But even more importantly, both of these studies, as well as the other papers in
this special issue, raise several more fundamental questions: Why do population level
means in learning motivation decline with age and the passage through school? How
typical is this decline at the individual level, i.e., how many children and which
children experience this decline? What accounts for the individual differences in these
developmental patterns? And what can be done in the schools to prevent these
developmental declines in learning or task motivation? The papers in this special
issue begin to address these questions. The authors of each of the papers raise and do
a marvelous job of discussing these fundamental questions in both their introduction
and discussion sections. Many important hypotheses are offered. They also note the
difficulty involved in testing many of these exciting hypotheses using ecologically
valid designs. Nonetheless, the authors of each of the papers have helped to
chart a course for future research e a course that is worth pursuing despite its
difficulty.