Phyllis C. Blumenfeld

School Engagement: Potential of the Concept, State of the Evidence

The concept of school engagement has attracted increasing attention as representing a possible antidote to declining academic motivation and achievement. Engagement is presumed to be malleable, responsive to contextual features, and amenable to environmental change. Researchers describe behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement and recommend studying engagement as a multifaceted construct. This article reviews definitions, measures, precursors, and outcomes of engagement; discusses limitations in the existing research; and suggests improvements. The authors conclude that, although much has been learned, the potential contribution of the concept of school engagement to research on student experience has yet to be realized. They call for richer characterizations of how students behave, feel, and think—research that could aid in the development of finely tuned interventions

Motivating project-based learning: Sustaining the doing, supporting the learning

Project-based learning is a comprehensive approach to classroom teaching and learning that is designed to engage students in investigation of authentic problems. In this article, we present an argument for why projects have the potential to help people learn; indicate factors in project design that affect motivation and thought; examine difficulties that students and teachers may encounter with projects; and describe how technology can support students and teachers as they work on projects, so that motivation and thought are sustained.

Change in Children's Competence Beliefs and Subjective Task Values Across the Elementary School Years: A 3-Year Study

The authors assessed change over 3 years in elementary school childrens competence beliefs and subjective task value in the domains of math, reading, instrumental music, and sports. The longitudinal sample consisted of approximately 615 mostly White, lower middle to middle-class children. Stability correlations indicated moderate to strong stability in childrens beliefs, especially older childrens competence beliefs. The relation of childrens ratings of their competence in each domain to estimates of their competence in those domains provided by both parents and teachers increased over the early elementary grades. Childrens competence beliefs and ratings of the usefulness and importance of each activity decreased over time. Childrens interest in reading and instrumental music decreased, but their interest in sports and math did not. Gender differences in childrens competence beliefs and subjective task values did not change over time.

Classroom Learning and Motivation: Clarifying and Expanding Goal Theory

This article suggests directions for future research on goal theory. It points out areas in which attention to definition of constructs and to problems in classroom implementation would strengthen the field. In addition, suggestions for use of different sampling techniques and designs and introducti

Handheld Devices are Ready-At-Hand

Given the significant costs involved in putting technology into schools and given the potential to harm young children, one prominent report calls for “An immediate moratorium on the further introduction of computers in ... elementary education” [3]. Rather than getting defensive, gesticulating wildly, and dragging out that favorite story about how one child we personally know accomplished an amazing thing with a computer, it’s time to come out of the closet: children simply aren’t using computers in K–12 schools and that’s why there isn’t substantial data on the impact of computers in K–12 education. Let’s look at some basic statistics about availability and use of computers in K–12:

Creating a Framework for Research on Systemic Technology Innovations

This article examines why cognitively oriented technology innovations, designed to foster deep thinking and learning, have not become widespread in K−12 schools. We argue a key reason is that most design-based research does not explicitly address systemic issues of usability, scalability and sustainability. This limitation must be overcome if research is to create usable knowledge that addresses the challenges confronting technology innovations when implemented in real-world school contexts. This is especially important in an era when political forces push schools away from the cognitively rich, inquiry-oriented approaches espoused by the Learning Sciences. We suggest expanding our conception of design-based research to include research on innovations in the context of systemic reform as a potential solution to the problem. To that end, we introduce research questions and issues arising from our own experiences with a technology-rich innovation in the context of a systemic reform initiative as a starting point in the creation of an expanded design-based research agenda. These questions and issues have important implications for both the continued viability of research on technologies for learning and on the future of technology use in schools that stems from such research.

New technologies for teacher professional development

Abstract This article describes the potential of new technologies for teacher professional development. The article examines literature on teacher knowledge and professional development and discusses how this literature can inform the design of three types of technology to support teacher learning: multimedia, productivity tools, and telecommunication information systems. We consider how these technologies can contribute to innovation, identify questions to address, and speculate on possibilities for technology that are likely to arise in the near future.

The Formation and Role of Self Perceptions of Ability in Elementary Classrooms

The Elementary School Journal Volume 82, Number 5 o 1982 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 00 13-5984/82/82 05-0003

Teaching for Understanding

0 1.00 In an effort to understand better the factors influencing childrens performance in school, the relation of ability perceptions to academic achievement has been a topic of concern for many investigators (e.g., Bar-Tal 1978; Covington and Omelich 1979a, 1979b; Weiner 1979; Parsons, in press). Their formulations have been guided by attribution theory (i.e., Weiner et al. 1971), which proposes that an individuals interpretation of the causes of success and failure influences future achievement-oriented behavior. One of the most consistent findings in this tradition is that, if individuals believe that their successful completion of tasks is due to their own abilities, then they will be likely to attempt similar endeavors in the future because they expect to do well and feel good about their accomplishments. They will be less likely to do so if they believe achievement is due to other factors, like luck or ease of assignment. Consequently, this theory postulates that ability perceptions mediate achievement behavior. While there is a great deal of theory and research to support this view (see Weiner [1980] for a review), much of it results from studies using adult subjects in a laboratory setting. Several features of the work may limit the applicability of findings based on this approach to the classroom. First, there are developmental differences in childrens cognitive capabilities that influence the formation and operation of ability perceptions. Second, in the natural context of the classroom the ecological validity of experimental results is questionable because the genesis and effect of perceptions may be quite different outside the

What Am I Best At? Grade and Gender Differences in Children's Beliefs about Ability Improvement

This chapter examines current views of teaching for understanding. First we provide background information, describing the influence of both theory and research on changes in approaches that have led to the recent stress on students as active constructors of their understanding. Then we summarize and compare a variety of programs that incorporate elements of construction and review issues that merit further investigation. Finally, we consider problems entailed in dissemination, especially difficulties teachers might encounter and describe promising attempts to foster their ability to teach for understanding.