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No abstract

College students were asked to read a prose passage and to take an exam on the contents of the passage. Subjects received an easy or hard version of the passage, were either allowed or not allowed to underline key phrases while reading, and were either motivated or not motivated by payment of money. Three key results were found: (a) Non-highly motivated subjects performed better on the easy version than on the hard version of the text; (b) underlining aided only highly motivated subjects; and (c) underlining aided the subjects who worked on the hard version of the text. Results were interpreted from motivational and activity viewpoints.

The Unusual Uses Test was administered to 36 boys and 36 girls from two Grade 5 and two Grade 12 classes. The resulting fluency and originality scores were then analyzed. As hypothesized, Ss told they were taking a “creativity exercise” produced more uses than Ss taking a “word exercise.” This effect was chiefly due to the older Ss being strongly influenced by the creative set. There was no effect of sex. The “exercise” manipulation did not effect the originality scores (fluency as the covariate). Younger Ss and males appeared to be more original, but an interaction of sex × grade with unusually low scores by older girls was chiefly responsible for these effects. Implications for assessment of creativity and research are discussed.

The purpose of a recent study was to determine what learning environments best address the needs of 21st-century students at the secondary level. This study concluded that the presence of a positive 21st-century learning environment is related to student satisfaction and student-teacher relationships. While the majority of the literature on 21st-century students concerns technology, this study found that students were not as concerned with technology as they were with autonomy, relevance, and connectedness.