This article uses activity theory to analyze the conduct of collaborative scientific research, showing how the conceptualization of object is critical to understanding key aspects of scientific collaboration. I argue that the passions and desires behind objects of scientific research are missing in most accounts. I suggest refinements to the…

Carol Twigg, president of the National Center for Academics Transformation and a secondary school teacher, debates on whether technology in the classroom improves student learning. She claims that the key to increasing student learning is to get students more engaged in what they are studying.

Aims: The aims of this research were to examine the predictions that (a) the kind of evaluation pupils anticipate will influence their initial achievement goals and, as a result, the quality and consequences of task engagement; and (b) initial mastery goals will promote new learning and intrinsic motivation and initial ability goals will promote…

This article looks at the use of art in developing students' prewriting ability. The activities, strategies, and objects used provide students with the background knowledge, motivation, vocabulary, structure, and fluency they need to compose and rehearse written pieces. The article describes research conducted on the effects of combining art with…

The goal of the present study was to examine the relationship between Korean students' motivation for learning, use of self-regulation of learning strategies, and delay of gratification Self-regulation of learning is a process that required students to get involved in their personal, behavioral, motivational, and cognitive learning tasks in order…

The main objective of this study is to investigate the motivation patterns of the two groups of Hong Kong students with different cultural backgrounds and examine the relationship between their motivation to learn English and English attainment. This study adopted the motivation framework of Dorneyi (2001) to investigate to what extent each social…

This paper reports on the findings of a small-scale study carried out in Adelaide. We asked secondary students who had decided to continue or discontinue their language study once it was no longer compulsory what had prompted their decision. We also asked them whether they considered knowing a second language to be important. While all the…

Motivation is one of the most significant predictors of success in foreign language learning. While individual and Governmental commitment to the learning of foreign languages is growing throughout most of Europe and across the globe, it is stuttering in the UK. An entitlement to language learning in primary school is not yet fully in place,…

Educators commonly believe that praising students' intelligence builds their confidence and motivation to learn and that students' inherent intelligence is the major cause of their school achievement. The author's research shows that, on the contrary, praising students' intelligence can be problematic. Praise is intricately connected to how…

The term "serious games" became popularized in 2002 as a result of an initiative to promote the use of games for education, training, and other purposes. Today, many companies are using games for training and development, often with hefty price tags. For example, the development budget for the U.S. Army recruiting game, "America's…

Research identified and described the motivational orientations of the participants in the horticultural certificate programs at Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania. Questionnaires were distributed to paying participants attending the certificate programs in fall 1994. The first part of the questionnaire included the Education Participation Scale…

The educational system of the future must embrace a learner-centered perspective to maximize high standards of learning, motivation, and achievement for all learners--for both students and their teachers. The learner-centered perspective begins with a focus on knowing and understanding each learner in the context of a deep understanding of the…

Nine teaching methods are described (conditioning, habit formation, lecture, audio-visual aids, seminar, case study, simulation games, conscientization, and affective learning) and each discussed with reference to the types of material, learners, and teachers to which it is best suited. (JT)

Analysis of data collected in six elementary schools reveals that the amount and quality of choices in school are strongly linked to positive attitudes about teachers and school and thus to learner interest. (Author)

The overwhelming majority of research on environmental influences has concentrated on the social environment, to the relative neglect of the physical environment. This neglect is justified by an unvalidated hypothesis, namely that the physical environment must be mediated by social parameters in order to influence development. Two studies were…