While a number of studies have investigated the relationship between motivation and foreign or second language learning outcomes, the process of how such motivation transforms into successful learning outcomes is relatively unexplored. Interviewing a group of four participants, this study seeks to understand how college English as a Foreign…

This is the last in a series of six papers by the Center on Education Policy exploring issues related to students' motivation to learn. This paper explores ways in which schools, teachers, and communities are using nontraditional methods to try to motivate students who don't respond to more traditional strategies. The paper focuses on three such…

The focus of this study was to explore the relationship between the use of cooperative learning strategies and student achievement, and student perceptions of self-efficacy and motivation in mathematics. Teacher perceptions of the impact that cooperative learning strategies have on student achievement, intrinsic motivation, and self-efficacy were…

This article explores, through interview data with 125 respondents in Canada, whether the study of foreign languages can be considered as important as the study of the "core" STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, medicine) subjects in school and university curricula. Five categories of interviewees, including those…

This study examined the motivation to learn English of Indonesian junior high school pupils, 13-14 years of age, in three distinct contexts: a metropolitan city, a provincial town, and a rural district. Utilizing Dornyei's second language (L2) Motivational Self System as the theoretical framework, this study employed a 50-item questionnaire to…

This study provides the first longitudinally designed, classroom-based empirical test of self-determination theory's motivation mediation model. Measures of perceived autonomy support, motivation (autonomy need satisfaction), engagement, and achievement were collected from 500 (257 females, 243 males) 8th-grade students in Korea in a 3-wave…

This paper reports on a study which highlighted goal orientation as an approachable individual difference (ID) variable which may further our understanding of foreign/second language learning experience. The study sought to (i) gauge the extent of goal orientation in foreign language learners' profile and (ii) examine how goal orientation affects…

Today's societies strive toward not leaving any children behind in their educational systems. Efficacy of educational inputs and processes is of paramount importance in today's education. Research studies can provide essential input in efforts toward attaining such efficacy. Thus, the purpose of this study was to test if high school students'…

A vital part of student learning is the construction of mental structures encompassing categories believed to affect learning outcome. In this study we investigate this research question through the lenses of a constructivist approach. As the first study on our research question at high school in Norway, our empirical findings make up the main…

This paper describes an instructional development effort to create effective and compelling instruction for eCommerce students. Results from a small field study inform the development project. Four high school students in an eCommerce course completed the standalone tutorial developed to teach them how to create a web page in the HyperText Markup…

At a time when languages in universities are under pressure, community-based learning language courses can have many positive benefits: they can increase interest in language learning, they can foster greater engagement with learning, and they can encourage active learning, creativity and teamwork. These courses, which link the classroom and the…

Design and technology education provides children with opportunities to create solutions to specific needs in innovative ways. This paper reports on research that focused on the language that the children used when they were involved in a design and technology activity. In accessing the results of the language study, the findings suggest that the…

A challenge in the contemporary classroom is that many students do not prepare for class. While technology is a boon in the classroom it can often be an apathy-fostering distraction. To encourage greater student preparation a course was designed with 4 quizzes to be taken first as individuals and then as members of predetermined teams. We reasoned…

This study examined the relationships between undergraduate leaders' self-perceptions of their transformational and transactional leadership behaviors and their sources of work motivation. The sample was comprised of 145 elected and appointed leaders at a mid-west university. The survey included both the Motivation Sources Inventory and the…

With the rapid growth in online programs come concerns about how best to support student learning in this segment of the university population. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of effort regulation, a self-regulatory skill, and intrinsic motivation on online graduate students' levels of academic procrastination, behavior…