This study examined the efficacy of a learner-centred environment in enhancing the academic achievements and motivation of high school students who are at risk of dropping out of school. Three groups of students at high academic risk were compared. The control group consisted of students who are exposed to a remedial academic program in a traditional school context, and the experimental groups consisted of students enrolled at schools that have implemented a structured academic program in a learner-centred environment. It is shown that a learner-centred environment yields significantly higher achievement scores and a somewhat higher internal motivational orientation. These results suggest that a structured academic program in a learner-centred environment could provide hope for students at academic risk and other students who are likely to be lost to the academic educational system.

Effects of a Learner-Centred Environment on the Academic Competence and Motivation of Students at Risk

http://psycnet.apa.org/books/10258/014.pdf

Integrating metacognition, affect, and motivation in improving teacher education.

Balancing freedom and limitations: A case study of choice provision in a personalized learning class

(2007). Defining the Effectiveness of Middle Grades Teachers. Middle School Journal: Vol. 38, Exploring Controversial Issues with Young Adolescents, pp. 54-62.

Defining the Effectiveness of Middle Grades Teachers

A sub-group of at-risk learners, familiar to high school counsellors, consists of students who have demonstrated academic capability yet begin to fail in their senior years. Although they do not fit within a high-risk profile, such students are at risk of not completing their secondary school education and may acquire inadequate preparation for post-secondary education or rewarding careers. Our goal was to describe the achievement perspectives of three such students from a small rural community, using qualitative interviews. We found that academic, social, family, and peer factors influenced their decision making. We suggest ways to modify school practices to provide better support for such students.

Academically Capable Students who are Failing in High School: Perceptions about Achievement

In a recent attempt to teach my eight-year-old son some responsibility, I asked him to sweep up the cookie crumbs left on the floor after his snack. On his own, he took the broom out of the closet and began to work. I noticed he was hold ing the broom incorrectly, so I proceeded to show him exactly how to do it. "Mom!" he protested, "there are a lot of ways to clean things up. I'm doing it the way they do it in the haircut place. Trust me." At eight years old, he is eager to take on responsibility but not too eager to take orders. He wants to do it his way. And sure enough, his method achieved the goal. The essence of student-focused curriculum and instruction is that middle school students will also be eager to take on responsibili ty if they are given a voice in what they learn and a choice in how they learn it.

Student-Focused Instruction: Balancing Limits with Freedom in the Middle Grades

of young adolescents.... Dramatically improved outcomes for young adolescents require individualized, responsive, and creative approaches to teaching that will occur only when teachers are able to use their intimate knowledge of students to design instructional programs." These statements from Turning Points (Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, 1989, p. 8, 54), echo long-time concerns of middle level educators. In fact, the structures and practices of today's middle schools are an attempt to provide an environment more responsive to the needs of young adolescents. Yet even with these adaptations some students still have difficulties. Many of these difficulties arise as a result of a mismatch between the typical middle school environment and the learning style, social, and emotional characteristics of what Yard and Purcelli (1989) have characterized as "the dissimilar learner." The dissimilar learner has difficulty academically, socially, and emotionally "fitting into" and being successful in the typical middle school environment. Lipsitz (1984) indicates that successful schools for middle school students

Accommodating Individual Differences through Instructional Adaptations.

The Dissimilar Learner. A Behavioral Model That Respects Student Diversity.

Handle everyday research tasks with reliable, citation-backed results

Your personal Research Agent to handle research tasks with citation-backed results

Popular Tasks used by Researchers

How can I help with your research?

Meet SciSpace

Get more enhanced response by uploading the PDFs you want me to reference.

No relevant PDFs in your library

SciSpace is the AI research assistant for academics. Run systematic literature reviews on 280M+ papers, and write papers with cited sources. Trusted by 1M+ students, PhDs & researchers.

SciSpace | AI for Research

Analyze PDFs

Code & Manuscripts

Funding & Grants

Literature & Patents

Medical & Clinical Data

Systematic Review

Visualize & Present

Web & Data

Build a Google Scholar-like website for your research.

Build a website

Create charts and images for your research

Create a Chart

Write a paper for submission to a journal

Draft a manuscript

Patent Search

Design eye-catching scientific posters in minutes.

Scientific Poster Generation

Systematic Literature Review

One task is running at the moment. Your messages will be shown right after.

Drag and drop or click here to browse

Loved by <highlight>1 million+</highlight> researchers

Extract a list of specific topics and their sources from unstructured text

Topics

Compare and analyze relevant papers that matches with your search

Papers

Get insights from PDFs and bookmarked papers from your library

My library

Recent searches

Try searching for:

Catch AI-generated content in scholarly and non-scholarly content

{ai} Detector

Ai Writer

Get PDF Summaries, highlighted text explanations 

Chat with PDF

Effortlessly create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA and 2,500 other formats

Citation generator

Get explanations, summaries, and answers on academic papers

Ease up your research workflow with {scispace}'s cohort of exciting AI tools

Elevate your academic writing skills and convey your ideas the way you want

Paraphraser

Explore our range of reading and writing tools

Your file is being prepared and should be ready in a few minutes. If it's a large file, it might take a bit longer. You can close this window, and we'll email you the file when it's done.

You have reached a maximum limit of <strong>{limit}</strong> columns in the table. Remove at least <strong>1</strong> column to add or create another one.

Cathy Vatterott

Author Tools

Chat about Author

Papers

Student-Focused Instruction: Balancing Limits with Freedom in the Middle Grades

Accommodating Individual Differences through Instructional Adaptations.

The Dissimilar Learner. A Behavioral Model That Respects Student Diversity.