This article comes largely from observations made on-the-job while teaching mathematics in a government high school in the ACT. The issues canvassed will be familiar to those who have considered the arguments for and against ability grouping in mathematics education. It is speculative in nature, hinting at a synthesis of opposing views in the ability-grouping debate and ending with a proposal about how the practice of streaming might be aligned better with numeracy outcomes.
Topics: ERIC Archive, Numeracy, Ability Grouping, Mathematics Education, Mathematics Instruction,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teaching Methods, Emotional Development, Behavior Problems, Social Development, Child...
This study examined activities used during elementary school math and reading instruction. Teachers reported their use of cooperative, competitive, and individual activities in math and reading, their subjective evaluations of teaching each subject, and their level of focus on promoting students' interests. Analyses indicated that teachers used more competitive activities in math than reading. Additionally, individual math activities increased across grades whereas individual reading activities...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teaching Methods, Reading Instruction, Learning Activities, Class Activities,...
Case study learning was integrated into a course designed to improve students' potential for academic success and increase student retention. Case studies related to self-regulation of behavior, motivation, and cognition for academic tasks were used to prompt students' critical thinking and facilitate deep learning of self-regulation topics, linking course theory with practice. This article explores the effectiveness of asynchronous computer-mediated collaborative case study learning as...
Topics: ERIC Archive, School Holding Power, Undergraduate Students, Case Studies, Thinking Skills, Critical...
Teachers can modify their instructional strategies with minimal training and effort, and this can result in increases in their students' self-efficacy. Self-efficacy judgments are based on four sources of information: an individual's own past performance, vicarious experiences of observing the performances of others, verbal persuasion that one possesses certain capabilities, and physiological states. Individuals use these four sources of information to judge their capability to complete future...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Strategies, Self Efficacy, Mathematics Skills, Teaching Methods, Prior...
Wondering whether they are really making a difference to young people's mathematics learning is a question that most teachers have probably wrestled with at some stage of their careers. However, evidence from a multitude of research studies shows that students' mathematics learning and their dispositions towards mathematics are indeed influenced--for better or for worse--by the teaching that they experience at school (see Mewborn, 2003, for a review of this research). In other words, teachers...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teacher Characteristics, Teaching Methods, Mathematics Teachers, Mathematics...
Peer tutoring is essentially peers teaching each other. Many teachers already incorporate this idea into their classrooms in other curricular areas and appreciate the benefits that come from this type of teaching. Teachers can implement peer tutoring by teaching a small group of students a subject, or using a group that already understands the subject area, who in turn will be able to teach that concept to their peers. In this article, the author shares how she led an after-school club called...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Curriculum Development, Clubs, Peer Teaching, Student Leadership, Tutoring, Student...
Academic competitions have long been an aspect of programming for the gifted. These competitions can facilitate a learning environment that presents gifted students the academic challenge that often is difficult to create in a single classroom or school. They can offer the types of experiences that foster the development of productive attitudes and work habits. They also can nurture emotional and psychological growth. Some of these benefits can be defined within the framework of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Role Models, Academically Gifted, Competition, Middle School Students, Student...
This paper explores key gender differences in motivation from a quantitative perspective and presents findings from a qualitative study into boys' perceptions of motivating teachers and motivating pedagogy. Data collected from 3773 high school students suggest that girls score significantly higher than boys in their belief in the value of school, learning focus, planning, study management, and persistence while boys rate significantly higher in self-sabotage/self-handicapping. However, girls...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Student Motivation, Program Development, Academic Failure, Gender Differences, Males,...
The present study examines the effect of participation of first-year university students in a full-year peer mentoring program as well as individual differences in motivation in relation to outcome measures of retention and achievement. A sample of 983 first year students completed the Academic Motivation Inventory (Tremblay, 1998) and agreed to provide final grades; 537 students were randomly assigned to participate in the program, while the remainder served as a control group. Mentored...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Control Groups, Mentors, Grades (Scholastic), Academic Achievement, Motivation,...
During the fall 2005 semester, an eighth grade teacher in a Laramie, Wyoming, middle school made an urgent plea for more progressive tools for a beginning computers course. Janet Johnson, a veteran teacher returning to the classroom after a hiatus of 10 years, was frustrated with the apparent lack of motivation and engagement by the students. She knew the existing curricular materials were outdated and "mind numbing" and was seeking methods more relevant to this generation. In...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Video Games, Pilot Projects, School Districts, Grade 8, Middle School Students,...
Parents, classroom teachers, and teachers of the gifted cannot be all things to the young people in their charge. The nature and diversity of gifted students' interests demand resources beyond the confines of the school and sometimes beyond the confines of the community. These demands demonstrate the need for mentors and other resources. One of the fastest growing areas of mentoring is telementoring, also known as virtual mentoring, e-mentoring (Nash, 2001), or iMentoring (Buery, n.d.). The...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Mentors, Academically Gifted, Computer Mediated Communication, Student Motivation,...
"Andragogy," a term European adult educators have been using as a parallel to pedagogy, is defined as the art and science of helping adults learn. Learners, as characterized in the andragogical model, are self-directed; enter educational programs with a great diversity of experience; become ready to learn when they experience a need to know or do something; are life-centered, task-centered, or problem-centered; and are motivated by internal self-esteem, recognition, better quality of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Andragogy, Adult Learning, Adult Students, Teaching Methods, Student Motivation,...
According to research, students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds have lower rates of high school graduation and university attendance. There is little research regarding interventions to address these issues. The current study compared the effects of two programs designed to increase academic motivation. Forty-seven high school female athletes from culturally and linguistically diverse and economically disadvantaged backgrounds participated in the study. The programs were...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Physical Education, Student Attitudes, Economically Disadvantaged, Student...
Attempts to evaluate the cognitive-motivational profiles of students with reading comprehension difficulties have been scarce. The purpose of the present study was twofold: (a) to assess the discriminatory validity of cognitive, motivational, affective, and psychopathological variables for identification of students with reading difficulties, and (b) to profile students with and without reading comprehension difficulties across those variables. Participants were 87 students who scored more than...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Reading Comprehension, Reading Difficulties, Low Achievement, Student Motivation,...
Although achievement goal theory is currently one of the dominant theoretical frameworks used to understand and improve student motivation (Brophy, 2004), little work has been done to evaluate the achievement goals of students with ADHD. After an initial review of achievement goal theory, the current study begins to address four research questions: What are the achievement goals of students with ADHD? How do achievement goals of students with ADHD differ from those of students without ADHD? How...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Student Motivation, Teaching Methods, Academic Achievement, Attention Deficit...
This explanatory sequential mixed-methods study explored how the encoding of text ideas is affected when students with learning disabilities (LD) take notes from Web-based text. In the quantitative phase of the study, 15 students took three kinds of notes--typed, copy and paste, and written--with each kind of notes addressing a different topic. After taking notes, students performed poorly on two immediate measures of facts learning. Cued-recall test performances were best for topics noted by...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Notetaking, Qualitative Research, Learning Disabilities, Multiple Choice Tests,...
Much research has been compiled on service-learning, its benefits, and its influence on intrinsic motivation. Service-learning has been used as a method of teaching content in science education, civic education and history, business and marketing education, as well as other areas. However, a review of literature found no service-learning studies that focused on student engagement or commitment to learning in a high school construction technology classroom setting. This qualitative case study of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Case Studies, Service Learning, Course Content, High School Students, Learning...
Knowing the great impact education has on a nation, the author decided to investigate the education systems in America and Japan. The aim of the study was to answer how educational systems or practices in Japan and America differ, and how Japanese practices might improve those of American educators and administrators. Besides many similarities, there are striking contrasts between American and Japanese views and visions of education, and they point to quite different directions and paths of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, National Curriculum, School Restructuring, Asian Culture, Standardized Tests,...
The purpose of this article is to present various techniques that will engage young children, ages 3-8, in learning science and mathematics. Children actively engage in acquiring basic science and mathematics concepts as they explore their environment. The methods presented are intended to meet the developmental levels of young learners as they make connections with science and mathematics. Also included is a review of science and mathematics content and process skills appropriate for early...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Young Children, Science Instruction, Mathematics Instruction, Mathematical Concepts,...
In earlier research into the attitudes of professionals to continuing professional education, four factors have stood out as occurring in virtually all results--professional improvement and development, professional service, collegial learning and interaction, and personal benefits and job security. Two other factors emerged once only in different studies--professional reflection and professional role clarification. The study reported here on the continuing education needs of country-based...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Professional Continuing Education, Foreign Countries, Legal Education (Professions),...
Many young women become disillusioned with physical education in their high-school years. Mounting evidence suggests that this disillusionment starts in early adolescence. This article discusses the experiences of female students in coeducational, middle-school, physical education classes. Focus group interviews, individual interviews, and questionnaires were used to collect data. The following themes emerged: personal competence, a moving body is a healthy body, choice and variety for a...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Physical Education, Early Adolescents, Sex Fairness, Student Motivation, Females,...
Authors reviewed the theoretical history of the "motivation" construct, and its utilization within past/current health behavior research. Textbooks and review articles functioned as sources for the theoretical history review. Research published within a 10-year period (1993-2002) in four health promotion journals (all with impact factors greater than or equal to 1.0) comprised the systematically reviewed data. Only empirical studies containing the term "motivation" in the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Health Promotion, Textbooks, Health Behavior, Student Motivation, Student Behavior,...
The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of a middle school epidemiology curriculum called Detectives in the Classroom. The curriculum presents epidemiology as the science of public health, using health-related issues that capture the interest of young students and help prepare them to make evidence-based health-related decisions. The curriculum was field tested among seventh-grade urban students using a quasi-experimental design. Analysis of covariance of pre- and post-test...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, Quasiexperimental Design, Curriculum Evaluation, Science Interests,...
Contemporary American culture has taken on protecting children from the consequences of their own actions so much that parents are raising children for whom being responsible for one's own actions and one's own work is anathema to "good parenting." Unlike the culture of the past, many parents spend hours on end with their children under the guise of "helping them" with their homework. Many parents complain about the time spent doing homework with their children, and the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Homework, Federal Legislation, Academic Persistence, Academic Achievement, Student...
Physical education is one of the most viable intervention programs to reach overweight and obese children. Since physical activity habits developed early in life are more likely to persist into adulthood, it is important for K-12 physical educators to teach the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that will motivate students to become more active. Two ways of getting students to be more active and stay active are (1) to use the lesson time effectively to promote more moderate-to-vigorous physical...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Physical Education, Obesity, Intervention, Physical Activities, Elementary Secondary...
As the obesity epidemic in the United States spreads among children and teenagers, due in part to sedentary lifestyles, some physical education programs are using interactive video games to keep students engaged in physical activity. These innovative games make physical activity fun and challenging for both high- and low-skilled students. Although little empirical data are available on these games, countless newspaper and magazine articles describe how fun and physically engaging they are. In...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Metabolism, Physical Education, Obesity, Physical Activities, Video Games,...
Anyone who works with new teachers must let them know that they should not have to make a choice between bringing up test scores or promoting lifelong learning. Mentor teachers must show beginning teachers how to be "passionate teachers," which the author defines as living a life as a reflective educator, making it a priority to build positive relationships with students, creating a classroom community in which students share responsibility for their own learning and the learning of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Occupational Aspiration, Teaching (Occupation), Needs Assessment, Scores, Lifelong...
Few issues on the educational scene have proven as vexatious as the achievement gap between the "haves" and "have nots" in society. The achievement gap has proved both substantial and persistent, despite the good intentions and considerable efforts of thousands of educators and notwithstanding the "No Child Left Behind" Act and other reform initiatives. Numerous factors associated with this predicament have been suggested. The goal of the research reported here was...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Federal Legislation, Academic Achievement, High Stakes Tests, Prior Learning, Effect...
The focus of this paper will be one of the authors' transformation from reluctant teacher-researcher to empowered teacher-researcher. The authors will describe Shayla's journey through action research because it was this journey from circumspection to empowerment that strengthened her in ways that she had not foreseen or anticipated. It allowed her to see her classroom in fresh ways, focus in on a problem and systematically attempt to not only change and better it, but also to understand it....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Action Research, Teacher Researchers, Empowerment, Perspective Taking, College School...
This article links student and family characteristics, along with perceived purposes for doing homework, to homework emotion management as reported by 205 high school students in grades 9-10. The results revealed that adolescents' management of their emotions was not related to grade level and amount of parental education. However, girls and students who received family help reported more frequently monitoring and controlling their emotions. In addition, intrinsic reasons and extrinsic reasons...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Homework, Emotional Response, Family Characteristics, Grade 9, Grade 10, High School...
The idea of learning through projects has a long history in the field of education in general, and in early childhood education in particular. Many educators provide guidelines on how to approach project work with children and assert its benefits in various areas of children's learning and development. Yet few empirical studies investigate what parents think about their children's learning through projects. In this case study, we intend to fill this gap by exploring parents' perspectives of the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Low Income, Early Childhood Education, Parent Participation, Children, Parent School...
The key to challenging talented, advanced students and keeping them engaged and motivated within the regular classroom, says the author, is to spend time each day focusing on students' strengths and interests, and to remember that the classroom is a place for developing all sorts of talents in all students. Seven strategies are proposed to help provide opportunities for all students to continue growing and learning in the areas where they have the greatest strengths: (1) Provide open-ended...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Academically Gifted, High Achievement, Student Motivation, Student Participation,...
Adolescents typically become less physically active as they progress through high school. This inactivity has led to some adolescents become unhealthy, overweight, and unmotivated to participate in physical activity. The purpose of this article is to present two interventions aimed at motivating physical education students to be more physically active. These interventions provide adolescents with information about how to maintain physical activity and find it more meaningful. (Contains 2...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Physical Education, Physical Activities, Adolescents, High Schools, Intervention,...
Five elements in a lesson will motivate students to become and remain engaged in learning: (1) teachers must ensure that students see some value in the content of the lesson; (2) students must believe that they have the potential to be successful in the activity; (3) teachers must communicate to their students that they care about them as individuals; (4) the focus must be on learning and improvement; and (5) students must be intrinsically motivated, which means that students engage in an...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Physical Education, Educational Environment, Student Motivation, Student Interests,...
Early entrance from secondary school to university, based on the principle of optimal match, is a rare but highly effective educational strategy for many gifted students. The University of Washington offers two early entrance options for gifted adolescents: the Early Entrance Program for students prior to age 15, and the UW Academy for Young Scholars for students after Grade 10. This study assessed the elements of optimal match that are best suited to different age groups. Four cohorts of Early...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Academically Gifted, Research Universities, Early Admission, Acceleration...
Students of color are consistently underrepresented in honors and gifted programs nationwide, and even high-achieving students share many of the risk factors with their low-achieving peers. The study presented in this paper employed mixed methods to investigate the relationship between the design of a rigorous college preparatory program, the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IB), and the socioeconomic status of the students the program serves. The paper begins with a brief overview...
Topics: ERIC Archive, African American Students, Intervention, Economically Disadvantaged, Academic...
In this article, the author talks about an allegorical tale which he has written as a message for teachers of mathematics. The story is about Gordon, who led a flock of small sheep. Gordon was a mathematics genius; however, his flock criticized his teaching of numbers and his boring lectures. His furry-god-farmer advised him to share his mathematics in a way that the other sheep will like--to teach them in ways they wouldl find practical and fun. There is no point in sharing the old theories if...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Mathematics Teachers, Mathematics Instruction, Teaching Methods, Student Motivation,...
In the author's experience, lessons that are clearly meaningful for students beyond the classroom can foster positive attitudes, increase enjoyment, and enhance learning. In this paper she offers suggestions on how to plan for meaningful mathematics lessons using the topic of map skills as an example. She also presents some specific ideas for meaningful map lessons using the local page from a street directory. (Contains 1 footnote.)
Topics: ERIC Archive, Map Skills, Mathematics Instruction, Elementary School Mathematics, Teaching Methods,...
This paper reports on a classroom investigation of a sequence of cross-disciplinary mapping lessons undertaken by Grade Five students at Black Hill Primary, a Victorian State Primary School in Ballarat. While this activity was broadly framed around Mathematics, there were also important elements from Geography, (a new emphasis in the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS)), along with English and Technology that contributed to the experiences of students undertaking the tasks. In both...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Geography, Foreign Countries, Primary Education, Mathematics Education, English,...
Many people believe that the 1989 National Council for Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) standards heralded the biggest mathematics reform of the 20th century. Despite all reform efforts, recent studies indicate that mathematics taught in primary and middle school mainly consists of basic arithmetic tasks that use memorization and repetition. Today many students perform adequately on basic computational tests but have difficulty in applying mathematics knowledge to problems. Furthermore, it is...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Childrens Literature, Teaching Methods, Educational Change, Elementary School...
In a series of investigations, the author and his colleagues have examined ways that students who once did poorly in school made progress and how their teachers nurtured their accomplishments. They have chronicled ways that successful teachers learned to understand why students are reluctant to do their work, how to help them think through their choices, and how to create classroom learning communities. These practices create "academic momentum." In the physical sciences, momentum is...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Assignments, Student Motivation, Teaching Methods, Case Studies, Academic...
Not so many years ago, comic books in school were considered the enemy. Students caught sneaking comics between the pages of bulky--and less engaging--textbooks were likely sent to the principal. Today, however, comics, including classics such as "Superman" but also their generally more complex, nuanced cousins, graphic novels, are not only regarded as educational tools by savvy teachers, they are also taken seriously as literature and an art form in their own right. Comic books can...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Textbooks, Cartoons, Novels, Traditional Grammar, Visual Literacy, Writing...
Some high achievers are not as easy to engage. Sometimes motivating high achievers is "a matter of being more sensitive to what they are interested in," says Don Ambrose, a professor of education at Rider University in New Jersey. But too often classrooms are not set up for that kind of sensitivity. Research shows that schools are consistently failing to provide opportunities for top students to realize their potential. Teachers are teaching to the bottom half of their classes with...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Curriculum Development, Educational Strategies, Academic Achievement, High...
The purpose of this article is to explore the motivation of graduate students in an educational leadership preparation program. Motivation is a key element for academic and professional success because without it little learning or performance takes place. The goal orientation theory of motivation was examined in the context of the educational leadership domain. To evaluate the psychometric properties of a measure of goal orientations of future educational leaders, a factor analysis was...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Graduate Students, Validity, Goal Orientation, Student Motivation, Factor Analysis,...
Using rigorous qualitative research methodology, twenty-four college students receiving their undergraduate degrees in three years were interviewed. Following analysis of the semi-structured interview transcripts and coding, themes emerged, indicating that these students possessed self-discipline, self-motivation, and drive. Overall, the results indicate that students are driven by their future plans, external influences, and their own personality. Thoughts to quit the program sometimes...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Qualitative Research, Research Methodology, Graduation, College Students, Interviews,...
The concept of management by objectives has long been used in business in enhancing good staff performance. There has been growing interest among teaching researchers in exploring the influence of goals within the academic field. Much of the early work in this area of motivational research has been done with children, rather than with college students. Only recently have the theories been extended to college classrooms. Goal setting can dramatically influence students' self-regulated learning...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Management by Objectives, Student Motivation, Goal Orientation, Teaching Methods,...
This study explored the effectiveness of selected statistical measures at motivating or maintaining regular exercise among college students. The study also considered whether ease in understanding these statistical measures was associated with perceived effectiveness at motivating or maintaining regular exercise. Analyses were based on a cross-sectional survey of 546 students. Students identified the total number of disease cases as the most effective measure for motivating behavior change,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, College Students, Diseases, Behavior Modification, Program Effectiveness, Behavior...
In this article, the author shares the voices of adults whose lives have been changed by their enrollment in a set of innovative college readiness programs geared toward adults. These women and men have overcome obstacles between them and college that they believed were insurmountable--fear, inadequate academic preparation, lack of information about college and academia's expectations, lack of confidence. Until the 1970s, a high school diploma or its equivalent, the GED, was seen as terminal,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Adult Basic Education, College Programs, Adult Learning, Adult Students,...
With persistence and an enthusiastic approach, teachers can lead their students to discover writing as a creative outlet and a communication tool, a way of transmitting the scenes inside their heads to the world at large. Written language, with all its conventions and complexities, of course takes years to master. But it must have a beginning. There is a place for every child to start a journey on a river of words. All they need is someone to recognize their wonderful ideas and inspire them to...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Written Language, Creative Thinking, Writing Instruction, Mentors, Student...