This paper reviews research on: (1) the significance of black colleges; (2) characteristics of white students attending black colleges; (3) barriers to recruiting white students on black campuses; and (4) strategies for recruiting white students. Reasons why white students attend historically black institutions and their levels of motivation, the…

A study was conducted to determine the following: Do the needs of beginning and experienced technical college teachers differ? Do the professional development activities of the two groups differ? and Do the factors important to beginning teachers who leave vocational education differ from those of experienced teachers who leave? The data used in…

College teaching and learning were studied with respect to students' preferences for learning and motivation as they relate to various instructional methods used in teacher education. A traditional lecture format and the cooperative group discussion teaching method were compared within a specific college population. Participants (N=20), students…

This ERIC Digest reports on the educational aspirations of rural youth compared with students living in urban and suburban areas. Research indicates that in comparison to urban youth, rural young people felt their parents were much more supportive of their taking full-time jobs, attending trade schools, or entering the military rather than…

Research conducted by the Center for the Study of Community Colleges in Los Angeles on the status of the community college liberal arts curriculum found that liberal arts programs have a beneficial impact on students. Research findings have consistently revealed that what students know is related to what they study and how they have studied it.…

Ways to motivate and manage teachers and staff are presented in this guidebook. Chapter 1 describes ways to staff a school and get it right the first time. Checklists for recruiting, screening, and hiring are included. Chapter 2 offers suggestions for operating successful teacher induction, professional development,and motivation programs to…

Models of teacher training have tended to emphasize development of competencies in teachers that emphasize cognitive aspects of learning, and minimize affective factors. Second language teacher education has adopted this emphasis on learning as cognitive rather than as a strong interaction of cognitive and affective factors. In fact, affective…

This manual is a resource book for organizers and leaders and parent groups who want to explore specific strategies to use in helping children with home learning. The guide contains material necessary to conduct a 1- or 1.5-hour session on how parents can encourage and support children's efforts toward home learning. The guide includes: (1) a…

A primary objective of this study was to examine the relations among students' perceptions of the classroom goal orientation as ability-focused goals and their own goals, as well as the relationships between these two components and other motivational factors such as subject-specific self-efficacy and task value. An additional purpose was to…

This paper presents an argument that cooperative learning's effect on academic achievement is mediated by students' academic self-concept and academic goals as well as briefly reporting findings from an empirical investigation of the theories presented. The paper argues that the psychological processes produced by cooperative learning groups cause…

After a brief literature review, this paper examines the problem of defining literacy. It emphasizes the importance of using a flexible definition based on learners' needs and goals in social contexts in determining the goals of literacy instruction. In order to illustrate the wide variation in not only students' levels of English-language…

This study was aimed at extending previous correlational findings on the motivational components of test performance, studied among seventh graders by Pintrich and De Groot, to college students and to sequential task performance, including a voluntarily performed task. Performance was also examined under different experimental conditions of…

Many students are not actively engaged in learning in mathematics classrooms. The purpose of this study was to develop understandings about student engagement with the mathematics curriculum and its influence on student engagement. The research was conducted in two seventh-grade classes taught by the same teacher, who used direct instruction. The…

Sixteen underachieving gifted students at Oliver High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, were identified for a pilot program called Project Inspire, which sought to improve student achievement and build self-esteem, especially for disadvantaged Afro-American students. Teachers were selected as mentors for the students, and the mentors were…

This report presents the results of a survey of graduate students, both U.S. and foreign, enrolled in U.S. universities who were focusing their advanced studies on a world area. The survey was designed to determine how students become interested and involved in foreign language and area studies and focussed on several questions, in particular:…