Lyn Corno

The role of cognitive engagement in classroom learning and motivation

The article analyzes the concept of student cognitive engagement, and the manner in which classroom instruction may develop self‐regulated learners. Since theory and research on academic motivation, to date only vaguely define the role of learning processes, and since studies of learning strategies rarely assess motivational outcomes, our analysis integrates these two streams of literature. We also identify specific features of instruction and discuss how they might influence the complex of student interpretive processes focal to classroom learning and motivation. Measurement issues and research strategies peculiar to the investigation of cognitive engagement are addressed.

The Best-Laid Plans Modern Conceptions of Volition and Educational Research

Part of what it takes to succeed in academic settings is paying attention to and working toward appropriate goals. Working toward goals involves protecting the intention to accomplish goals from competing intentions and other distractions. Voluntary movement to protective action when situations demand it is central to a modern- day view of volition. This paper (a) discusses contemporary theory and research related to volition in education and (b) proposes agenda items for continued research.

Teacher innovations in self-regulated learning.

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews selected theory and research on teaching interventions in self-regulated learning. Several programs of domain-specific strategy instruction research demonstrate important gains in student learning of curricular content. Such programs also provide direction for promising new ways to teach more generic aspects of self-regulated learning. Encouraging students to take responsibility for their own learning is a loud refrain in current thinking on schooling. To help all students become “self-regulated,” theory suggests the need for a better understanding of the strategies that successful students use to maintain effort and protect commitments in school. Research conducted on self-regulated learning over recent decades has made major contributions toward this goal. The importance of self-regulatory potential, as both preparation for and achievement in school, is accentuated by the continuous and increasing intellectual and behavioral demands, constraints, and affordances that schools provide learners with. Learning and self-management strategies appear particularly important for students to use in certain situations: When academic tasks require sustained attention, when instruction is incomplete or relatively unstructured, or when students are confronted by competing goals.

Looking at Homework Differently

At first glance, an article on homework may seem an odd addition to an ongoing discussion of non-subject-matter outcomes of schooling (see the May 1999 issue of the Elementary School Journal). What could be more associated traditionally with reading, writing, and arithmetic than homework? In this article I propose that times are changing. Homework involves important social, cultural, and educative issues. A new conceptualization of homework is not just an academic task but one that infiltrates family and peer dynamics and the nature of teaching in community organizations as well as in school. One unique role for homework in a modern era is to provide social communication and contact among peers, especially peers who live beyond the neighborhood school, thereby increasing a sense of community. Moreover, self-regulatory processes are an important factor in doing homework that teachers and parents alike can monitor and address directly. Students develop an aptitude for future homework from the regularities of homework ongoing.

Homework Is a Complicated Thing

Kelly, D. (1990, January 2). Theres no license to drop out. USA Today. Kohn, A. (1986). No contest: The case against competition. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin. Maehr, M. L., & Stallings, W. M. (1972). Freedom from external evaluation. Child Development, 43, 177-185. National Education Summit. (1996, March). (Available at http:// www.summit96.ibm.com) Russell, W. J. (1988). Editorial: Presidential campaigns and education policy. Educational Researcher, 17(2), 4, 12. Suarez-Orozco, M. M. (1989). Central American refugees and U.S. high schools: A psychological study of motivation and achievement. Stanford, CT: Stanford University Press. Thompson, T. (1994). Self-worth protection: Review and implications for the classroom. Educational Review, 46, 259-274. Webb, F. R., Covington, M. V., & Guthrie, S. W. (1993). Carrots and sticks: Can school policy influence student motivation? In T. M. Tomlinson (Ed.), Motivating students to learn: Overcoming barriers to high achievement (pp. 99-124). Berkeley, CA: McCutchan. Woodson, C. E. (1975). Motivational effects of two-stage testing. Unpublished manuscript, Institute of Human Learning, University of California at Berkeley.

On Teaching Adaptively

New theory on adaptive teaching reflects the social dynamics of classrooms to explain what practicing teachers do to address student differences related to learning. In teaching adaptively, teachers respond to learners as they work. Teachers read student signals to diagnose needs on the fly and tap previous experience with similar learners to respond productively. Adaptive teachers use their experience to form flexible groups for learning. Teaching adaptively is intellectual as well as technical, requiring quick response to learner variation. Adaptive teachers create a symbolic area at the center of the teaching ground, a space for easiest teaching. Adaptive teachers aim to keep the most number of students within that center to capitalize on skills across the class, challenge students to share experiences, and develop aptitude. Future work should capture the adaptive strategies of practitioners that illustrate the general principles described to create constituent elements of microadaptive teaching practice.

Encouraging Students to Take Responsibility for Learning and Performance.

Researchers interested in classroom learning and performance have begun to study a variety of motivational and volitional characteristics of students and how these interact with changes in teacher-student roles and attitudes, classroom exchange, and forms of instruction to influence academic outcomes and accomplishments. In this article, I discuss some of these important motivational-volitional characteristics and processes. Theory, research, and practice are combined to consider how elementary school teachers might encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning and performance in school.

Teachers as Innovators

The study of innovation has a history extending back to Plato: I notice endless innovation, constant change, inspired not by the laws but by a sort of unregulated taste which is so far from being fixed and permanent, that it never shows any constancy. (Laws: 2.660b).

Cognitive Engagement Variations among Students of Different Ability Level and Sex in a Computer Problem Solving Game.

The study investigated the cognitive engagement processes used by more and less successful learners in a computer problem solving game. These engagement variations were also related to sex and ability differences among students. Performance and engagement were monitored interactively as students learned a computer problem solving game; student comments and notes were also recorded. Results showed the records of more and less successful students to be distinguished by the spontaneous use of self-regulated learning processes — a sophisticated form of cognitive engagement. More successful students also appeared to shift cognitive engagement levels in response to computer game feedback. Success on the computer task and cognitive engagement variations were correlated with student differences in both ability and sex in this sample.

Theory into Practice: A Matter of Transfer.

This article explores a new approach to taking theory into practice—one that offers a direct route from research to practice. Traditionally, theory makes its way to practice cloaked in particular curriculum interventions. We argue that taking theory into practice is essentially a matter of transfer—applying teaching and learning principles in new situations. New ideas about transfer have implications for both research and practice. One way to promote the transfer of research into practice is to validate theory in practice by analyzing how the theory maps onto curriculum content to support and organize instruction. Another way of promoting transfer is to rethink the ways that theory can be more directly and relevantly applied to practice. Rather than apply theory to practice, teachers might be encouraged to adapt practice to theory, identifying teaching situations in which research principles might be relevant, and to change their practice accordingly to resolve the immediate problems of practice.