieve high quality learning, social factors with commitment, such as identification…

These two decades have seen a surge in interest in the study of motivation throughout the field of language acquisition. Several distinguished motivational theories have been established: self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985), goal-setting theories (Locke & Latham, 1990), attribution theory (Weiner, 1992), self-worth theory…

Motivating high school students is a complex and challenging task. Add the resource shortfall and issues that result from the small size and remoteness of rural districts, and it may seem a nearly impossible undertaking. Motivation theory and research offer potential tools for teachers to use, but what are the needs of rural students, and what…

A study examined teachers' perceptions and students' literacy motivations to assist teachers in bolstering students' self-determination and literacy competence. The theoretical framework was derived from E. L. Deci's self-determination theory which focuses on individuals' opportunities to make choices or decisions about how to behave or think as…

The more adult educators understand about motivation and the forces that affect it, the better their chances of helping adults attain learning objectives. Program planning partly involves applying leverage or extrinsic pressure on the forces for growth and safety inherent in every learning situation to bring about learning and change. (Author)

This review examines the available evidence in support of the argument that serum uric acid (SUA) possesses considerable promise as an indicator of one type of biochemical influence on achievement behavior. The evidence arguing for further research into the role of serum cholesterol in achievement behavior is also examined. (Author/JR)

Tallahassee's New Adventure in Learning project seeks to show that positive thinking can generate important advances in the classroom. (Editor)

Considered what further education provided for students and how students can satisfy their own practical needs through further education. (RK)

Research on learning-to-learn and some proposals made concerning its teaching are reviewed. Focus is on what needs to be achieved to show that learning-to-learn has occurred. Actual achievement is part of the answer, but the measurement of learning ability must occur independently of the assessment of prior knowledge. Intellectual capacities and…

The focus on communicative competence in foreign language teaching has taken little account of the process by which students learn to communicate effectively. Affective and cognitive concerns must be considered in the implementation of behavioral objectives in addition to recognition and respect of the target culture's values and behaviors if…

Suggestions and background information to help teachers use classroom currency to influence students' behavior and academic efforts are provided. There are five parts to the publication. Part 1 discusses the many uses of classroom currency in teaching economics content, for motivation, and in discipline. For example, if teachers find that…

This paper is the first of a series of three which attempt to integrate categories of description aimed at characterizing the experience of learning in terms of the logical relationships that exist between them. The description of the qualitatively different ways in which various aspects of reality are experienced and conceptualized, and the…

This paper is an expanded version of a talk given at a Generic Skills Workshop at the University of Wollongong, and was intended for academic staff from any discipline and general staff with an interest in teaching. The issues considered in the paper include the capacity of all to learn, the distinction between learning as understanding and…

If the organization trains by objectives, then allowing the trainee more freedom in the use of his study time, in the training methods he uses, and in the sequence in which he studies material can result in both more effective and more efficient training. (MW)