The role of cognitive engagement in classroom learning and motivation

The article analyzes the concept of student cognitive engagement, and the manner in which classroom instruction may develop self‐regulated learners. Since theory and research on academic motivation, to date only vaguely define the role of learning processes, and since studies of learning strategies rarely assess motivational outcomes, our analysis integrates these two streams of literature. We also identify specific features of instruction and discuss how they might influence the complex of student interpretive processes focal to classroom learning and motivation. Measurement issues and research strategies peculiar to the investigation of cognitive engagement are addressed.     

Promoting strategy generalization through self-instructional training in students with reading disabilities

Twenty Grade 5 and 6 students with reading disabilities, 20 average readers in Grade 3, and 20 average readers in Grades 5 and 6 were taught to use a self-questioning strategy for the identification of main ideas. They were randomly assigned to either a standard instruction or a generalization induction condition. In the latter, informed training and self-instructional training techniques were employed to promote generalization of strategy use. Subjects were posttested under both a cued and an uncued condition in their homerooms. Results indicated that the self-instructional training succeeded in facilitating the identification of main ideas among students with reading disabilities and in helping them to maintain their improved performance when they were no longer prompted to use the strategy in a transfer setting.     

Game-based practice versus traditional practice in computer-based writing strategy training: effects on motivation and achievement

Achieving sustained student engagement with practice in computer-based writing strategy training can be a challenge. One potential solution is to foster engagement by embedding practice in educational games; yet there is currently little research comparing the effectiveness of game-based practice versus more traditional forms of practice. In this study, the ARCS model (Keller, Perform Instr 26(8):1–7, 1987b) was used to investigate the motivational characteristics of different practice conditions. To this end, 175 students were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions: game-based, question-based, model-based, and writing-based practice. All students first learned strategies to write an essay introduction. Subsequently, students practiced using the strategies in the four different conditions. Game-based practice was expected to positively affect ARCS-related motivation toward practice. Results showed that students perceived game-based practice as significantly more interesting and engaging than question-based practice. However, although game-based practice was perceived more positively, only model-based and question-based practice demonstrated a beneficial impact on students’ ability to implement the writing strategies. These results underline the necessity of interconnecting motivational and instructional design when developing practice methods for computer-based writing strategy training.     

论融入性与工具性动机在专业硕士英语教学中的指导效用

Gardner和Lambert将学习动机区分为工具性动机和融入性动机。在专业硕士英语的教学中,笔者结合专业硕士学生的学习特点,将学生的工具性动机和融入性动机有机结合起来,围绕学生的这两种动机进行课前、课中和课后的教学设计,最大程度地提高学生学习语言的兴趣。这样的课堂设计能加深专业硕士学生对于语言的理解,提高学生英语运用能力,为学生将来工作中进一步熟练运用语言打下良好的基础,促使学生真正实现从基于工具性动机的功利性学习到基于融入性动机的自主性学习的转变。     

高师专科美术教法课教学策略研究

新的课程改革对教育教学提出了新的要求,同时对教师也提出了新的挑战。要求教师在美术学习活动中要加强探索性,注重学习美术与生活的联系,积极的调动学生情感体验,提高创造力和审美意识,使学生热爱生活,体会自然之美,培养责任感和创造美的愿望,全面提高素质教育。课程改革对高等专科的美术教法课的教学理念、课程结构、教学方式、教学策略的等提出新的要求。为此,我们在教学理念的更新、课程结构的活化、教学策略的实施等方面进行改革实践。     

企业并购战略的出发点及策略

企业并购的内在动因是其对利润的追求,外在动因是为了提高自身的市场竞争力.企业并购要实施整合策略,产生1 1＞2的协同效应;实施创新策略,创造企业新的竞争优势;实施适度的外部催化,保障企业并购的健康运行.     

The role and the training of teacher-counsellors

The example of teachers not seeking counselling was used. Some reasons for this situation were given as well as one possible way to change it by providing early information and training during the students' regular studies. My hope is that if teachers have the necessary information, abilities and positive experiences, when they have problems, it should be easier for them to use counsellors than it is for other today.Teachers were used as an example of how one group could be encounraged to make use of counsellors. However, similar strategies could be used with other groups whose jobs involve high personal stress (for example social workers, medical doctors etc.). The example of teachers was also used to show how change can be introduced within a system. Here it might be useful to develop the ability to work with a counsellor during the regular education, so that it becomes part of their understanding of their professional role.     

The role of technology in gifted students' motivation

Although technology by itself may not be motivating, a relationship seems to exist between the opportunities that technology presents and motivation for gifted students. When technology use aligns with authentic or “real‐world” applications, motivation can be enhanced. This article explores the overlap between factors that have historically been shown to increase motivation and the unique affordances of technology tools to meet the needs of gifted and talented students. Some examples of this overlap include skills related to control and autonomy (e.g., time management, project management, and decision making about choices provided), challenge (e.g., perseverance and patience through hard work, proposing a project and following it through to completion), collaboration and cooperation (e.g., teamwork, people skills, social skills, anger management, and communication with students at other schools), curiosity (e.g., finding resources online, finding the work interesting, and learning new things), and recognition (e.g., the opportunity to communicate beyond the school walls, a “real” product). © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Explanation and generalization in young children's strategy learning

Children often learn new problem-solving strategies by observing examples of other people's problem-solving. When children learn a new strategy through observation and also explain the new strategy to themselves, they generalize the strategy more widely than children who learn a new strategy but do not explain. We tested three hypothesized mechanisms through which explanations might facilitate strategy generalization: more accurate recall of the new strategy's procedures; increased selection of the new strategy over competing strategies; or more effective management of the new strategy's goal structure. Findings supported the third mechanism: Explanations facilitated generalization through the creation of novel goal structures that enabled children to persist in use of the new strategy despite potential interference from competing strategies. The facilitative effect of explanation did vary with children's age and did not vary between explanations children created by themselves versus explanations they learned from the experimenter.     

Academic underachievement: Relationship with cognitive motivation,achievement motivation,and conscientiousness

In this study, the role of need for cognition, achievement motivation, and conscientiousness on academic underachievement was investigated. Forty‐seven male and 46 female students in Grades 7 to 10 participated in the study. Student attributes were assessed by self‐report measures, school performance by academic grades, and intellectual abilities by a standardized structure of intelligence test. A regression analytic model (prediction of grade point average by general intelligence) was used to operationally define underachievement. A categorical cutoff definition as well as a continuous definition was investigated. All relationships between underachievement scores and need for cognition, achievement motivation scales, and conscientiousness showed linearity. This warranted the use of a continuous definition of underachievement. Results revealed that need for cognition as well as facilitating anxiety contributed the most to the explanation of underachievement. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 43: 401–411, 2006.     

Improving cognitive motivation through strategies of intervention

Editor's Note: In Grutter v. Bollinger, __ U.S. ___ ; 123 S. Ct. 2325; 156 L. Ed. 2d 304 (2003), the Supreme Court rendered a landmark decision approving the use of race as one factor in admissions decisions at the University of Michigan Law School. The opinion of the Court discussed an expert opinion of Kent D. Syverud, Dean of the Vanderbilt Law School, concerning the educational benefits of diversity, noting that "when a critical mass of underrepresented minority students is present, racial stereotypes lose their force because non-minority students learn there is no 'minority viewpoint' but rather a variety of viewpoints among minority students." The expert report to which the Court referred was prepared at the Vanderbilt Law School in 1999 and attached as an Exhibit (in Volume 3 of the Appendix) to the Defendant University of Michigan Law School's Memorandum of Law in Support of Motion for Summary Judgment, May 3, 1999, Grutter v. Bollinger, C.A. No. 97-75928, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. The report was also referenced in the appendix to the Writ of Certiorari in the Supreme Court of the United States at 215a. What follows is the original expert report as submitted to the Court.     

高技能人才培养的策略思考

近几年，国家在落实人才强国和强企战略时。特别强调技能人才培养．及其在国家经济建设和发展中的地位与作用。这找精神见于2003年中发[2003]16号和2005年国发[2005]35号文件之中。今年4月，中共中央办公厅和国务院办公厅，为落实上述两大文件精神，进一步扎实有效的推进高技能人才工作健康发展，发布了《关于进一步加强高技能人才工作的意见的通知》（以下简称《意见》）。《意见》的出台，标志着高技能人才工作由战略决策向战术决策迈出了重大一步，这一步将把我国职业教育培训事业的改革与发展推向新的台阶，即突出能力培养的职业教育培训发展之路。《意见》的出台，在我国职业教育培训发展史上具有里程碑的意义。     

大学生动机调节策略研究

动机调节是自我调控学习的重要方面,大学生主要采用外在动机调节、内在动机调节、信息加工和意志等策略来调节自己的学习动机,并能根据不同的学习情境和动机采用不同的调节策略.与美国及台湾地区的大学生相比,大陆学生既缺乏应对动机问题的有效策略,也缺乏解决问题的动机和愿望,这一研究结果提醒高校教师在教学中应重视激发学生的学习动机,帮助他们运用自我调控学习策略进行学习.     

认识性工程训练的研究

完整的工程训练体系应该包括:认识性工程训练;专项性工程训练;综合性工程训练;开放性工程训练.认识性工程训练是通过演示、展示、简单操作等初步的学习来认识、了解设备、工艺过程及其他工程实践.该教学简单、时间短,学生大多不实际操作.如何搞好认识性工程训练也是需要认真研究的问题.     

公共教育学的革命:由教师教育学向学生教育学转变

公共教育学作为师范生的一门必修课，长期以来对师范生向师性的培养并未起到应有的作用，其原因在于该课是以教师能教些什么为出发点而组织的教学内容，即教师教育学；而不是以学生为本所建构的教学体系即学生教育学。     

The effect of cognitive training in anthropology on ethnocentric attitudes

The interactive effects of the cognitive and the affective domains are sometimes overlooked in attitudinal research. The possibility exists, however, that knowledge may be an essential element of attitude formation. The researcher hypothesized that some instances of ethnic prejudice (ethnocentrism) are the result of faulty or inadequate knowledge. This study, therefore, focused on the affective outcome of instruction in two cognitive concepts of cultural anthropology. Using a fixed effects 2 × 2 treatment by blocks multivariate analysis of variance with two measures of effect, highly significant results were obtained.     

The effects of reinforcement and strategy training on impulsive responding.

Impulsive second-grade children received strategy training or strategy training combined with primary or secondary reinforcement. All training groups showed significantly longer response latencies and significantly fewer errors on the Matching Familiar Figures test immediately following training. The reinforcement groups had significantly longer latencies than the training-only group, and there was some indication that primary reinforcement was more effective than secondary reinforcement in producing response delay. The 3 training groups did not differ significantly on error scores.