tive expectations.BackgroundPopular opinion has it that students’ academic achievement in terms of success depends on the quality of their teachers and textbooks. However, if you ask the students, you get a different view (U.S. Department of Education 1992).According to the U.S. Department of Education (1992) most students believe their ability and effort are the main reasons for school achievement. As far as researchers can tell, most educators still subscribe to that traditional way of thinking and believe in the value of student effort. Yet, according to the U.S. Department of education (1992), when achievement drops, parents and policy makers seldom blame the study habits of students. Rather, they blame the schools and, particularly, the teachers. Consequently, over the past twenty-five years, most educational reforms have assumed that achievement would rise if the quality of instruction, teachers, and textbooks were improved (1992). However, left out of this assumption is the relationship existing between academic achievements and the amount and quality of student effort (1992). For example, according to Robert Marzano (1992), in the review of research in mathematical problem solving, researchers have found that learners’ perceptions about their ability to solve problems are a primary factor in mathematics performance. If students perceive themselves as poor problem solvers, that perception overrides most other factors, including natural ability and previous learning (Marzano 1992). Therefore, awareness of how students’ attitudes and beliefs about learning develop and what facilitates learning for its own sake can assist educators in reducing student apathy (Lumsden, 1992). Teachers routinely attest to the significance of perception and attitude, lamenting how easily students’ memorize unending rap songs despite their needing a truckload of teaching tricks to remember directions for a simple assignme...
