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This paper presents findings of a study that used goal orientation theory as a guiding framework for a collaborative effort with middle school principals, teachers, and parents over a 3-year period. The intervention sought to change policies and practices so that they would reflect more of a task-goal orientation and less of an ability-goal orientation. The study assessed students' perceptions of the goal emphases in their classrooms; their personal orientation to task, ability, and extrinsic goals; their reported use of deep processing strategies; and their academic efficacy beliefs in mathematics and English 1 year before the transition to middle school and again at the end of the sixth and seventh grades in both the "demonstration" school and a comparison school. Fifth-grade students scheduled to attend the demonstration school and students scheduled to attend the comparison school demonstrated no differences on any of the measures. After the transition, students in the demonstration school exhibited a more positive profile of personal goals, efficacy beliefs, and perceptions of the classroom goal structure than did students in the comparison school. Results are discussed in terms of implications for middle school reform and with regard to the use of goal-orientation theory to guide school reform efforts. Five figures and four tables are included. (Contains 71 references.) (LMI)

Studies suggest that the transition to middle school is associated with a decline in motivation and performance for a number of children. This longitudinal study examined changes in motivation in English and mathematics across and after the transition from elementary to middle school. Of particular interest were changes in personal goal orientations (task and ability), perceptions of classroom goal structures (task and ability), academic efficacy, and grades in school. Main effects and interactions of gender, ability, subject, and time were highlighted in the surveys. Data were collected from students as they progressed from fifth to seventh grade. Results suggested that students become somewhat less focused on task goals and more focused on ability goals when they enter middle school. Personal task goals, ability goals, and academic efficacy changed both during and after the middle school transition. Students' task goals declined across the three grades, while ability goals increased across the grade five-grade six transition for English, and then decreased between grades six and seven. Ability goals in math did not change much across the three years. Academic efficacy dramatically decreased across the transition, and then increased some after the transition between grades six and seven. Four tables present statistical analysis. Contains 66 references. (Author/RJM)

This study utilized a sociocultural approach to writing instruction and examined its effects on the motivation of students with learning disabilities. The concept of the Zone of Proximal Development was used to measure changes in five third and fourth grade students' motivation toward literacy activities. Students wrote in journals daily and participated in weekly "feedback" sessions, where they read their stories to the teacher and other students. Data indicated that journal writing became more communicative over time, as children spent more time writing stories and letters rather than lists. Data also showed increases in creativity, a broader understanding of the uses of writing, greater persistence at writing tasks, and more conventional uses of writing over the course of the academic year. As journal writing was always a "free" writing activity (students were never told what topics to write about), the paper contends that the students' continuing desire to write, as well as the development of their writing abilities, is a result of the sociocultural/emergent literacy curriculum. Students did not receive any formal instruction in writing; thus, changes are attributed to the new meaning children constructed for writing, through their interactions with other members of the classroom writing community. A sample of one student's writing is included. (JDD)

A study examined the relationships among early adolescents' motivational goal orientations (task and ability focus), cognitive processing strategies, self-efficacy, and expectancy-value for literacy activities. These factors appear to vary by gender, academic status (special education, at-risk, and not-at-risk), and grade level. Subjects, 678 middle-school students from a largely "blue collar" district near a major city in the midwest, completed a self-report questionnaire. For students who are learning-focused, findings support use of deep-level cognitive processing strategies such as monitoring of comprehension, paraphrasing, and summarizing; students who are ability-focused tend to use surface-level cognitive processing strategies such as memorization, copying, and rehearsal of information. The relationships between these variables and performance on several standardized measures of language and reading achievement were also measured. Results indicated that (1) self-efficacy was the most powerful predictor of success; and (2) those students who valued literacy activities and were learning-focused tended to do worse on some standardized tests than their peers. Findings suggest that educators should place greater emphasis on the relationships between motivational and affective factors with strategy usage, rather than referring to gender and academic classifications such as "at risk" or "special education" when considering the ways in which adolescents approach reading and writing activities. (Contains 12 references and five tables of data. An appendix presents a list of the constructs and items of the students' scales and four figures of data displaying the motivational, affective, cognitive, and achievement-related belief scales.) (RS)

Recently, psychologists have investigated self-efficacy as it relates to teaching and learning. This study used hierarchical linear modeling (HLM)--a powerful new technique for assessing multilevel data--to examine the effects on self-efficacy of a school-wide effort to value task-mastery and learning over relative ability and competition. The sample included 341 students from 15 classrooms in 2 elementary schools in a predominantly white district. The students responded to a self-report questionnaire, which assessed student motivation, cognitive strategy use, and perceptions of classrooms and schools. Researchers developed measures of self-efficacy, goal orientation (task and performance), and cognitive strategy use (deep and surface strategies) using both original items and items from existing instruments. Results suggest that self-efficacy relates significantly to the following: (1) the belief that intelligence is a changeable entity; (2) the personal adoption of learning-focused goals; and (3) the use of deep cognitive strategies. Students who were encouraged to take academic risks were more self-efficacious than those who were risk averse; however, in the experimental classes, self-efficacy increased regardless of whether or not the teacher encouraged risks, while in the control classes, self-efficacy did not change with the learning focus slope. (RJM)