The classroom has become an important focus of educational research because most learning takes place there. The purpose of this study was to examine 8th grade students perception of science classroom environment from constructivist perspective and investigate the association between students perceptions, motivational beliefs and attitudes toward science. In addition in this study the affects of gender difference on students&amp / #8217 / constructivist learning environment, motivation and attitude toward science were investigated. The data in the present study were collected through Turkish version of Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES), Test of Science Related Attitudes (TOSRA) and Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) from 8th grade students who were in randomly selected from 15 elementary schools in &Ccedil / ankaya, Ankara. A total of 956 students (462 girls, 493 boys and one did not indicate gender) were participated in the study. The data obtained from participants were analyzed by using Canonical Correlation Analyses and Multivariate Analyses of Variance (MANOVA). Results of canonical correlation analyses indicated that all constructivist learning environment variables and all the motivational beliefs variables were positively related with each other. In addition the result of this analysis also showed that all constructivist learning environment variables and attitude variables were positively related with each other. The findings of MANOVA showed that gender had a significant effect on students&amp / #8217 / constructivist learning environment (personal relevance and critical voice), their adaptive motivational beliefs (intrinsic goal orientation, task value, and control of learning beliefs), and their attitude toward science (adaptation to science attitudes, enjoyment of science lesson, leisure interest in science, and career interest in science). Results indicated that girls&amp / #8217 / perceptions of their learning environment, their adaptive motivational beliefs and their attitude toward science were higher than boys.

The purposes of this study are to investigate how mathematics achievement can be explained in terms of motivational beliefs (intrinsic goal orientation, extrinsic goal orientation, task value, control and learning beliefs, self efficacy for learning and performance and test anxiety), self-regulated learning components (cognitive strategy use and self-regulation), gender and school types and to determine the differences between two gender (girls and boys) and two school types (public schools and private schools) with respect to the variables above in the subject domain of mathematics. The study was conducted in Istanbul and Ankara, two largest cities of Turkey, with 577 seventh-grade students (274 boys, 303 girls) from nine private and public schools. Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) and Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT) were used. By using Linear Stepwise Regression and MANOVA, respectively, the results indicated that (1) The combined effect of three predictor variables (school type, self-efficacy and intrinsic goal orientation) on students&rsquo / mathematics achievement was significant. Boys&rsquo / mathematics achievement at public schools was significantly affected by extrinsic goal orientation and cognitive strategy use whereas self-efficacy and intrinsic goal orientation were two predictors for boys at private schools. Girls&rsquo / mathematics achievement both at public and private schools was significantly affected by self-efficacy. (2) There was no statistically significant mean difference between girls and boys with respect to task value, self-efficacy and test anxiety. Also, there was no statistically significant mean difference between public schools and private schools with respect to extrinsic goal orientation, task value, self efficacy and self-regulation.

We, as a culture, tend to lump students into broad categories to describe their relationships with mathematics, such as ‘good at math’ or ‘hates math.’ This study focuses on five students each of whom could be considered ‘good at math,’ and shows how the beliefs that make up their mathematical identities are actually significantly different. The study examined eight beliefs that affect a student's motivation to do mathematics: confidence, anxiety, enjoyment of mathematics, skill level, usefulness of mathematics, what mathematics is, what it means to be good at mathematics, and how one learns mathematics. These five students' identities, which seemed to be very similar, were so intrinsically different that they could not be readily ranked or compared on a one-dimensional scale. Each student had a unique array of beliefs. For example, the students had strikingly different ideas about the definition of mathematics and how useful it is to the world and to the individual, they had varying amounts of confidence, different aspects that cause anxiety, particular facets that they enjoy and different ways of showing enjoyment. Their commonly held beliefs also varied in specificity, conspicuousness, and importance. Recognizing that there are such differences among seemingly similar students may help teachers understand students better, and it is the first step in knowing how teachers can improve student's relationships with mathematics.

This study investigated students' perceptions of autonomy support from an instructor in relation to students' motivational beliefs on an ePortfolio project. The motivational beliefs of interest included: Effort/Importance, felt Pressure/Tension, and Value/Usefulness. These relationships were further examined with particular focus on the potential moderating role of students' culturally based learning preferences as outlined in Parrish and Linder-VanBerschot's (2010) Cultural Dimensions of Learning Framework (CDLF). This study was quasi-experimental, survey-based research supported by self-reported data collected from a convenience sample of graduate and undergraduate students. Students enrolled in a variety of courses that assigned an ePortfolio assignment received an email invitation from their instructor and self-selected to participate. Based on the responses of 35 students, the findings from this research showed significant relationships between three culturally based learning preferences and the motivational belief of Value/Usefulness. A summary of findings, limitations, and implications for further research are discussed. / Ph. D. / This study investigated students’ perceptions of autonomy support from an instructor in relation to students’ motivational beliefs on an ePortfolio project. The motivational beliefs of interest included: Effort/Importance, felt Pressure/Tension, and Value/Usefulness. These relationships were further examined with particular focus on the potential moderating role of students’ culturally based learning preferences. This study was quasi-experimental, survey-based research supported by self-reported data collected from a convenience sample of graduate and undergraduate students. Students enrolled in a variety of courses that assigned an ePortfolio assignment received an email invitation from their instructor and self-selected to participate. Based on the responses of 35 students, the findings from this research showed significant relationships between three culturally based learning preferences and the motivational belief of Value/Usefulness. A summary of findings, limitations, and implications for further research are discussed.

This study aimed at investigating the contribution of motivational beliefs (intrinsic goal orientation, extrinsic goal orientation, task value, control of learning beliefs, self-efficacy and test anxiety), cognitive and metacognitive strategy use (rehearsal, elaboration, organization, critical thinking, metacognitive self-regulation, time and study environment, effort regulation, peer learning, help seeking) to Turkish high school students&rsquo / achievement in biology. In this study Turkish version of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire developed by Pintrich, Smith, Garcia, and McKeachie (1991) and a Biology Achievement Test developed by the researcher were used as measuring instruments. The study was conducted in 15 selected schools throughout the five districts in Yozgat (Sorgun, Yerk&ouml / y, Bogazliyan and Saraykent districts and city center) with a total of 519 tenth grade General and Anatolian high school students attending Mathematics and Science group in spring 2004&ndash / 2005 semester. The data obtained from the administration of the measuring instruments were analyzed by using Multiple Linear Regression Analyses and a Canonical Correlation Analysis. Results of the statistical analyses indicated that extrinsic goal orientation and task value each made a statistically significant contribution to the prediction of students&rsquo / achievement (p&amp / #61500 / 0.05), while intrinsic goal orientation, control of learning beliefs, self-efficacy for learning and performance, and test anxiety failed to achieve significance (p &gt / 0.05). Rehearsal strategy use, organization strategy use, management of time and study environment, and peer learning each made a statistically significant contribution to the prediction of students&rsquo / achievement in biology. The first pair of canonical variates indicated that higher levels of intrinsic goal orientation, task value, and self-efficacy for learning and performance were associated with higher levels of cognitive and metacognitive strategy use except rehearsal strategy use and help seeking.

Despite the substantial amount of education research on “teaching for understanding” and “learning for understanding” processes that has occurred in the fields of achievement goals, constructivist-based pedagogy, motivational beliefs and self-regulated learning there is little research that considers in unison the pillar constructs of these fields. Three studies comprised the present research which was designed to address the proposal that important social- and personal-based constructs associated with achievement goals, constructivist-based pedagogy, motivational beliefs, and self-regulated learning act in an interdisciplinary fashion to influence learning in the high school science classroom. All the large-scale quantitative studies presented a single-level structural equation model that was applicable to the general high school science student, controlling for the variance associated with age, gender, and student type (regular or selective high school student). Results from the two large-scale trait-level correlational studies of Study 1 (n = 655) and Study 2 (n = 617) using the Achievement Goals Questionnaire (Elliot & Church, 1997), Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (Taylor, Fraser, & Fisher, 1997) and the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Pintrich, Smith, Garcia, & McKeachie, 1991) as the main quantitative instruments found support for the hypothesis that a perceived emphasis on the constructivist-based pedagogical dimensions of personal relevance and student negotiation in science classrooms promotes the adoption of mastery-approach and intrinsic value. These analyses also showed the importance of self-efficacy in promoting mastery-approach, performance-approach and the use of regulatory strategies, and that test anxiety had positive associations with mastery-avoidance and performance-avoidance goals. / Study 3 comprised of two mini-studies that investigated the associations of competence perceptions, achievement goals and self-regulated learning in two science classroom learning contexts: teacher-led discussion (n = 451) and group work (n = 476). Using specifically developed context-level questionnaires, the results of these studies affirmed current theories concerning the interactions of self-efficacy, achievement goals, self-regulated learning (regulatory strategy use) and maladaptive strategy use. Students interviewed in Study 3 mostly reported the adoption of their achievement goals depended upon personal reasons that were commensurate with current achievement goal theory (Elliot, 1999) rather than specific classroom practices. The present research was also significant in that it tested the empirical stature of two frameworks by which social/cognitive research affiliated with learning environments, achievement goals and self-regulated learning may be conducted. Firstly, the results of the construct validity measures generated across Studies 1, 2 and 3 found support for the existence of the hypothesised 2 X 2 achievement goals framework (Elliot, 1999; Elliot & McGregor, 2001; Pintrich, 2000a). Secondly, the research introduced the tenets of a “context” hypothesis and found support for this perspective throughout the context-level studies. Adjunct multilevel multiple regressions were used in all the quantitative studies to examine the impact of subpopulation variables (age, gender, regular or selective high school student) and multiple goal interactions upon response variables, and to assess the variance attributed to the response variables at the class-level. Implications for the research disciplines studied are presented in terms of teaching practice, theory, future research and research methods.