Tim Urdan – författare

Few academic issues are of greater concern to teachers, parents, and school administrators than the academic motivation of the adolescents in their care. There are good reasons for this concern. Students who are academically motivated perform better in school, value their schooling, are future-oriented in their academic pursuits, and possess the academic confidence and positive feelings of self-worth so necessary to increasing academic achievement. Because academically motivated students engage their schoolwork with confidence and interest, they are less likely to drop out of school, suffer fewer disciplinary problems, and prove resilient in the face of setbacks and obstacles. It is precisely because academic motivation is so essential to academic achievement that motivation has taken a place along with cognition as one of the most followed lines of inquiry in educational psychology. In this volume, we are fortunate to gather together some of the most eminent scholars who have written extensively about the academic motivation of adolescents. We are fortunate also in that they represent the varied theories and lines of inquiry that currently dominate research in this area.

In all, we believe that in the dozen chapters that comprise this volume, the authors provide elegant insights regarding the academic and social motivation of adolescents that will prove of interest to researchers, students, teachers, school administrators, parents, policymakers, and all others who play a pivotal role or are otherwise invested in the lives of adolescents in today''s society. It is our hope that these insights will not only further the conversation on adolescence and education, but will serve as the impetus for further research capable of generating the creative ideas, programs, and structures so necessary to better the lives of the young people in our care.

This installment in the series "Adolescence and Education", edited by Tim Urdan and Frank Pajares, focuses on International Perspectives of Adolescence.

Paulo Freire wrote that “sometimes a simple, almost insignificant gesture on the part of a teacher can have a profound formative effect on the life of a student.” Sometimes, of course, this formative effect is not the result of a simple, isolated gesture but rather of a proactive and sustained series of gestures on the part of a teacher. Many of us have been deeply influenced by one or more teachers who have exercised a formative effect in our development as students and individuals. We remember these teachers with fondness, tell their stories to our own children, think of them with affection, respect, gratitude, even reverence. Sometimes, we recognized this influence as it was happening, and we grew close to these remarkable individuals, keeping them in our lives even after we graduated from their classes. Often, however, they themselves were unaware of the influence they exercised over us, for it was not until years passed that we realized their effect. If time and distance did not prevent it, perhaps we found our way back to these educators and shared with them our appreciation and gratitude.

In this volume, outstanding scholars in the fields of adolescence and education provide short stories describing their most memorable teacher. Some provide the story on its own; other follow it with a brief analysis drawn from theory and research in education, psychology, and human development to identify key concepts and principles that apply in explaining why the selected teacher was so effective and memorable. Some write about one specific teacher; others write about the qualities that they believe contribute to teaching excellence, including anecdotes from various teachers to support the qualities they identified. Each tells the story with an eye toward being accessible to a wide audience of readers. One need not be an academic, or an expert in education or psychology, to understand and find meaning in these stories. In essence, these are stories and analyses that capture just what it is that makes a particular teacher, as our title describes, unforgettable. This book would be excellent for teacher preparation courses, educational psychology courses, and for anyone who is interested in the art and science of teaching.

This volume contains an Open Access Chapter

Stuart A. Karabenick was a prolific scholar and a co-editor of the Advances in Motivation and Achievement book series. At the time of his passing on August 1st, 2020, he was a Professor Emeritus at Easter Michigan University and a Research-Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan. Throughout his long career in Educational Psychology, Dr. Karabenick conducted research in several areas, and with dozens of collaborators.

This volume memorializes Dr. Karabenick by asking some of his collaborators and former students to contribute chapters in the research topic that they worked on with him. The collection begins with a reprint of an article that was published just before Dr. Karabenick passed away, sharing the wisdom he had acquired during his long and distinguished career. The book contains three chapters about help- seeking – one of the topics that Dr. Karabenick examined most frequently in his research – followed by three chapters about teacher motivation and professional development. Next, there are chapters about self-regulation, another of Dr. Karabenick’s favorite research topics. The volume culminates with chapters on a variety of topics: uses of technology to help foster student self-regulation, defining, measuring, and fostering a sense of relevance among students, and improving research through high-quality cognitive pretesting procedures.

Volume 22 provides insights into the many contributions that Dr. Karabenick made to the field of Educational Psychology and the important role he played in the lives of his students, collaborators, and friends.

This volume contains an Open Access Chapter

Stuart A. Karabenick was a prolific scholar and a co-editor of the Advances in Motivation and Achievement book series. At the time of his passing on August 1st, 2020, he was a Professor Emeritus at Easter Michigan University and a Research-Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan. Throughout his long career in Educational Psychology, Dr. Karabenick conducted research in several areas, and with dozens of collaborators.

This volume memorializes Dr. Karabenick by asking some of his collaborators and former students to contribute chapters in the research topic that they worked on with him. The collection begins with a reprint of an article that was published just before Dr. Karabenick passed away, sharing the wisdom he had acquired during his long and distinguished career. The book contains three chapters about help- seeking – one of the topics that Dr. Karabenick examined most frequently in his research – followed by three chapters about teacher motivation and professional development. Next, there are chapters about self-regulation, another of Dr. Karabenick’s favorite research topics. The volume culminates with chapters on a variety of topics: uses of technology to help foster student self-regulation, defining, measuring, and fostering a sense of relevance among students, and improving research through high-quality cognitive pretesting procedures.

Volume 22 provides insights into the many contributions that Dr. Karabenick made to the field of Educational Psychology and the important role he played in the lives of his students, collaborators, and friends.