Following the collapse of the USSR in 1989, educators in socialist countries such as Latvia not only had to establish democratic governance structures, they also faced huge uncertainty as they turned toward a postmodern Europe. Faculties of education and public schools were expected to relearn to reteach. They had to decentralize leadership,…

This article discusses the non-academic, social-emotional factors that contribute to student academic achievement, including the cognitive-behavioral characteristics of underachieving students and those with learning disabilities; the "You Can Do It! Education" (YCDI) theory of achievement; derivative research on social-emotional capabilities,…

In Japan, Internet based learning is still at an early stage. However, adult learners in Japanese society expect the development of flexible e-learning programs. This case study examines motivational factors affecting online learning in a Japanese and Australian MBA program, using observations, interviews and a questionnaire survey. The data were…

In the field of SLA, there have been various attempts to define second language learning motivation and to discover relationships between motivation and gender. Using two well-known motivational models: Expectancy-value theory, and Gardner's Socio-educational model, the present study sought to (1) first define foreign language learning motivation…

The present study sets out to examine motivation to learn English by Chinese research students in an informal setting. Data were collected, using semi-structured interviews, from four research students at two points in time during their first year in the UK. The main findings are: they believed that learning English was important; their main goal…

The purpose of this article is to review recent research on self-regulated learning and discuss the implications of this research for science education. We draw on examples of self-regulated learning from the science education literature to summarise and illustrate effective instructional methods and the development of metacognitive understanding…

This study investigated motivational factors that are related to engaging in conceptual change learning. While previous studies have recognized the resistance of students' scientific conceptions to change, few have investigated the role that non-cognitive factors might play when students are exposed to conceptual change instruction. In this study,…

This book is the second edition of a work drawn from a series of lectures given by a distinguished scholar and teacher in the field of adult learning at the University of Wisconsin in 1960. The subject of the lectures was adult continuing education--who continues to learn and why. Research was conducted through a series of 2-hour interviews with…

Reports on a study that tested whether the decision on the school that freshmen in Catholic high schools went to was made primarily by the students or the students' parents has an effect on the students' commitment to the school. (Author/IRT)

(Text is in French.)

Authors observed classrooms that served as models for open education and testified that what former observers have described is actually only part of the story. (Editor/RK)

Adult educators are becoming increasingly aware of the fact that adult learners, not institutions, initiate the process of adult education and that they determine the ends to be accomplished by their participation. Researchers have shown that the decision to participate in adult education comes about as a result of a variety of social and…

Goodenough's (1976) findings on field dependence/independence are extended here by focusing on the information processing stages of attention, encoding in short term and working memories, and storage and retrieval processes of long term memory. The reviewed research indicates that field independent and dependent individuals differ in the ability…

This paper is the second of a series of three which attempt to integrate categories of description aimed at characterizing the experience of learning in terms of the logical relationships that exist between them. The description of the qualitatively different ways in which various aspects of reality are experienced and conceptualized, and the…

To examine learning disabled children's intrinsic-extrinsic motivational orientation to their schoolwork, 90 LD students in grades 3-7 were administered the Scale of Instrinsic vs. Extrinsic Orientation in the Classroom and the Perceived Competence Scale for Children. Items were read to the students and a short interview based on the students'…