The Enneagram is a model of human consciousness. It describes each of the nine strategies that people adopt to understand the world and others. This guidebook is intended to be used with the video of the same name, which describes the nine perspectives on learning. The book provides a Type-related context to the comments made by the students on…

Some educators have suggested that compulsory attendance legislation should be eliminated or that the number of required years be reduced. They assert that some students cannot be successful in school and others lack the willingness to learn. This paper presents findings of a study that examined the effect of student attendance and grades. The…

This study examined the relationship between college students' preference for an immediately available option (e.g., go to a favorite concert the day before a test) or a delayed alternative (e.g., stay at home to study for the test). Analysis focused on how much a student would like to engage in a specific activity, the importance of the activity…

Goal orientations in high school students may be grouped into learning (e.g., mastery) and performance (e.g., grades, competition) goals. Past research on students' goals is reviewed. Students' motivation for achievement is complex. Given the importance of fostering and strengthening learning goal orientations in high school as well as in college,…

It is argued that rock lyrics, alternatively seen as poetry, are a source of instructional material for students of English as a Second Language (ESL), offering an opportunity for literary analysis that is highly motivating, relevant to students' lives, a potential bridge to more serious literature, and a readily-available source of authentic…

The 15 chapters in this book include commentaries on 12 seminal works on self-directed learning (SDL) by Houle, Knowles, Tough, Spear and Mocker, Brookfield, Caffarella and O'Donnell, and Long et al. These works were identified by a Delphi panel of 49 experts. Chapter titles and authors are as follows: "An Introduction to the Study of…

A growing body of evidence suggests that when students are intrinsically motivated they tend to employ strategies that demand more effort and that enable them to process information more deeply. Teachers can help motivate students to learn by maintaining a caring, supportive classroom climate. Tasks should be challenging but achievable and defined…

Developing self-motivated, empowered middle school students is an ongoing struggle for teachers and administrators. This practicum was designed to address the problem teachers have in finding specific teaching strategies that would help students become empowered and self-motivated learners. This study focuses on directly integrating techniques…

Noncoercive student management practices to promote quality school work are examined in this book, which is based on the assertion that student motivation to perform quality work should not be compromised by focusing on minimal goals, such as dropout reduction and discipline problems. Replacement of the traditional coercive, divisive management…

This manual is a guide to the "Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire" (MSLQ) for assessing college students' motivational orientations and their use of different learning strategies for a college course. The MSLQ, based on a general cognitive view of motivation and learning strategies, contains two sections. The motivation…

Authors looked at ways in which children's interest in and knowledge of 'media culture' provided a basis for classroom learning. (Editor/RK)

The pamphlet reviews research on creativity and applies it to the learning process. After discussing the definition and measurement of creativity, the components of creative performance are outlined, including domain-relevant skills, creativity-relevant skills, and intrinsic task motivation. Factors which destroy students' creativity are noted,…

This article defines school improvement, looks at indicators of quality schools, discusses the characteristics of the middle level child and proposes practical strategies which blend research data and school level practices for the middle level learner. In order to clearly understand the school improvement movement at the middle level, one must be…

Conference papers on aspects of motivation and language teaching include: "Motivate Who?" (Frederick D. Eddy); "Motivation and Language Learning the following: Psychological Aspects" (W. E. Lambert); "Discussion of Professor Lambert's Presentation" (Karl S. Pond); "Linguistics and Motivation" (Robert L. Politzer); "Discussion of Professor…

Learners' motivations for participating in adult basic education (ABE) are important; determining their needs is crucial to evaluating programs to see if their needs are being met and is also important in determining instructional content and methods. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 323 randomly selected ABE students in Iowa. During…