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Highlights • Evidence on how science-related affect and competency factors predict environmental awareness. • Suggestions why increases in science interest do not necessarily reflect a genuine interest in learning science. • PISA 2006/2015 comparisons within/between 2 Asian countries reveal divergent predictive trends. • These trends may reflect antithetic instruction approaches preventing genuine learning interest. Abstract Utilizing PISA 2006/2015 datasets for Japan and Taiwan, the multi-group analysis results show significant predictive increases in science interest and scientific competency, and for science interest and environmental awareness; however, revealed significant predictive decreases for science enjoyment and scientific competency, and for science enjoyment and environmental awareness between PISA cycles for both countries. Results signal divergent predictive trends regarding how interest and enjoyment impact students’ scientific competency, which may reflect instructional approaches that impede students from experiencing genuine interest in learning science. Why these results should sound an alarm to science and environment educators and policy makers is also forwarded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Curiosity has been described as a desire for learning and knowledge, but its underlying mechanisms are not well understood. We scanned subjects with functional magnetic resonance imaging while they read trivia questions. The level of curiosity when reading questions was correlated with activity in caudate regions previously suggested to be involved in anticipated reward. This finding led to a behavioral study, which showed that subjects spent more scarce resources (either limited tokens or waiting time) to find out answers when they were more curious. The functional imaging also showed that curiosity increased activity in memory areas when subjects guessed incorrectly, which suggests that curiosity may enhance memory for surprising new information. This prediction about memory enhancement was confirmed in a behavioral study: Higher curiosity in an initial session was correlated with better recall of surprising answers 1 to 2 weeks later. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the cognitive effort of 5th and 9th graders while writing a text. We manipulated genre (narrative text vs. argumentative text) and tested how level of handwriting automatisation contributes to cognitive effort and fluency in writing. The participants were 23 students from Grade 5 and 21 from Grade 9, who wrote two texts differing in genre while performing a secondary reaction time task. The results showed that cognitive effort interacted with genre. Cognitive effort decreased between Grades 5 and 9 only for writing argumentative text. Handwriting did not contribute to fluency in writing, but contributed to cognitive effort only in 5th-graders'' writing of narrative text. The findings are discussed in light of the factors contributing to cognitive effort and fluency in writing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The primary purpose of the present study is to evaluate the emotional experience of students with (n = 52) and without attention problems (n = 272) during an achievement task. A secondary purpose of the present study is to compare students' emotional response to various stimuli, when motivated by various achievement goals. Participants were randomly assigned into a mastery goal condition, a normative performance goal condition, and a non-normative performance goal condition. Results, using a latent means analysis, indicate that students with attention problems needed additional time to process emotion-loaded but not neutral words, providing evidence for an interference effect. Furthermore, students in the performance-normative, relative to the performance non-normative, condition showed a salient interference effect with respect to various emotion-loaded and neutral words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The English Skills for Life strategy symbolises the prominent place that adult basic skills have claimed in education and training policy in England since the beginning of this century. The strategy aims to improve the skills of a large number of learners over a ten year period (2001-2010). This paper explores what we can learn about the impact of the strategy from an analysis of available statistical data. The paper presents trends in participation and achievement over the first four years of the strategy, which indicate a pattern of diminishing returns to numbers participating over time, and which may well reflect the growing difficulties the policy will face of engaging 'hard to reach' learners. Alongside this analysis, the paper raises a number of issues concerning the limitations of available statistical data in providing answers to questions such as the progress made by learners and their subsequent progression, both within and beyond adult basic skills provision. The paper goes on to argue that the strong emphasis on a numerical target related to qualification outcomes may serve to focus both practitioners' and policy makers' attention on this aspect alone. This, it is argued, may serve the interests of international benchmarking of skills levels in the population, but may do rather less in helping to improve learners' lives and capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on and extending existing research, this article proposes a 4-phase model of interest development. The model describes 4 phases in the development and deepening of learner interest: triggered situational interest, maintained situational interest, emerging (less-developed) individual interest, and well-developed individual interest. Affective as well as cognitive factors are considered. Educational implications of the proposed model are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers a productive method of teaching while waiting for latecomers in class. At the beginning of most classes, an object related to the course is passed around, asking students for their impressions as to what the object might be or how it might be used. In the end, it is found that the students enjoy the session that unexpected tardiness effectively ceased. Some even claimed that they were motivated to come to class in order to see what object would passed around. The teaching method should be adaptable to other subject areas with a little thought and preparation.