A Review of Conceptions of Ability and Related Motivational Constructs in Achievement Motivation

Over the past 20 years, many theories on achievement motivation have been established to understand the complex interaction of motivational variables and identify the conditions that can enhance individuals' motivation. This review explores the role of conceptions of ability, its relations to other major motivational frameworks and factors affecting individuals' conceptions of ability, with the goal of identifying the major contributions to the research knowledge base. Research findings show that beliefs about the nature of ability are critical elements to all other major theories. Conceptions of ability and all other major theories directly affect motivational patterns and outcomes. Finally, based on the literature reviewed, a conceptual theoretical model is proposed.     

Predictors of Children's Kindergarten Classroom Engagement: Preschool Adult–Child Relationships,Self-Concept,and Hyperactivity/Inattention

The aim of this prospective study was to identify preschool factors that are associated with children's classroom engagement during their 1st school year. The study was guided by a social-motivational process model that highlights the importance of parent–child and teacher–child relationships in promoting engagement. In preschool, parents and teachers completed questionnaires assessing children's (n = 562) parent–child and teacher–child relationships, global self-concept, and mental health problems. Teachers rated children's engagement levels 1 year later in kindergarten. Research Findings: Results from structural equation modeling suggested that experiencing good-quality relationships with parents and teachers and positive self-concept during preschool were only indirectly associated with children's kindergarten classroom engagement through their negative associations with hyperactivity/inattention; only hyperactivity/inattention had a significant direct (small-moderate and negative) association with children's engagement. Practice or Policy: Interventions that improve adult–child relationships may reduce childhood hyperactivity/inattention during preschool and potentially improve children's engagement, helping them start school ready and eager to learn.     

Actividad y lenguaje. El diseño cultural como marco para un programa de enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera

La enseñanza de una lengua extranjera en el medio escolar se conceptualiza en este artículo desde una perspectiva histórico-cultural, planteando la necesidad de recurrir al diseño cultural de entornos y actividades en la LE a partir de las peculiaridades del entorno social de los niños y del centro escolar. El diseño cultural del proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje propone vertebrar la programación en torno a ejes de subsistemas de actividades rectoras procedentes de la cultura que permitan al niño acceder a la lengua extranjera como un sistema global de sentidos y significados.     

Awakening Teachers’ Capacities for Social Justice With/In Arts-Based Inquiries

Social justice-oriented teacher education can guide preservice teachers toward greater critical sociocultural knowledge, analytic skills, social responsibility, and commitment to act in the interest of providing all students with high quality educational experiences. This qualitative case study examines how arts-based inquiries in social justice-oriented teacher education can provide the necessary generative spaces for developing preservice teachers’ critical sociocultural knowledge. Data were drawn from student interviews and reflective papers across four sections of a course employing collaborative, arts-based inquiry. Findings highlight the cumulative knowledge, pleasure, anxiety, confrontation with material and symbolic bodies, and self-transformations that can develop from art practices and help to awaken preservice teachers’ critical consciousness for teaching for social justice.     

Guiding explanation construction by children at the entry points of learning progressions

Policy documents in science education suggest that even at the earliest years of formal schooling, students are capable of constructing scientific explanations about focal content. Nonetheless, few research studies provide insights into how to effectively provide scaffolds appropriate for late elementary‐age students' fruitful creation of scientific explanations. This article describes two research studies to address the question, what makes explanation construction difficult for elementary students? The studies were conducted in urban fourth, fifth, and sixth grade classrooms where students were learning science through curricular units that contained 8 weeks of scaffold‐rich activities focused on explanation construction. The first study focused on the kind and amount of information scaffold‐rich assessments provided about young students' abilities to construct explanations under a range of scaffold conditions. Results demonstrated that fifth and sixth grade tests provided strong information about a range of students' abilities to construct explanations under a range of supported conditions. On balance, the fourth grade test did not provide as much information, nor was this test curricular‐sensitive. The second study provided information on pre–post test achievement relative to the amount of curricular intervention utilized over the 8‐week time period with each cohort. Results demonstrated that when taking the amount of the intervention into account, there were strong learning gains in all three grade‐level cohorts. In conjunction with the pre–post study, a type‐of‐error analysis was conducted to better understand the nature of errors among younger students. This analysis revealed that our youngest students generated the most incomplete responses and struggled in particular ways with generating valid evidence. Conclusions emphasize the synergistic value of research studies on scaffold‐rich assessments, curricular scaffolds, and teacher guidance toward a more complete understanding of how to support young students' explanation construction. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 141–165, 2012