Promoting Motivation And Learning In Contexts

The body of literature has pointed to the benefits of educational interventions in facilitating improvement in school motivation and, by implication, learning and achievement. However, it is now recognized that most extant motivation and learning enhancing intervention programs are grounded in Western motivational and learning perspectives, such as attribution, expectancy-value, implicit theories of intelligence, self-determination, and self-regulated learning theories. Further, empirical evidence for the positive impacts of these interventions seems to have primarily emerged from North American settings. The cross-cultural transferability and translatability of such educational interventions, however, are often assumed rather than critically assessed and adapted before their implementation in other cultures. In this volume, the editors invited scholars to re-assess their intervention work from a sociocultural lens. Regardless of the different theoretical perspectives and strategies they adopt in their interventions, these scholars are in unison on the importance of taking into account sociodemographic backgrounds of the students and sociocultural contexts of the interventions to optimize the benefits of such interventions. Indeed, placing culture at the heart of designing, implementing, and evaluating educational interventions could be a key not only to strengthen the effectiveness and efficacy of educational interventions, but also to ensure that students of a wider and more diverse range of educational and cultural backgrounds reap the benefits from such interventions. This volume constitutes the foundation towards a deeper and more systematic understanding of culturally relevant and responsive educational interventions.

The body of literature has pointed to the benefits of educational interventions in facilitating improvement in school motivation and, by implication, learning and achievement. However, it is now recognized that most extant motivation and learning enhancing intervention programs are grounded in Western motivational and learning perspectives, such as attribution, expectancy-value, implicit theories of intelligence, self-determination, and self-regulated learning theories. Further, empirical evidence for the positive impacts of these interventions seems to have primarily emerged from North American settings. The cross-cultural transferability and translatability of such educational interventions, however, are often assumed rather than critically assessed and adapted before their implementation in other cultures. In this volume, the editors invited scholars to re-assess their intervention work from a sociocultural lens. Regardless of the different theoretical perspectives and strategies they adopt in their interventions, these scholars are in unison on the importance of taking into account sociodemographic backgrounds of the students and sociocultural contexts of the interventions to optimize the benefits of such interventions. Indeed, placing culture at the heart of designing, implementing, and evaluating educational interventions could be a key not only to strengthen the effectiveness and efficacy of educational interventions, but also to ensure that students of a wider and more diverse range of educational and cultural backgrounds reap the benefits from such interventions. This volume constitutes the foundation towards a deeper and more systematic understanding of culturally relevant and responsive educational interventions.

There are many reasons to be curious about the way people learn, and the past several decades have seen an explosion of research that has important implications for individual learning, schooling, workforce training, and policy. In 2000, How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School: Expanded Edition was published and its influence has been wide and deep. The report summarized insights on the nature of learning in school-aged children; described principles for the design of effective learning environments; and provided examples of how that could be implemented in the classroom. Since then, researchers have continued to investigate the nature of learning and have generated new findings related to the neurological processes involved in learning, individual and cultural variability related to learning, and educational technologies. In addition to expanding scientific understanding of the mechanisms of learning and how the brain adapts throughout the lifespan, there have been important discoveries about influences on learning, particularly sociocultural factors and the structure of learning environments. How People Learn II: Learners, Contexts, and Cultures provides a much-needed update incorporating insights gained from this research over the past decade. The book expands on the foundation laid out in the 2000 report and takes an in-depth look at the constellation of influences that affect individual learning. How People Learn II will become an indispensable resource to understand learning throughout the lifespan for educators of students and adults.

The aim of this book series is to provide a much needed outlet for the wealth of cross-cultural research that has not impacted upon mainstream education. This particular volume is divided into four parts: the motivation context; the learning context; the family context; and the curriculum context.

This handbook offers an authoritative, one-stop reference work for the dynamic and expanding field of language learning motivation. The 32 chapters have been specially commissioned from the field’s most influential researchers and writers. Together they present a compelling picture of the motivations people have for learning languages, the diverse ways we can research motivation, and the implications for promoting and sustaining learners’ motivation. The first section outlines the main theoretical approaches to language learning motivation; the next section presents ways in which motivation theory has been applied in practice; the third section showcases examples of motivation research in particular contexts and with particular types of language learners; and the final section describes the exciting directions that contemporary research is taking, promising important new insights for academics and practitioners alike.

This volume provides a platform for discussing theoretical and methodological developments in the field of motivation research related to learning and instruction. It highlights how motivation research is reaching out beyond its own traditional domain of study.

Motivation and Emotion in Learning and Teaching across Educational Contexts brings together current theoretical and methodological perspectives as well as examples of empirical implementations from leading international researchers focusing on the context specificity and situatedness of their core theories in motivation and emotion. The book is compiled of two main sections. Section I covers theoretical reflections and perspectives on the main theories on emotion and motivation in learning and teaching and their transferability across different educational contexts illustrated with empirical examples. Section II addresses the methodological reflections and perspectives on the methodology that is needed to address the complexity and context specificity of motivation and emotion. In addition to general reflections and perspectives regarding methodology, concrete empirical examples are provided. All cutting-edge chapters include current empirical studies on emotions and motivation in learning and teaching across different contexts (age groups, domains, countries, etc.) making them applicable and relevant to a wide range of contexts and settings. This high-quality volume with contributions from leading international experts will be an essential resource for researchers, students and teacher trainers interested in the vital role that motivation and emotions can play in education.

Our highly interconnected global education environment provides unprecedented opportunities for teaching professionals and educational researchers to share best practice in teaching and learning across international borders and sociocultural frontiers. This volume presents a diverse range of innovative educational best practices from around the world – particularly those practices that directly strengthen and enhance student motivation and achievement in a broad range of sociocultural contexts. These practices include: enhancing teaching and learning environments, particularly in relation to provision of high quality infrastructure for 21st Century (digital) learning; designing and managing after-school homework support; recruiting, developing and retaining high-quality teaching staff; promoting international and multicultural awareness through deliberate exposure to varied cultural experiences and perspectives; optimizing the benefit of project work for student academic and social outcomes; designing educational interventions based on self-concept research; and developing an international service learning course for tertiary students. The editors of the present volume have gathered over thirty renowned educators and researchers from Asia, Australia, Europe, and the United States, to share their experiences in developing best practices in teaching and learning in socioculturally and educationally diverse contexts. These practices, guided and underpinned by cutting edge educational/psychological theories and research, are believed to be adaptable to many diverse educational and sociocultural contexts. The editors invite researchers, professionals, educators, teachers, lecturers, policy-makers, and curriculum developers to think, reflect, and take action on how to utilize the underlying principles of the best practices in the present Volume to their own settings.