This book provides an overview of second language (L2) motivation research in a specific European context: Hungary, which has proved to offer an important laboratory for such research, as a number of major political changes over the past 30 years have created a changing background for L2 learning in an increasingly globalized world. The book provides an overview of theoretical research on L2 motivation, together with detailed information on large-scale L2 motivation studies in Hungary. Further, it presents a meta-analysis of the most important investigations, and qualitative data on teachers’ views regarding success in L2 learning. In turn, the interdisciplinary nature of L2 motivation is taken into account and relevant antecedent constructs to L2 motivation are investigated. Lastly, the book outlines possible future directions for L2 motivation research.

There are many reasons to be curious about the way people learn, and the past several decades have seen an explosion of research that has important implications for individual learning, schooling, workforce training, and policy. In 2000, How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School: Expanded Edition was published and its influence has been wide and deep. The report summarized insights on the nature of learning in school-aged children; described principles for the design of effective learning environments; and provided examples of how that could be implemented in the classroom. Since then, researchers have continued to investigate the nature of learning and have generated new findings related to the neurological processes involved in learning, individual and cultural variability related to learning, and educational technologies. In addition to expanding scientific understanding of the mechanisms of learning and how the brain adapts throughout the lifespan, there have been important discoveries about influences on learning, particularly sociocultural factors and the structure of learning environments. How People Learn II: Learners, Contexts, and Cultures provides a much-needed update incorporating insights gained from this research over the past decade. The book expands on the foundation laid out in the 2000 report and takes an in-depth look at the constellation of influences that affect individual learning. How People Learn II will become an indispensable resource to understand learning throughout the lifespan for educators of students and adults.

This volume provides a platform for discussing theoretical and methodological developments in the field of motivation research related to learning and instruction. It highlights how motivation research is reaching out beyond its own traditional domain of study.

The aim of this book series is to provide a much needed outlet for the wealth of cross-cultural research that has not impacted upon mainstream education. This particular volume is divided into four parts: the motivation context; the learning context; the family context; and the curriculum context.

The body of literature has pointed to the benefits of educational interventions in facilitating improvement in school motivation and, by implication, learning and achievement. However, it is now recognized that most extant motivation and learning enhancing intervention programs are grounded in Western motivational and learning perspectives, such as attribution, expectancy-value, implicit theories of intelligence, self-determination, and self-regulated learning theories. Further, empirical evidence for the positive impacts of these interventions seems to have primarily emerged from North American settings. The cross-cultural transferability and translatability of such educational interventions, however, are often assumed rather than critically assessed and adapted before their implementation in other cultures. In this volume, the editors invited scholars to re-assess their intervention work from a sociocultural lens. Regardless of the different theoretical perspectives and strategies they adopt in their interventions, these scholars are in unison on the importance of taking into account sociodemographic backgrounds of the students and sociocultural contexts of the interventions to optimize the benefits of such interventions. Indeed, placing culture at the heart of designing, implementing, and evaluating educational interventions could be a key not only to strengthen the effectiveness and efficacy of educational interventions, but also to ensure that students of a wider and more diverse range of educational and cultural backgrounds reap the benefits from such interventions. This volume constitutes the foundation towards a deeper and more systematic understanding of culturally relevant and responsive educational interventions.

This work explores and explicates learner motivation in online learning environments. More specifically, it uses a case-study approach to examine undergraduate students’ motivation within two formal and separate online learning contexts. In doing so, it recognizes the mutually constitutive relationship of the learner and the learning environment in relation to motivation. This is distinctive from other approaches that tend to focus on designing and creating motivating environments or, alternatively, concentrate on motivation as a stable learner characteristic. In particular, this book identifies a range of factors that can support or undermine learner motivation and discusses each in detail. By unraveling the complexity of learner motivation in such environments, it provides useful guidelines for teachers, instructional designers and academic advisors tasked with building and teaching within online educational contexts.

This book presents the latest developments in the major theories of student motivation as well as up-to-date research on the contextual and cultural variables that influence learning motivation in educational settings. An international roster of experts provides ample illustration of the complexities that are revealed when the study of cultural and contextual interactions is combined with motivational and cognitive variables.