Where it is used
Each entry identifies the volume, edition, chapter or appendix in which the work appears.
The evidence behind the series
Browse the scientific research and professional literature used across all seven volumes of The Science of Learning for Educators.
Search the collection
Choose an author range, search a title or concept, or narrow the collection by source type. Open any result to see where it appears in the books, read its evidence summary and follow available source links.
3 references
Patall, Cooper, and Robinson meta-analyse 41 studies testing whether giving people choices affects intrinsic motivation and related outcomes. Across child and adult samples, choice generally increased intrinsic motivation, effort, task performance, and perceived competence, but effects varied substantially with the design and form of choice.
Motivation effects were stronger for instructionally incidental choices than for choices between activities, task versions, rewards, or other instructionally consequential options; they were also stronger when participants received a small number of successive choices, when choice was not followed by rewards, and when comparison conditions were highly controlling. Effects differed with age, setting, and how researchers equated the options available to choice and no-choice groups. The findings support autonomy as one influence on motivation, not the claim that any choice is beneficial. For educators, bounded and meaningful choice can support engagement when options are manageable and compatible with learning goals.
Excessive, trivial, confusing, or poorly structured options may impose costs, so choice should be designed rather than simply added.
Perry, Phillips, and Hutchinson examine whether experienced teachers can mentor student teachers to design tasks and classroom practices that promote self-regulated learning.
Observations from a multi-year teacher-education project show that novices can learn to create complex, meaningful tasks, offer appropriate choice, support strategy use, and encourage learners to monitor and evaluate their work. The study links teacher modelling and guided practice with the gradual development of learner independence. It also shows that the surrounding classroom design matters: opportunities for self-regulation arise from the qualities of tasks, interactions, feedback, and expectations, not from generic reminders to take responsibility.
The findings concern mentored elementary teacher education, so transfer to other settings should be made thoughtfully.
View or buy the cited work >>Read a similar article free online >>
Rogers applies person-centered psychology to education and argues that significant learning is active, personally relevant, and initiated in important part by the learner. He contrasts this with compulsory transmission of disconnected facts.
The educator’s central task is to facilitate a climate in which students can inquire, take intellectual risks, use resources, and accept responsibility for choices. Rogers describes three facilitative attitudes: genuineness or congruence, acceptance and trust, and empathic understanding of the learner’s perspective. He illustrates these ideas through classrooms, workshops, independent study, and participatory forms of evaluation. Freedom does not mean an absence of structure; learners and facilitators negotiate purposes, limits, resources, and consequences.
The book’s enduring proposal is that education should develop adaptable, self-directing people who can continue learning amid change, rather than merely reproduce information selected by authorities.
A transparent research trail
Each entry identifies the volume, edition, chapter or appendix in which the work appears.
Evidence summaries explain the central idea and why the source matters to educators.
Entries link to lawful full text where available, or to a publisher, library or purchase page.
References are checked against publisher records, scholarly indexes, DOI or ISBN metadata, repositories and author records where available. An entry marked [Citation not verified] preserves the wording found in the relevant volume without attributing findings to an unconfirmed work.
From sources to a coherent pathway