The purpose of this study was to compare elementary classroom teachers' actual practice and perceived importance of English Language Arts professional development in five professional development dimensions: alignment, content and modeling, active learning, collaboration, and follow-up, in high and low mastery, low needs schools. The schools…

One of the iconic symbols of the collegiate experience is the graying professor pontificating behind a lectern to a massive audience of dreary-eyed students. In fact, 45 percent of faculty at four-year institutions still report "extensive lecturing" as the teaching method used in most of their courses (Hurtado et al., 2012). And yet,…

Achievement goals predict learning in children and young adults, but it is unclear whether they apply to older adults and how they are related to approaches to studying. An online survey examined achievement goals, approaches to studying and academic attainment in distance learners. The Achievement Goals Questionnaire-Revised and the Approaches to…

With a sample of 373 middle school students, the present longitudinal study examined the role of the classroom peer climate in mediating the relation between perceptions of classroom goal structures and academic help seeking among peers. Classroom goal structures were measured in the fall and classroom peer climate and help seeking among peers…

Testing has become a part of the educational routine, and accountability has become linked with testing programs. In the wake of state-designed standards, and state-mandated high stakes tests that are used to assess individual student performance, as well as overall performance by a teacher, school, or district, educational professionals are…

Previous research showed that motivation influences writing in school settings (Hidi & Boscolo, 2006), but further empirical research is needed to understand how motivation influences specific writing tasks (Bruning & Horn, 2000; Haswell, 2006). This study addresses that gap in research by investigating how the motivational construct of…

Vocabulary is the gateway to knowledge that unlocks the doors of sublime ideas to the readers. The competency on the lexical items of language plays a significant role in learning a new concept. Any learner who has excellent command over the use of vocabulary excels in his/her study of different subjects. Vocabulary learning is one of the…

This study examined the possibility of developing different goals, mastery or competitive, on students and consequently affecting their learning styles. In the 3-week experiment period, a pretest-posttest design was used to the two intact college English classes. The outcomes revealed that the goals of the students could be modified in different…

The four guiding principles behind the blended, competency-based, personalized learning model of Valor Collegiate Academies, a charter organization serving grades 5-12 in Nashville, TN: (1) Reflect the diversity of both our country and local community; (2) Personalize a student's experience to meet his/her unique academic and non-academic needs;…

Background: Previous studies of mastery motivational climates within physical education have reported that providing students with opportunities to become self-directed leads to a number of positive outcomes, including skill attainment and increased perceptions of ability. Nonetheless, within all of these studies, there has been no account of the…

The purpose of this study is to develop scientific literacy evaluation instrument that tested its validity, reliability, and characteristics to measure the skill of student's scientific literacy used four scientific literacy, categories as follow:science as a body of knowledge (category A), science as a way of thinking (category B), science as a…

We explored a theoretical model of relations between students' perceptions of emotional support, numeracy, and assessment for learning and their perceptions of relevance of schoolwork, motivation, persistence, and mastery experiences. We also investigated possible differences between students in lower- and upper secondary school. Participants were…

As the adoption and execution of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) have steadily increased, the debate community is presented with an opportunity to be more forward thinking and sustainable through the translation to curriculum planning and next-generation assessment as a movement towards Performance-Based Assessments. This paper focuses on…

This study aimed to determine the effect of mastery learning model supported with reflective thinking activities on the fifth grade medical students' academic achievement. Mixed methods approach was applied in two samples (n = 64 and n = 6). Quantitative part of the study was based on a pre-test-post-test control group design with an experiment…

Achievement goal theory has been one of the most prominent theories of motivation in educational research for more than 25 years. It has undergone considerable revision during that span, most notably with the distinction between approach and avoidance goals, debate concerning the critical features of performance goals, and the emergence of a…