The contemporary political and economic context has ensured that adults continually return to education in order to avoid both social and economic marginalization. Adults make and remake themselves through a process of self-authoring a reflexive process through which they make contextual decisions about their life. This article examines the…

Cognitive, motivational, and affective characteristics define classroom contexts, yet flow theory (e.g., M. Csikszentmihalyi, 1975) is 1 of only a few theoretical perspectives that interrelate these characteristics. The authors adapted constructs and methods from flow theory to examine the motivational, cognitive, and affective quality of…

This study examines the relation between the motivational structure and use of learning strategies of high school foreign language students. Students in 36 foreign language classrooms (French, German, Latin, and Spanish; first- through fifth-years) from a large Midwestern high school participated in the study (N=694). As predicted, correlation and…

The purpose of this study is to evaluate computer game theories for educational software. We propose a framework for designing engaging educational games based on contemporary game studies which includes ludology and narratology. Ludology focuses on the study of computer games as play and game activities, while narratology revolves around the…

This in-depth interview study of the schooling experiences of 120 First Nations, American Indian, and Alaska Native students contributes to understandings of their literacy motivation, highlighting tensions between their insights on literacy learning and literacy practices implicated by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001. With NCLB in…

No matter how well teachers are prepared to teach, no matter what accountability measures are put in place, no matter what governing structures are established for schools, educational progress will be profoundly limited if students are not "motivated and able to learn". Health-related problems play a major role in limiting the motivation and…

With the rise in the number of types of digital media and the time youth spend on these platforms, researchers theorize that interacting with digital media can provide significant motivation for youth to participate, create, and become active learners. The Consortium on Chicago School Research, with funding from the John D. and Catherine T.…

Problem behaviors early in the preschool year have been negatively linked to a variety of school readiness outcomes, including language, literacy and mathematics, both at the end of preschool and later on as children transition to elementary school. In order to inform preschool intervention efforts, the current study extends this research by…

Research has established that individual student interest has a positive effect on learning and academic achievement. However, little is known about the impact of a blended learning approach on individual student interest and whether combinations of online and face-to-face learning activities significantly enhance student interest. This paper…

A two-stage study was conducted to determine the effects of motivational components in the learning experience. The first stage involved administration of a survey instrument to 150 teachers in the New York City area to obtain information on the means by which teachers incorporate motivation into their instruction. The second stage involved the…

Based on a PhD dissertation (Humphries) submitted to the Louisiana State University.

That adults learn what they need and want to learn is as true for continuing education in the ministry as in other fields, and the question of motivation for continuing education is crucial. Significant clues to motivation can be found in the close relationship between learning and work, in personal and corporate growth, and in collegiality…

Sixty-four 4th graders were subjects in this experiment which examined children's choice behavior under conditions of uncertainty. In the experimental condition, 2 rewards were offered, one of which was concealed by a question mark. In addition the question mark concealed one of 2 possible rewards, presented according to varied probability…

A child psychologist discusses ways of motivating a child to learn without the concept or practice of force by a teacher. (GB)