Student Achievement Motivation Research Papers (original) (raw)

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- Anthropology, Student Achievement Motivation, Academic Writing, Grading

The adoption of gamification in learning and instruction is perceived to have mass appeal among the learners in stimulating motivation, learner engagement and social influence. This study is an attempt to present a summary of the empirical findings of state-of-the-art literature in the emerging field of gamification within the educational domain of learning and instruction. It reveals the latest scientific research evidence on the emerging trends of learning technologies and gamification plugins along with extending the possibilities for future research directions in revolutionizing learning and instruction through gamification. A systematic literature review examined the thematic and content analysis of 46 empirical research papers published in the Web of Science database between 2016 and 2019. The review critically appraised and evaluated the various contradictions found in the literature along with setting the stage for the significance of future research studies to reexamine the theoretical foundations of gamification, its methodo-logical approaches, theoretical models, gaming platforms and apps, game mechanics and learning outcomes. This study not only attempts to shed light on the novelty of gamified learning perceived as a game-changer and key enabler of motivation, engagement, and user experience but also sought to outline the key challenges and barriers of gamification.

Anormal Psikoloji kitabı, ruhsal bozukluklar alanında çalışan tüm profesyoneller, psikiyatristler, klinik psikologlar, psikologlar, psikolojik danışmanlar, hekimler, sosyal hizmet uzmanları, psikiyatri hemşireleri ve bu alanlarda öğrenci yetiştiren akademisyenler ile eğitim alan öğrenciler için temel bir başvuru kitabıdır.
2013 yılının Mayısı ayında yayımlanan DSM-5 ölçütlerine göre ruhsal bozukluklarla ilgili sunulan bilgilerin güncellemesinin de yapıldığı bu kitap, tüm dünyada pek çok üniversitenin psikiyatri ve psikoloji bölümlerinde ders kitabı olarak okutulmaktadır.
Kitabın her bölümünde, ilk olarak ruhsal bozukluklarla ilgili vakalar sunulmakta, daha sonra bozuklukların klinik tanıları yapılmakta ve DSM-IV-TR’den farklı olan DSM-5’te yapılan değişikliklere yer verilmektedir. Ayrıca, DSM-5’teki tanı ölçütleri, bozuklukların etiyolojisi ve epidemiyolojisi, bozukluklar üzerinde kalıtımın ve çevrenin etkileri, biyolojik ve sosyal ve kültürel etkiler, en güncel araştırmalardan elde edilen verilerle harmanlanarak sunulmaktadır. Ruhsal bozuklukların tedavisinde etkili olacak terapi yaklaşımları ve ilaçla yapılan tedaviler hakkında da bilgiler veren kitap, sahip olduğu zengin içeriği ile eşsiz bir kaynaktır.
Anormal Psikoloji kitabının; profesyoneller ve öğrenciler için önemli bir rehber olacağına, yardıma ihtiyaç duyan insanların sorunlarının çözümüne, ruhsal bozuklukların tanı ve tedavisinde önemli katkılar sağlayacağına inanıyoruz.

- by Gamze Sart
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- Creative Writing, Entrepreneurship, Management, Psychology
- by yafes can
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- Teaching and Learning, Instructional Design, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Art

Many studies have investigated the key role that motivation plays in student performance and academic achievement across different grade levels. Using survey methodology, this study aimed at determining student motivation by exploring the intersection of certain social and psycho-educational factors. The study, which involved preparatory (middle) and secondary (high) school students in Qatar, comprised a sample of 1803 male and female participants. A questionnaire instrument was employed to measure student motivation based on three main indicators: the effort students put in their studies, feeling bored at school, and absence from school. In analyzing the data, correlations were drawn between the three indicators, and gender and parent's involvement in their child's education. The results indicated that a significant number of both preparatory and secondary students exhibit low degrees of motivation. The results also revealed that students' decreasing motivation is associated with their grade levels and that males reportedly displayed lower motivation compared to females. Male students' motivation was also associated with parental involvement in their education. As such, the findings of this study support the results of previous research in the field. Qatar's schools today are confronted with the same challenges that many schools in developed countries face. There is a real need for enhancing student motivation, and this is an essential element of quality education at all different grade levels. This will also aid in ensuring schools enable students to become effective role players in tomorrow's schools.

- by Taha Adawi and +1
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- Social Psychology, Student Achievement Motivation, Achievement

Student motivation is an essential component of all educational and learning processes. Without motivation, students lack cognitive presence resulting in little, if any, learning. In the traditional classroom setting, it’s up to the teacher to facilitate and maintain student motivation. In an e-learning course however, there is less teacher or facilitator presence and the learner is left alone to interact with the instruction mostly alone. E-learning designers and developers must integrate appropriate motivational elements to ensure the learner sustains his/her motivation throughout the entire instruction to maximize the learning outcome. Over the past few years the Norwegian Armed Forces (NoAF) has incorporated motivational design elements focused on promoting and sustaining motivation into our e-learning courses based on John Keller's ARCS Model of Motivational Design. This paper outlines the rationale, methodology, and resulting implementation.

As teacher educators, we are committed to the improvement of teacher practices and methods that increase student academic achievement. To this end we are constantly investigating and evaluating practices that get results, often called " best practices. " Since the 1960s when we made a national commitment to the education of all children regardless of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and gender, we have also been investigating the preconditions necessary for improved academic achievement. We have engaged is a great deal of research investigating non-school preconditions such as poverty, family structures, and English language acquisition. Additionally, we tended to add to these givens or school preconditions such things as school structure, school leadership, and student behavior. The contention that student behavior is a precondition for increased academic achievement has in many respects guided the development of the field of classroom management to this point. The assumption is that when the teacher obtains an acceptable level of control the result will be the order necessary for teaching and in turn learning. It follows then that any methodologies that obtain order will lead to more student achievement.

School vision and mission statements are an explicit indication of a school's priorities. Research has found academic motivation, mental health promotion, and school belonging to be the most frequently cited themes in these statements. The present study sought to examine whether these themes relate to student academic achievement, as indicated by National Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) scores. A stratified sample of 287 secondary schools in Victoria, Australia was analysed using two language analytic approaches: qualitative emergent coding and supervised lexical analysis. The highest academic scores occurred when mental health promotion was included, though results depended to some extent on the analytic approach and the level of aggregation. Results do suggest that explicitly prioritising both academic performance and mental health is beneficial. Further, the study provides an approach for using language analysis to investigate multilevel constructs in schools.

The goal of the current study is to examine the impact of students’ social economic status, ethnicity, and discipline infractions on their standardized test scores in Indiana, the USA. Data from this study extracted from Indiana Department of Education. ISTEP is a criterion-referenced standardized test. It consists of items that assess a student’s performance with respect to particular criteria that was established by the Indiana State Board of Education. Criterion-referenced test scores help us to understand where a student stands in relation to the cut scores based Indiana Academic Standards in English/Language Arts and Mathematics. In fact, the application of ISTEP might be helpful for schools to identify their students’ strengths and weaknesses in these content areas. By doing so, they take necessary steps to plan appropriate instruction for students’ academic development. However, the Indiana Department of Education’s statistical data show that there was a statistically significant achievement gap between students. Accordingly, the current study findings point out that the effects of SES and Race varied among groups. Specifically, African-American students with low SES status had lower scores on ISTEP than their white peers did. In addition, a chi-square analysis showed that disproportionality among African American students appeared to be striking. Findings and educational implications are discussed.

“Best education practices” is one of the most important, misunderstood, and misused concepts in education. I have been working with others for nearly two decades regarding the identification, validation, and dissemination of these practices. I define Best Education Practices as the wide range of individual activities, policies, and programmatic approaches to achieve positive changes in student attitudes or academic behaviors. This umbrella term encompasses the following categories that differ on the level of evidence supporting desired student or institutional outcomes: promising, validated, and exemplary.

Psychologists today generally agree that your level of self-esteem, or how much you like yourself and consider yourself to be a valuable and worthwhile person, lies at the core of your personality. Your level of self-esteem determines: your level of energy and the quality of your personality how much you like other people and, in turn, how much they like you your willingness to try new things and to venture boldly where perhaps you have never gone before the quality of your relationships with others-your family, your friends and your coworkers and how successful you are in your business, especially if you are in sales. But before you begin enjoying the wonderful effects of high self-esteem in your life, you have to learn to accept yourself unconditionally. And even before you achieve self-acceptance, there are other steps you have to take. Self-acceptance begins in infancy, with the influence of your parents and siblings and other important people. As a child, you have an overwhelming need for love and approval and acceptance from the important people in your life. A developing child requires this emotional support the way roses need rain. Healthy personality growth is absolutely dependent upon it. A person grows up straight and strong and happy to the degree to which he receives an abundance of nurturing in his formative years, prior to the age of five. Someone once said that everything we do in life is either to get love or to compensate for the lack of love. Almost all of our problems, as both children and adults, can be traced back to "love withheld." There is nothing more destructive to the evolving and emerging personality than being unloved or unaccepted for any reason by someone whom we consider important. As adults, we always strive to achieve what we felt we were deprived of in childhood. If you grew up feeling, for any reason, that you were not totally accepted by your parents, you will be internally motivated throughout your life to compensate for that lack of acceptance by seeking it in your relationships with other people. To the growing child, perception is reality; reality is not what the parents feel toward the child, but what the child feels that the parents feel. The child's evolving personality is shaped largely by his perception of how he is seen and thought about by his parents, not by the actual fact of the matter. If your parents were unable to express a high degree of unconditional acceptance to you, you can grow up feeling unacceptable-even inferior and inadequate. It's quite common for a youngster to grow up in a household where he or she feels a lack of acceptance by one or both parents, especially the father. When the young person becomes an adult, the psychological phenomenon of "transference" takes place. The individual goes into the workplace and transfers the need for acceptance from the parents to the boss. The boss then becomes the focal point of the individual's thoughts and feelings. What the boss says, how the boss looks, his comments and everything that he does that implies a feeling or an opinion about the individual is recorded and either raises or lowers the individual's level of self-acceptance. Your own level of self-acceptance is determined largely by how well you feel you are accepted by the important people in your life. Just as the Law of Correspondence says that your outer life tends to be a reflection of your inner life, your attitude toward yourself is determined largely by

- by Malak Majeed Ullah Khan
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- Business, Psychology, Self and Identity, Motivation (Psychology)

South Africa, with its diverse cultural groups, has a rich variety of cultural artefacts based on mathematics. Mathematics, according to the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement for Mathematics in the Further Education and Training Phase, is defined as a human activity, which includes mathematical investigations in physical and social phenomena, well aligned with ethnomathematics. Teachers from various cultural groups, however, have limited knowledge of cultural artefacts and this knowledge does not receive sufficient attention during teacher training. The purpose of this article is to investigate examples of cultural artefacts in the preparation of a mathematics lesson. The study is situated in a socio-cultural context. Nineteen mathematics student-teachers from different cultural groups enrolled for a B.Ed. Honours
degree, were invited to participate. A qualitative research design, with research reports and one-on-one interviews as data collection instruments, was adopted. The mathematics student-teachers conducted a research project that expected from them to include cultural artefacts in a mathematics lesson. The data was analysed according to themes, subthemes and codes. Findings reveal that participants used different examples of cultural artefacts, which include
cultural dwellings, clothing, games and artworks. The article contributes to the introduction of cultural artefacts in a mathematics lesson.

- by Mark Beumer
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- History, Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Teaching and Learning

Objective: Although perfectionism is a prominent personality disposition, only a few longitudinal studies have investigated how perfectionism develops. Theoretical models and qualitative studies have posited that academic success is a developmental antecedent of perfectionism. Yet, quantitative studies tend to interpret the cross-sectional relationships as academic success being an outcome of perfectionism. In light of these gaps in the literature, the present study was the first to investigate the longitudinal relationships between perfectionistic strivings, perfectionistic concerns, academic achievement, and academic efficacy examining academic success as an antecedent of perfectionism. Method: The study examined 487 adolescents (aged 12-19 years, 54% female) using a crosslagged longitudinal design with three time points spaced 4-5 months apart. Results: Results showed that academic achievement predicted relative increases in both perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns, even when including academic efficacy. In addition, academic efficacy predicted relative increases in perfectionistic strivings. Discussion: This is the first study to show that academic achievement is a common factor in the development of perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns, whereas academic efficacy plays a role only in the development of perfectionistic strivings. Conclusions: Implications of the findings for the development of perfectionism are discussed.

- by Joachim Stoeber
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- Psychology, Behavioural Science, Clinical Psychology, Personality Psychology

In this essay I examine the racial achievement gap in American education in terms of an impaired psychosocial developmental process. I argue that the well-documented academic underperformance of certain minority groups may stem from the unfavorable resolution of a key developmental crisis in constituent members’ early scholastic experience. I go on to suggest that individual educators can play an important role in eliminating the achievement gap by changing the way they teach in their own classrooms. In part, they may do so by adopting a "transcultural" pedagogy or teaching style, according to which both teachers and their minority students develop (at minimum) transcultural proficiencies and (at maximum) transcultural identities, as a promising way to achieve two important ends. First, the fostering of an academically-industrious self-concept in members of historically underachieving minority groups and hence, second, the closing of the achievement gap "from the bottom up"—one classroom at a time.

- by Brian D . Earp
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- Sociology, Economic Sociology, Political Sociology, Social Theory

This study aimed to 1) compare the English learning achievement between the pre- test and post-test results of grade 9 students who engaged in gamified learning activities and 2) compare the English learning achievement of the experimental group that was taught through gamified learning activities to the controlled group that was taught through 2W3P based learning activities. The cluster random sampling was employed in this study and the participants were seventy-four grade 9 students studying in the 2nd semester of academic year 2020 at Demonstration School of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. The experiment was conducted for six weeks. The research instruments were 1. gamified lesson plans, 2. 2W3P based lesson plans, and 3. a learning motivation test. The statistical treatments to test the research’s hypothesis were paired sample t-test and t-test for independent sample. The study revealed that after employing the gamified learning activities, the experimental group’s learning achievement from the post-test was higher than the pre-test at .05 level of statistical significance, and the experimental group’s learning achievement from the post-test was higher than the learning achievement of the controlled group at .05 level of statistical significance.

This study synthesizes the mathematics achievement impacts observed in randomized studies of the Student Teams Achievement Divisions cooperative learning model. A total of 15 randomized studies were retrieved from the extant literature. Analyses of d= +0.16.Cohen’s d effect size estimates indicated an overall statistically significant positive
effect of. Effect size estimates were also examined for between-‐ class heterogeneity to ascertain whether there were differences in effects for younger children in elementary
setting versus adolescent children in secondary settings. These analyses indicated that cooperative learning had a much stronger effect on student achievement for adolescent children than for younger children.

- by Gamze Sart
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- Creative Writing, Critical Theory, Entrepreneurship, Finance

The paper deals with allegedly high motivation of undergraduate students. It lists reasons why many young adults choose to continue studies and their majors without really being motivated. Ways to increase motivation are viewed, such as (on the lecturer's part) creating at university in general and in the particular classrooms a pleasant atmosphere of trust in students' abilities, creativity, achievement, doing everything to increase students' self-esteem, being caring, enthusiastic, objective, selection of usable and necessary, at the same time exciting topics and educational materials clear presentation/explanation, good audio-video materials, good examples, interactive lecturing, providing student involvement in planning and fulfillment of the educational process, development of student creativity, etc. and (on the students' part) active learning, perceiving themselves as knowledge creators or at least co-creators, taking more responsibility over one's learning, observing themselves and finding efficient for them learning style, methods and strategies, regular self-assessment, being more self-critical and self-demanding, trying to study for knowledge, not for grades, etc. A study of student motivation for choosing to continue studies and selecting majors, and the impact on motivation of lecturer and student behavior was held, and the results are presented.

Abstract: The argument I will develop in this essay is that the foreign students are a latent human resource who can assist with overcoming English monolingualism in the Australian population. Foreign students, properly rewarded, can be a major source of skills transfer. Every one of those students is a walking compendium of language and cultural skills that Australians need to know.

- by Thorold (Thor) May
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- Discourse Analysis, Sociology, Psychology, Social Psychology

University represents a pathway to upward social mobility for many working-class people. However, this distinctly middle-class environment also provides a number of unique social psychological challenges for working-class students. Working-class university students are often in the minority group at university, they are often the first in their families to attend university, and they often feel out of place at university. They also lack the time and money required to engage with other students on campus. Consequently, they are less likely to be as integrated into social life at university as their middle-class peers. In this chapter, we consider the potential implications of this lack of social integration for working-class students' academic outcomes and mental health. In particular, we review recent research that shows that working-class students' lack of integration at university is associated with poorer academic outcomes and poorer mental health. We conclude with a discussion of potential interventions to increase working-class students' social integration at university.

- by Mark Rubin
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- Social Psychology, Higher Education, Mental Health, Student Achievement Motivation

For African American youth of low socioeconomic status (SES), who fear losing communal and ethnic solidarity to Blacks who are moving into the middle class, insults related to selling out are often unconscious reactions to possible abandonment (Comer & Poussaint 1992). Sticking together based on a common racial identity is especially important for African American students who are bused
into White schools in White neighborhoods. As the Black middle class continues to grow and to move into the suburbs, many positive role models who have the ability to transmit social capital in the form of educational outcomes move also. This is why the success of the few African Americans who are academically successful make those who are not feel even more like failures (Comer & Poussaint 1992). Add the fact that both Blacks and Whites reinforce success for athleticism, and you have yet another impetus for African American males to gravitate toward sports for cultural affiliation and personal validation.

- by Theodore Ransaw and +1
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- Cultural Studies, Black Studies Or African American Studies, Education, Teacher Education

Mexican educational authorities face a significant and challenging problem of low achievement in standardized tests applied to pupils in primary schools. This research looks at a Full-Time Primary Schools Program implemented in 2007, to work out if changing the time pupils spend at school and a modification in the structure of teaching can enhance skills in language and mathematics. The results of Differences in Differences (DiD) and Propensity Score Match plus DiD, point to a significant impact of the program with an improvement of 0.11 SD on mathematics and Spanish test scores after four years of treatment. More importantly, these improvements are significantly higher in schools located in deprived areas, ranging from 0.12 SD to 0.29 SD on both subjects after two and four years of treatment, respectively. The impacts also show a significant average decrease in the proportion of students graded as 'insufficient', combined with an increase of those graded as 'excellent'. Further analysis on causal channels shows that policy effects do not come from changes in the composition of pupils in treated schools. These findings are of strong significance when placed into the wider education debate about what works best in schools for improving pupil performance. Acknowledgements: I want to thank Richard Dickens, Shqiponja Telhaj and Iftikhar Hussain for their valuable comments and suggestions about the design and results of this evaluation. I am also very thankful to the specialists of the Secretariat of Public Education (SEP) who helped me understand policy details and implementation during the workshop: " Incubadora de Evaluaciones de Impacto "

In this chapter, our objective is to explore the past, present and future of measuring the construct of engagement. We first introduce some of the more prominent approaches to measuring student engagement from general education, including student self-report, experience sampling, teacher ratings of students, interviews and observations (Hofkens & Ruzek, 2019). We describe how each approach has been applied to measuring engagement, examine their validity and reliability and discuss the strengths and weakness of each measurement approach for L2 researchers. We also examine several widely used self-report measures in student engagement research with reference to their operational definitions, use, samples and psychometric properties. We elaborate on considerations related to the measurement of engagement in L2 learning, such as the differentiation between L2 engagement and related constructs, the variety of purposes for measuring L2 engagement, and measuring general versus domain-specific L2 engagement (e.g. task- and skill-specific engagement). Finally, we summarize the limitations of currently available instruments for eliciting engagement data and discuss directions for future development in the field.

Background: The study aimed to elucidate previously observed associations between morningness-eveningness and depressive symptomatology in university students. Relations between components of depressive symptomatology and morningness-eveningness were analysed.
Methods: Nine hundred and seventy-four university students completed Polish versions of the Centre for Epidemiological Studies – Depression scale (CES-D; Polish translation appended to this paper) and the Composite Scale of Morningness. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to test the structure of depressive symptoms. Pearson and partial correlations (with age and sex controlled), along with regression analyses with morning affect (MA) and circadian preference as predictors, were used.
Results: PCA revealed three components of depressive symptoms: depressed/somatic affect, positive affect, interpersonal relations. Greater MA was related to less depressive symptoms in three components. Morning circadian preference was related to less depressive symptoms in depressed/somatic and positive affects and unrelated to interpersonal relations. Both morningness-eveningness components exhibited stronger links with depressed/somatic and positive affects than with interpersonal relations. Three CES-D components exhibited stronger links with MA than with circadian preference. In regression analyses only MA was statistically significant for positive affect and better interpersonal relations, whereas more depressed/somatic affect was predicted by lower MA and morning circadian preference (relationship reversed compared to correlations).
Limitations: Self-report assessment.
Conclusions: There are three groups of depressive symptoms in Polish university students. Associations of MA with depressed/somatic and positive affects are primarily responsible for the observed links between morningness-eveningness and depressive symptoms in university students. People with evening circadian preference whose MA is not lowered have less depressed/somatic affect.

- by Konrad S Jankowski
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- Chronobiology, Neuroscience, Physiology, Psychology

A very motivational book.It can be a role in making you a good person.

Researchers and educators alike have expressed concern over the growing trend of entitled and demanding attitudes among millennial college students. In recent years, researchers have identified these types of entitled student attitudes and expectations as academic entitlement and have suggested that it exists as a dispositional individual difference. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relations between academic entitlement and two theoretically important constructs, achievement goal orientation and academic self-efficacy, as well as demographic variables, including race, gender, and generational status. Two hundred fifty-five undergraduates were administered the Academic Entitlement Questionnaire (Kopp, Zinn, Finney, & Jurich, 2011), Achievement Goal Orientation Questionnaire – Revised (Elliot & Murayama, 2008), and the Academic Self-Efficacy Scale (Chemers, Hu, & Garcia, 2001) via an online survey. Moderate correlations were reported between academic entitlement and performance-avoidance goal orientation (r = .35) and academic entitlement and academic self-efficacy (r = -.26). A weaker correlation was found between academic entitlement and performance-approach goal orientation (r = .18). The mediational model tested suggests that academic self-efficacy and avoidance motivation significantly predict academic entitlement largely independent of each other. Implications for higher education institutions as well as individual faculty members are discussed.

- by Elif Bulut
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- Education, Student Achievement Motivation, Parenting, Student Engagement

The aim of this research was two fold. First is to compare three different types of primary
schools (i.e., boarding primary, bussing primary, and regular) students’ behavior-adjustment
problems and second is to investigate the environmental and psychological predictors
of these students’ school success. The sample of the study consisted of 438 students
of whom 203 were females (Mage = 11.24) and 235 were males (Mage = 11.46), recruited
from the primary and secondary levels of eight years of compulsory education. Results
showed that especially the primary level boarding school students` total adjustment scores
were lower (S (2, 425) = 2.93, p < .05) and their problem behaviors (internalizing (S (2,
425) = 4.13, p < .05), externalizing (S (2, 425) = 4.03, p < .05) and total (S (2, 425) = 12.42,
p < .05)) were higher than those of the secondary level boarding school students. However
there were no significant differences among the levels in bussing school. Grade level
(F (5, 242) = 4.61, p < .05), family structure (living together, separated, and divorced) (F (5,
242) = 4.61, p < .05), attitudes towards school (F (10, 242) = 4.64, p < .05), perceived family
support (F (10, 242) = 4.64, p < .05), total adjustment (F (14, 242) = 13.55, p < .05), internalizing
(F (14, 242) = 13.55, p < .05), externalizing (F (14, 242) = 13.55, p < .05) and total
problem scores (F (14, 242) = 13.55, p < .05) significantly predicted the students’ school
achievements. The results indicated that boarding school students were the most disadvantageous
group among the others in terms of behavior problems, social support, and
school adjustment. However they seem to cope with these disadvantageous conditions
and attain their counterparts’ school success under supportive conditions.

- by Halil Eksi
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- Education, Student Achievement Motivation, Bussing schools, Elementary School

Students' feelings of relatedness (i.e., feeling connected to others) are crucial for success in any learning environment; however, online courses often limit relatedness development, either by removing spontaneous interaction (e.g., asynchronous delivery) or by introducing seemingly incompatible online and on-campus factions (e.g., synchronous hybrid delivery). It was hypothesized that the strengths of one delivery mode could offset the weaknesses of the other. The purpose of this study was to implement and evaluate an online discussion board intervention designed to scaffold relatedness development. Deci and Ryan's (1985) self-determination theory was adopted as the theoretical framework. Participants were 83 graduate students enrolled in synchronous hybrid Masters of Business Administration (MBA), Masters of Public Administration (MPA), and Masters of Aviation (MS-Avit) programs offered at a large midwestern research university. This study used a convergent parallel mixed methods approach (QUAN þ qual ¼ triangulation). The methods involved a pretest-posttest experimental design in which students were randomly assigned to either the experimental group, wherein they participated in the intervention, or the control group, wherein they attended classes without any auxiliary interactions. The results indicated that students who participated in the intervention improved their self-efficacy for developing relatedness with individuals who attended online. The qualitative analysis generated three key themes: relatedness beliefs, program delivery, and student-interface interaction. This study holds practical implications for online learning in that it explicated how a threaded discussion can be used to scaffold relatedness development. The theoretical implications of this study involved the substantiation of three key elements of SDT: the basic needs, the types of motivation, and the importance of contextual support.

- by Nikolaus Butz
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- E-learning, Distance Education, Motivation (Psychology), Blended E-Learning

Ruminating on John Heywood's saying, "A penny for your thoughts," I found a way to motivate my students--elementary to middle school--to tap into their inner experiences. This pre-writing/practice activity is a pathway into creative writing and poetry writing. The saying inspires kids to discover their worlds of thoughts and thinking processes in a fun, provocative, yet challenging approach. It's a good "warm-up" drill to start the day and get kids into their heads.

- by Jeffrey Pflaum
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- Creative Writing, Education, Teacher Education, Motivation (Psychology)

This study determined which topics in the English language curriculum for senior secondary school are perceived by students and teachers as difficult. It also examined difficult topics vis-à-vis English language achievement. Seven research questions were answered using descriptive statistics and two hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using t-test statistics. The study involving twelve English language teachers and one hundred and eighty seven students was carried out in Makurdi Township, Benue State, Nigeria during the second term of 2015/16 academic session. A self-developed questionnaire with closed-ended items was used to elicit data. Since the researcher relied on the opinion of the respondents for data collection, survey design was chosen as method of research. The results of the analysis showed that out of the 35 topics selected from the SSCE syllabus and prescribed textbooks for English at that level, teachers perceived 14 as difficult topics, while students perceived 22 as difficult topics. The reasons why they were experiencing difficulty with the topics were poor reading and study skills, absence of motivation, hatred for English language, poor experience with the subject, and poor teaching methods. The study recommended remedial teaching of difficult topics, the use of ICT; retraining of teachers, peer teaching, and professionalization of teachers as steps to improve English language teaching and learning.

- by Terver T I T U S Udu and +1
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- English Literature, Teaching English as a Second Language, Student Achievement Motivation, English language

The authors examine the effects of school bonding on academic achievement (measured by math achievement scores) in a sample of 12th graders from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (Ingels, Pratt, Rogers, Siegel, & Stutts, 2005). Components of school bonding have proximal and distal effects on academic achievement. Attachment to school and school involvement had direct effects on achievement; attachment to teachers and school commitment behaviors had indirect effects on achievement through school-related delinquency and prior achievement. Implications for counselors are discussed.

- by Julia A Bryan
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- Psychology, Education, Teacher Education, Data Mining

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationship between, on the one hand, smartphone and recreational internet use, and on the other hand, studentss academic success, life satisfaction and boredom in leisure time. The study sample contains 439 randomly selected high school students in Cankaya District, Ankara, Turkey. The questionnaire used to collect data is composed of five parts. These are the Personal

Children’s intelligence mindsets (i.e., their beliefs about whether intelligence is fixed or malleable) robustly influence
their motivation and learning. Yet, surprisingly, research has not linked parents’ intelligence mindsets to their children’s.
We tested the hypothesis that a different belief of parents—their failure mindsets—may be more visible to children
and therefore more prominent in shaping their beliefs. In Study 1, we found that parents can view failure as debilitating
or enhancing, and that these failure mindsets predict parenting practices and, in turn, children’s intelligence mindsets.
Study 2 probed more deeply into how parents display failure mindsets. In Study 3a, we found that children can indeed
accurately perceive their parents’ failure mindsets but not their parents’ intelligence mindsets. Study 3b showed that
children’s perceptions of their parents’ failure mindsets also predicted their own intelligence mindsets. Finally, Study
4 showed a causal effect of parents’ failure mindsets on their responses to their children’s hypothetical failure. Overall,
parents who see failure as debilitating focus on their children’s performance and ability rather than on their children’s
learning, and their children, in turn, tend to believe that intelligence is fixed rather than malleable.

Objective: This booklet aims to offer information that may aid college, employment and scholarship applicants to write a motivation letter that maximizes their chance of success. The guidelines for this motivation statement are generic.... more

- by Senad Becirovic
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- Psychology, Learning and Teaching, Student Achievement Motivation, Anxiety

The chapter presents a review of the research literature examining perfectionism from a motivational perspective. Taking the two-factor model of perfectionism—differentiating the two higher-order dimensions of perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns—as a basis, we present analyses of the differential relationships that the two dimensions show with key motivational constructs focusing on achievement motivation and self-determination theory. As regards achievement motivation, we examine the relationships with achievement motives (hope of success and fear of failure) and achievement goals (task and ego goals, 2 × 2 and 3 × 2 achievement goals). As regards self-determination theory, we examine the relationships with autonomous and controlled motivation and with the different regulatory styles associated with intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and amotivation. Based on the findings of our review, we propose that the differential motivational qualities of perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns are important to understand why perfectionism is a “double-edged sword” that may energize or paralyze people, motivating some perfectionists to engage and others to disengage. We conclude that perfectionism research may profit from seeing perfectionism from a motivational perspective, perhaps even regard perfectionism as a motive disposition (need for perfection) whereby perfectionistic strivings represent the approach-oriented and autonomous aspects, and perfectionistic concerns the avoidance-oriented and controlled aspects.

- by Joachim Stoeber
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- Psychology, Behavioural Science, Clinical Psychology, Personality Psychology