ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on applying Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) and motivation practices to classroom-based lessons and projects. It examines how a ninth-grade life science teacher, Ms. Johnson, incorporates SRL concepts into her two-day lesson on natural selection. The chapter presents a conversation between Ms. Johnson and one of her colleagues and with the school principal to illustrate her SRL classroom innovations. Ms. Johnson is a 9th grade biology teacher in an urban high school who has approximately nine years of teaching experience. Like many science teachers, Ms. Johnson uses lab experiments to help students engage in the scientific method and to learn about core science concepts. Students will often show greater interest in activities when the activities are fun and when they relate to some aspect of students' lives. Motivating students to learn is not a one-time event. It is a dynamic, on-going process of helping to nurture and cultivate adaptive student beliefs and self-perceptions.
