Two studies examined middle school students' achievement values by using peer-nomination procedures. Nominations of peers whom participants admired, respected, and wanted to be like were summed to create a values index. The usefulness of peer-nomination procedures as a methodology for studying values and implications for understanding the plight…

Discusses a study in which the similarities and differences between Aboriginal Australian, Anglo Australian, and immigrant Australian students' learning-goal orientations were measured. Previous research posits that children embrace different learning goals according to their culture. In contrast, findings indicate that the profiles of all…

Examines the perception that, first, one can distinguish among different types of reasons for help avoidance in the classroom and, second, that attribution of help avoidance will be associated with qualitatively different help-seeking behaviors when pupils encounter difficulty on an academic task. Results of two studies show that help seeking was…

Investigates how different types of achievement goals influence elementary school students' help seeking. Goals were conceptualized on two dimensions: locus of the goal (i.e., personal goals and contextual goals) and emphasis of the goal (i.e., learning goals and performance goals). Interactions among goals and their resultant patterns of help…

This developmental and cultural study investigates the impact children's attributions and affects have on their willingness to help in achievement contexts. Findings support Weiner's (1980) attribution-emotion-action model, although interesting developmental and cultural differences were revealed. Classroom implications and directions for future…

Study investigates the effects of a structured reading-comprehension technique, reciprocal teaching, on postsecondary students at risk for academic failure. The sample included at-risk students enrolled in a community college who participated in either the reciprocal teaching or cooperative-learning condition. Results and implications for the…

Reports findings from three studies investigating the efficacy of an instructional model designed to promote self-regulation, the Strategic Content Learning (SCL) approach. Each study comprised multiple in-depth case studies involving postsecondary students with learning disabilities who ranged in age from 19 to 48 years. Implications for theory,…

Two studies were conducted to assess students' self-reported use of cognitive study strategies. Studies compared high school students and university students' recollection of strategy use in high school with their present study behaviors. Reports suggest that students' dependence on repetition strategies may be a product of the lack of familiarity…

Two experiments investigated the effect of choice on cognitive and affective engagement during reading. Both experiments compared college students who either selected what they read or were assigned the same story without being allowed to choose. Discusses results and the need for a more explicit theory of choice. (Author/GCP)

Students' self-reports of involvement in mathematics were related to instructional strategies observed in their upper-elementary classrooms. Results imply that involvement can be socially constructed through whole-class instruction and that researchers should give more attention to measuring and understanding situated motivation. (Author/GCP)

Study investigates the behaviors and interactions of children in structured and unstructured groups as they worked together on a six-week social-studies activity each term for three school terms. The results show that the children in the structured groups were consistently more cooperative and they provided more elaborated and nonelaborated help…

Investigates the self-reported relationships among fifth- and sixth-grade students' achievement goals in mathematics, their negative affects about making mistakes, and their self-regulatory beliefs and behaviors. A theory of achievement goals and affect is proposed; practical and theoretical implications of the role of negative affect in…

Study examines the classes of variables identified in D. L. MacMillan and G. M. Morrison's (1984) multicomponent model for research on sociometric status in special education. Results are discussed with reference to social-exchange theory, as an integrative basis for research on children's sociometric status. Implications for mainstreaming…

Eight measures of cognitive and language function of 232 elementary school children were subjected to multiple methods of cluster analysis in an effort to identity subtypes of reading disability. Results, which yielded nine reliable subtypes, suggest that children with reading disability usually display impairments on phonological awareness…

Two studies involving 213 third graders and 141 eighth graders tested the triarchic structure of human intelligence as applied to the classroom by emphasizing traditional instruction, critical thinking, and triarchically based instruction (analytical, creative, and practical). Results support the superiority of triarchically-based instruction.…