Adolescents’ motivation for reading: group differences and relation to standardized achievement

The purpose of this study was to extend the research on adolescents’ motivation for reading by examining important group differences and the relation of motivation to standardized achievement. Adolescents (N = 406) ranging from grade 7 to grade 12 completed a self-report survey that assessed 13 different aspects of their reading motivation including multiple forms of expectancy beliefs, value, achievement goals, and social goals. Group comparisons indicated important differences between readers who had struggled and those who were more adequate readers, but relatively few differences based on gender or grade in school. Regression analysis showed that the motivational beliefs as a group, and perceived control individually, were able to predict students’ performance on a standardized measure of reading comprehension.     

Waldorf education in an inner-city public school

In 1991, the first public Waldorf school was opened in the inner city of Milwaukee. Based on a week of observations by the authors, this article reports the significant achievements of the school. In classrooms, we observed mostly whole-class lessons well structured around the natural rhythms of body movement, language, and social interaction; most of the children were constantly engaged with the curriculum. Misbehavior was handled directly and lovingly. The children performed remarkably well on standardized tests. Faculty discussions on the nature of Waldorf education and its use in a racially charged and poor neighborhood were both heated and productive.     

We Feel, Therefore We Learn: The Relevance of Affective and Social Neuroscience to Education

ABSTRACT— Recent advances in neuroscience are highlighting connections between emotion, social functioning, and decision making that have the potential to revolutionize our understanding of the role of affect in education. In particular, the neurobiological evidence suggests that the aspects of cognition that we recruit most heavily in schools, namely learning, attention, memory, decision making, and social functioning, are both profoundly affected by and subsumed within the processes of emotion; we call these aspects emotional thought . Moreover, the evidence from brain-damaged patients suggests the hypothesis that emotion-related processes are required for skills and knowledge to be transferred from the structured school environment to real-world decision making because they provide an emotional rudder to guide judgment and action. Taken together, the evidence we present sketches an account of the neurobiological underpinnings of morality, creativity, and culture, all topics of critical importance to education. Our hope is that a better understanding of the neurobiological relationships between these constructs will provide a new basis for innovation in the design of learning environments.     

Beyond mere knowledge of mathematics: The importance of knowing-to act in the moment

Knowing-to is active knowledge which is present in the moment when it is required. To try to produce knowing-to, formal education focuses on forms of knowing which are easier to teach and to test: knowing-that (factual), knowing-how (technique and skills), and knowing-why (having a story in order to structure actions and from which to reconstruct actions). Together these constitute knowing-about the subject. Expertise is demonstrated by being able to respond to assessments: to write essays and to solve routine problems. The central problem of education is that knowing-about does not in itself guarantee knowing-to, as teachers have attested throughout the ages. For example, Edward Fitzgerald (Harrison, 1937) captures it beautifully in one stanza of his purported translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam:Myself when young did eagerly frequent,Doctor and Saint and heard great argument,About it and about: but ever more Came out by the same door as in I went (p. 341).Instead of trying to reach definitions, we illustrate distinctions amongst kinds of knowing as used by various authors in the past. Then we turn to our own experience, for it is in one's own experience that one can locate and enliven sources of metaphoric resonances and metonymic triggers which constitute understanding. Drawing on our experience we distinguish knowing-to from other forms of knowing, and explore implications of that distinction for teaching and learning mathematics. We propose that knowing-to act in the moment depends on the structure of attention in the moment, depends on what one is aware of. Educating this awareness is most effectively done by labelling experiences in which powers have been exhibited, and developing a rich network of connections and triggers so that actions come to mind. No-one can act if they are unaware of a possibility to act; no-one can act unless they have an act to perform.This revised version was published online in September 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Double-Loop Diversity: Applying Adult Learning Theory to the Cultivation of Diverse Educational Climates in Higher Education

Most U.S. higher education institutions have implemented initiatives to increase campus diversity. The intended outcome is to reduce educational inequities among underrepresented populations. Such initiatives have come under fire, however, for serving as a superficial solution to educational inequities. Here I propose the application of an action-knowledge conceptual framework to explore why money and policy change are not enough to create campus environments where multi-culturalism enhances student learning. Argyris' (1985) notion of double-loop learning recognizes the necessity for actionable knowledge to be instilled in practitioners in order for diversity initiatives to truly achieve desired outcomes and have lasting effects.     

Electronic Roads in Historical Documents: A Student Oriented Approach

The new educational approaches, as far as teaching of history in secondary education is concerned, are characterized by a shift away from sterile memorization and towards a critical approach of historical facts and phenomena; the aim is to contribute to both the development of students' historical concept and conscience and the promotion of critical thought. These teaching goals are pursued by promoting initiative of the students through self study assignments in the form of projects; students can be greatly supported in such tasks by computer-based applications, which can offer access to vast amounts of historical texts and data to be used next to the main scholar textbook and be analyzed by students. Still, existing applications seem to be quite inadequate for this purpose, as they require that the student be already informed on a matter, before the initiation of a quest for data. In this paper, we describe an intelligent information system that is designed to facilitate browsing of educational material and historical sources, thus allowing students to efficiently retrieve information on topics that are not yet known to them and expand in this way their historical knowledge. This can help in fulfilling the aforementioned teaching goals. Our system relies on the notion of the Electronic Road.