Conference Papers

In the present study, we investigate the ‘aims’ elementary school students pursue through effort and persistence (i.e., their achievement goals) and the ‘reasons’ driving them (i.e., their motivations) in their mathematics classes. Self-report instruments measuring students’ motivational reasons, achievement goals, and effort and persistence in their mathematics classes were administered. Mediational path analysis showed that achievement goals, collectively, played a significant mediating role in almost all the links connecting motivational reasons to effort and persistence. Autonomous motivation was associated with greater effort and persistence. Self-based goals strengthened the positive direct effects of autonomous motivation on effort and persistence.

This paper briefly evaluates the way in which society's attitudes toward music, particularly spontaneous song, may be reflected in the classroom setting, perhaps to the detriment of the development of children's creativity, language and music. The premise of the paper is that the encouragement of spontaneous song in intellectually handicapped children helps promote language and pitch exploration, communication skills, extension of vocabulary and critical thinking capacities, divergent exploration of numerous dance or instrumental accompaniments, and the development of musical concepts and associated terminology. Pedagogical approaches and techniques are suggested within an unrestricted learning environment in which the role of the teacher changes from time to time.