The author investigated whether adverse effects of single parenthood not observed in 6-7-year-old NLSY (National Longitudinal Study of Youth) children might emerge when they reached 12-13 years of age. Outcomes included mathematics, reading, vocabulary scores, and behavior problem ratings. Little or no evidence of systematic negative effects…

The authors evaluated self-efficacy and motivational orientation across Hispanic and Caucasian students to predict variables related to mathematics achievement, including mathematics performance and students' plans to take additional mathematics courses. Path models were analyzed for 358 students in Grades 9 and 10 who attended a West Texas high…

To engage in productive learning behaviors, students need to have a realistic understanding of their academic skills. The authors examined the perceived competence of students with different patterns of academic achievement. Four groups of 3rd graders were assessed at 2 time points: (a) children with difficulties in mathematics but not in reading…

The authors used teacher action research with the design experiment (A. Brown, 1992) to investigate the effects of working with parents in small groups on kindergarten children's emergent literacy performance. The authors randomly assigned 56 children enrolled in the morning and afternoon sessions of the first author's kindergarten class in a…

The author examined changes in the educational and career goals of 66 young women who completed surveys in Grades 7 and 12. Participants identified desirable versus undesirable aspects of mathematics- and science-based careers to better understand the characteristics that do or do not attract women from these fields. Over time, participants'…

The authors used preservice teachers' (N = 172) reports of their childhood experiences involving reward and punishment within their families to identify ideal perceptions of direct or indirect teaching style. The most consistent relationship of childhood experience with reward and punishment and perceived teaching style was between the reward…

Academic dishonesty is a significant problem among students from elementary school through college. The desire to succeed in school through dishonesty is increased when there is a breakdown in the norms associated with conventional academic attitudes. The authors conducted a survey research study to examine the relationship between academic…

The authors compared the experiences of college students during cooperative learning and large-group instruction. Undergraduate educational psychology students were assigned to small groups to discuss how they could apply important psychological principles to teaching-learning projects. Students were interrupted during cooperative learning and…

The author reported research findings from a study that critically examined the role of sociocultural orientations in the mathematical experiences of 2 African American students. To determine how the orientations influenced the students' mathematical success, the author used a phenomenological research strategy to examine the life histories of the…

Researchers have found that training in phonemic awareness (PA), a fundamental element for reading acquisition, is effective in varying degrees, depending on characteristics of the audience. In this study, the authors explored the relative effectiveness of 3 programs--Fast ForWord, Earobics, and LiPS. The authors randomly assigned 60 students with…

The effects of graduate students' peer orientation on achievement and motivation to learn with cooperative learning strategies while enrolled in a 1-semester educational research methods course were investigated. During 15 weekly lessons (2 hr and 50 min each), students with high and low peer orientation were exposed to cooperative-learning…

The author assessed academic self-efficacy, task value, ability and effort attributions and mastery, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance achievement-goal orientations in reference to English, Korean, mathematics, and general school learning among 389 Korean high school girls. Results corroborated M. Bong's (2001) previous report that…

The authors discuss the nature and domain specificity of reading motivation and present initial results that examined how 2 reading instructional programs, Concept Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI) and multiple Strategy Instruction (SI), influenced 3rd-grade children's intrinsic motivation to read and reading self-efficacy. Each reading program…

The authors reviewed the research on challenge as a motivator, with a view toward application in mathematics classrooms. The authors conclude that traditional motivational research, with its focus on individual differences and decontextualized tasks, is not readily applicable to classrooms. They argue that a combination of challenging instruction…

The authors observed a group of 4 eighth-grade students who conducted a series of inquiry-based science investigations over 6 weeks. The authors examined evidence of students' motivational beliefs, thoughtfulness, nature of their conceptual understanding, and changes in that understanding. The authors also used pre- and posttests of conceptual…