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Few studies in K-12 education have investigated the impact of changing schools during the academic year, or within-year transitions, on student motivation and achievement. Yet, many students face this type of transition, including children from low-income families living in urban areas, students from migrant worker and military families, and students with chronic behavioral problems. The evidence that does exist suggests that when students move between schools during the academic year, they may struggle with academic learning, behavior in school, and social interactions. This chapter approaches within-year academic transitions as a developmental context for student motivation. Drawing upon general systems theories and a specific theory of motivational development, the within-year transition is presented as an environmental demand that may lead to changes in student motivation and shifts in classroom actions, such as engagement. Continuity of subject learning and the formation of relationships are discussed as two challenges to student adjustment over the transition period. Student social and personal resources during the transition period are important factors in determining how a student adapts to a new school in the face of these challenges. Several methodological hurdles and possible approaches to conducting research in this area are discussed, as well as topics in need of additional research in this empirically overlooked area. The chapter concludes with suggestions drawn from the research literature as to how districts, schools, and classroom teachers can help support students transitioning between schools within the academic year.

We reflect upon the histories of the behavioral science and the neuroscience of motivation, taking note of how these increasingly consilient disciplines inform each other. This volume’s chapters illustrate how the field has moved beyond the study of immediate external rewards to the examination of neural mechanisms underlying varied motivational and appetitive states. Exemplifying this trend, we focus on emerging knowledge about intrinsic motivation, linking it with research on both the play and exploratory behaviors of nonhuman animals. We also speculate about large-scale brain networks related to salience processing as a possibly unique component of human intrinsic motivation. We further review emerging studies on neural correlates of basic psychological needs during decision making that are beginning to shine light on the integrative processes that support autonomous functioning. As with the contributions in this volume, such research reflects the increasing iteration between mechanistic studies and contemporary psychological models of human motivation.

Performance feedback about whether responses are correct or incorrect provides valuable information to help guide learning. Although feedback itself has no extrinsic value, it can produce subjective feelings similar to “rewards” and “punishments.” Therefore, feedback can play both an informative and a motivational role. Over the past decade, researchers have identified a neural circuit that processes reward value and promotes reinforcement learning, involving target regions of dopaminergic input (e.g., striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex). Importantly, this circuit is engaged by performance feedback even in the absence of reward. Recent research suggests that feedback-related brain activity can be modulated by motivational context, such as whether feedback reflects goal achievement, whether learners are oriented toward the informative versus evaluative aspect of feedback, and whether individual learners are motivated to perform well relative to their peers. This body of research suggests that the brain responds flexibly to feedback, based on the learner’s goals.

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a comprehensive review of empirical research on performance management (PM) in former communist Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, to evaluate the state of knowledge in this area and suggest possible directions for future research.

An examination of the literature was undertaken to review the empirical studies treating on PM in ex-communist countries from CEE. A total of 96 journal articles, PhD thesis, and conference papers were identified, categorized, and analyzed according to research questions, methodology, and theoretical framework. Contributions are classified by countries, according to progress in transition process (post-transition/transition countries) and membership in the Soviet Union (Soviet/non-Soviet countries). The review examines publications in four languages (English, French, Romanian, and Russian).

The literature review identified various stages of development of PM research and practice in the different groups of CEE countries.

In post-transition CEE countries, PM research follows the trends settled up in the developed countries (quantitative studies examining the extent of usage of different PM tools, influence of contingent factors, relationship PM-strategy, and impact on company’s performance). Also, the findings illustrate the modernization of PM practices: increasing importance of nonfinancial indicators and integrated performance management systems (PMS), although financial indicators are prevailing.

On the contrary, in transition countries PM research and practices are at an early stage, the reviewed literature highlights some specific issues related to transition context: the dynamic aspect of PM, change management, importance of informal systems, cultural aspects, and business traditions.

Because of the large number of CEE countries and the diversity of their national languages, many studies conducted in native languages have not been addressed in this literature review, which is essentially based on publications in English and French. Only for three CEE countries (Russia, Romania, and Moldova) publications in national language were considered.

This literature review may be useful for practitioners, providing insights on the extent of diffusion and usage of different PM tools and identifying difficulties and pitfalls to avoid in their implementation.

The chapter represents one of the first contributions to the knowledge about PM research and practice in former communist CEE countries. The adopted framework for reviewing and classifying the literature allows identifying the differences in PM research and practices between post-transition/transition and Soviet/non-Soviet countries.

Current motivation theory and research face serious theoretical, methodological, and practical challenges. One central challenge is the fact that research has focused mainly on motivation for traditional achievement tasks such as graded assignments and normative educational trajectories. Arguably, current motivation theory and research may be inadequate to characterize adaptive motivation in the uncertain, changing, and unpredictable environments of the twenty-first century. How might motivation researchers conceptualize students’ motivation in such dynamic and complex contexts? How can motivational research inform educators, administrators, and policymakers in designing curricula, pedagogy, and evaluation and accountability systems to prepare students for such a world? In the current chapter, we address these challenges with a perspective on motivation as a complex dynamic system (CDS) that is based in the person’s identity. We begin with a brief review of the challenges to the current prevalent approach to motivation research, highlighting the need for a new paradigm. We then review assumptions of the CDSs approach that render it useful for understanding motivation in continuously changing and unpredictable environments. We then present a CDS conceptual model of identity and motivation that incorporates constructs and processes from a variety of identity and motivational theories – the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI). We follow with a conceptualization of the characteristics of the identity-motivation system most adaptive for growth in changing and unpredictable environments. We end by considering the implications of this perspective for motivational theory and research and for educational practice and policy.

The quality of students' relationships with their teachers plays a significant role in their success in school. Social and emotional learning (SEL) curriculums show great promise for supporting student development. However, quality implementation requires that teachers recognize and understand how their behavior and interactions with students impact the development of these skills. The Prosocial Classroom Model proposes that teacher social and emotional competencies (SECs) play a critical role in creating and maintaining a classroom where everyone feels safe, connected, and engaged in learning. In this chapter, we extend the understanding of SEC to include leadership styles as defined by evolutionary motivational systems theory. We argue that a critical dimension of effective SEL instruction and teacher SEC is effective leadership that skillfully applies an understanding of the social and emotional dimensions of classroom interactions that promote motivation, engagement, and learning. Implications for educational theory, policy and practice, and research are discussed.

Classical definitions of motivation typically involve two main components: direction and activation. Motivated behavior is directed toward or away from particular stimuli (i.e., appetitive and aversive motivation). Furthermore, activational aspects of motivation refer to the observation that motivated behavior is characterized by substantial activity, vigor, persistence, and exertion of effort in both the initiation and maintenance of behavior. Although separate neural systems direct organisms toward distinct motivational stimuli (e.g., food, water, sex), there appears to be a common circuitry regulating behavioral activation and the exertion of effort. Mesolimbic dopamine is one of the brain systems mediating activational aspects of motivation and exertion of effort. This system integrates aspects of motivation and motor control functions involved in the instigation of action. Research on the neurobiology of effort has contributed to our understanding of the pathophysiology of neurological and psychiatric disorders that are characterized by motivational dysfunction.

Teenagers are typically described as impulsive and risk taking. Yet recent research shows that this observation does not hold in all contexts. Rather, adolescents show higher impulsivity and risk taking than children or adults in affective contexts. Motivational and affective processes are therefore of particular interest when trying to understand typical adolescent behavior. Additionally, pubertal hormones are hypothesized to play a special role in adolescents’ motivated decision making. However, evidence for the mechanisms underlying this relationship is sparse. In this chapter, we aim to integrate findings from human and animal studies in order to elucidate the specific impact of pubertal hormones on motivational processes in adolescence. Against this background, we critically discuss and reinterpret recent findings in psychology and neuroscience, speculate about underlying mechanisms, and suggest new approaches for future studies of adolescent behavior.

Implicit motives are capacities to experience specific types of incentives as rewarding and specific types of disincentives as aversive (Atkinson, 1957; Schultheiss, 2008). Because implicit motives determine which stimuli are affectively “hot”, they also orient the person's behavior toward those stimuli, energize behavior aimed at attaining (or avoiding) them, and select stimuli that predict their proximity and behaviors that are instrumental for attaining (or avoiding) them (McClelland, 1987).