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This study focuses on students' acquisition of current events knowledge, attitudes about the news, and motivation to seek the news as it relates to news seeking behavior and studying current events in school. A current events knowledge test of 53 true/false items and a questionnaire assessing motivation strategy use toward current events were administered to 451 students from 5 midwestern high schools, 1 southeastern high school, and 1 middle school. A sub-sample of the students from two classrooms in one of the schools was further examined with teacher interviews on how they incorporate the study of current events into their classrooms and their goals for use of current events knowledge. In general, those students who watched the least amount of television news and read the news the least had the poorest responses on the current events knowledge test, news attitudes measures, and motivational measures, while those who watched television and read the news the most had the most adaptive responses on these measures. Contains 12 references. (EH)

This paper describes a study that examined relationships among students' goals, efficacy beliefs, news-seeking behavior, and current events knowledge. The study expands on previous work on students' achievement related goals by examining the effects of goals and self-efficacy on knowledge of current events, a sub-domain of social studies. A sample of students from four middle schools and nine high schools (n=1148) completed a current events test, and a motivational inventory in May 1993. The sample was 50 percent male and 50 percent female, and 55 percent of the students studied current events in school as part of a course. Using path analysis, the researchers found that males in middle schools are more self-efficacious toward the news, while males in high schools are more performance oriented and seek news outside of school more than females. The study found that grade point average (GPA) is related positively to holding mastery goals toward the news for high school, but not middle school students. In both samples, mastery and performance goals only have indirect effects on knowledge, through either efficacy beliefs or news seeking behavior. In both samples, students who study current events in school are less mastery oriented than those who do not study the news in school (Author/DK)

One framework for conceptualizing the study of classroom effects on student motivation asserts that students' perceptions of the classroom environment mediate the relationship between teacher practices and student performance outcomes. This study examined within- and between-classroom effects on 356 fifth-grade students' perceptions of the quality of instruction in their mathematics classes. Results suggest that a positive classroom instructional climate is related to several individual difference variables, including low perceptions of differential treatment by gender and ability. Several classroom level variables were related to positive class instructional climate, including the use of extrinsic motivational incentives, and the infrequent use of individualized forms of instruction. Teachers who used "mastery" oriented instructional strategies tend to have students in their classes who perceive a diminished relationship between teacher expectancies and classroom instructional climate. Contains 10 references. (MKR)

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)