Do psychobiosocial states mediate the relationship between perceived motivational climate and individual motivation in youngsters?

Grounded in achievement goal theory and self-determination theory, this cross-sectional study examined the relationship between perceived motivational climate and individuals’ motivation as well as the mediation effect of psychobiosocial states as conceptualized within the individual zones of optimal functioning (IZOF) model. Young students (N = 167, age range 14-15 years) taking part in physical education classes completed measures of teacher-initiated motivational climate, task and ego orientation, motivation, and psychobiosocial states. Simple and serial mediation analyses indicated that a perceived mastery climate and individuals’ task orientation were related to intrinsic motivation and identified regulation through the mediation of pleasant/functional psychobiosocial states. In contrast, a perceived performance climate was related to external regulation and amotivation through the mediation of unpleasant/dysfunctional psychobiosocial states. Regression analysis results also showed that discrete psychobiosocial states accounted for a significant proportion of variance in motivational variables. Taken together, findings highlight the role of psychobiosocial states as mediators of the relationship between motivational climate and an individual’s motivation, and suggest that educators should consider a wide range of individual’s functional and dysfunctional reactions deriving from their instructional activity

The effects of motivational climate interventions on psychobiosocial states in high school physical education

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of task- and ego-involving climate manipulations on students’ climate perception and psychobiosocial (PBS) states in a physical education setting. Method: Two subsamples of female students (N = 108, 14-15 years of age) participated for 12 lessons on either a task- or an ego-involving climate intervention as grounded in the TARGET model. Results: At the end of the treatment, the participants of the ego-involved group reported lower scores in perceived task-involving climate and higher scores in perceived ego-involving climate than their peers in the task-involved group. Lower scores in pleasant/functional PBS states and higher scores in unpleasant/dysfunctional PBS states were also observed in the ego-involved group as a consequence of the intervention. Conclusion(s): Findings suggested that teacher’s induced achievement motivational climates can influence students’ perceptions and prompt PBS states consistent with the motivational atmosphere

Development and Evaluation of an Educational Computer Game for a Certification Examination

Professional certification has become one of the important criteria for people to apply job positions in industries. Recently, computer-based learning has been widely adopted for helping students prepare for various professional certifications. However, most of the computer-based learning materials are not attractive to students, such that their learning performance is significantly affected owing to the lack of learning interests. Researchers have presented that joyful game-based learning can increase learner’s motive and pleasure. Therefore, this study builds a certification tutorial system containing two different modules that are the traditional e-version and the joyful game-based version. Moreover, an experiment has been conducted to explore the participants’ engagement and learning effectiveness of the proposed approach. Some terms are explained that the “prior knowledge” is represented by the “pre-test,” and the “level of effort” (equivalent to the “engagement”) is represented by the “experience” which is the cumulative number of correct answers. The result indicates that the traditional e-version may be slightly helpful for those participants with higher/middle prior knowledge and level of effort, and the joyful game-based version may be more helpful for those participants with lower prior knowledge and level of effort

Differentiated instruction based on multiple intelligences as promising joyful and meaningful learning

Boredom has previously been linked to negative academic outcomes such as academic motivation, strategies, and achievement. The understanding of multiple intelligence approaches creates opportunities for all learners to develop their potential to optimize learning through differentiated instructions. This research aims: i) to design and to develop differentiated instruction based on learners’ multiple intelligences for elementary schools; and ii) to measure the effectivity of students’ learning attitude and mastery of concepts. Using design and development research (DDR) anchored on analysis, development, design, implementation, and evaluation (ADDIE) model and quasi-experimental research, the differentiated instruction based on multiple intelligence was conducted in a private Islamic Elementary School in collaboration with 3 class teachers. Based on the results of observations conducted at the school, the findings revealed that the learners can maximize their logical-mathematical, language, kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal intelligences through a differentiated instruction based on multiple intelligence approach. Students experienced a joyful and meaningful learning atmosphere; hence it was expected that their intelligences can be developed naturally. In addition. this instruction was found to be effective to enhance science concept mastery especially in the aspects of remembering, understanding, and applying. The differentiated instruction based on multiple intelligences should be developed further to examine the effectiveness of the model in thematic learning for students both with low and high achievement

The effect of an intervention to improve newly qualified teachers’ interpersonal style, students motivation and psychological need satisfaction in sport-based physical education

Recent developments in self-determination theory research in the educational setting (e.g., Reeve, Deci, & Ryan, 2004), suggest that teachers’ interpersonal style should be considered as consisting of three dimensions: autonomy-support, structure and interpersonal involvement. Based on this theoretical proposition, the purpose of the present study was to test the effects of a training program for three physical education newly qualified teachers on the aforementioned teachers’ overt behaviors and students’ psychological needs satisfaction, self-determined motivation and engagement in sport-based physical education. After a baseline period of four lessons, the teachers attended an informational session on adaptive student motivation and how to support it. The training program also included individualized guidance during the last four lessons of the cycle. Results revealed that from pre- to post-intervention: (1) teachers managed to improve their teaching style in terms of all three dimensions, and (2) students were receptive to these changes, as shown by increases in their reported need satisfaction, self-determined motivation and engagement in the class

Teacher professional learning for technology integration in mathematics classrooms through online learning communities : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Information Technology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

The new school curricula in Indonesia emphasise the integration of technology into instructional practices. The infusion of technology in mathematics education requires teachers to align their teaching practices with ongoing technological innovations. Integrating technology into mathematics classrooms requires teachers to have a good knowledge of mathematics content, technology and pedagogy. Teachers also need to consider their school environments. Existing teacher professional development programmes are seen to be failing to meet teacher needs regarding content delivery that sometimes does not match the existing school conditions. The premise underlying this research is that the use of an online learning community (OLC) may present a possible solution to the current challenges. Thus, the intention of this study was to investigate the potential of OLCs to help develop teachers’ learning to fulfil their professional needs in integrating technology with the teaching of mathematics. An ethnographic approach was used to investigate the phenomenon of teacher learning within an OLC and the implementation of the new knowledge acquired in their mathematics teaching practices. Empirical data from five case studies were used to examine how participation in the OLC affected teaching practices for five teachers. The results revealed that teacher participation in an OLC offered opportunities and challenges. Teachers de-privatized their practices as they actively engaged in social learning interactions to share knowledge and help each other with the appropriate use of technology in teaching mathematics. Teachers also faced some challenges, which impeded them. These challenges included differences in school policies, such as restrictions on using social media and limited technical infrastructure, which hindered teachers from fully leveraging the OLC. Teachers with less experience in teaching with technology and with low levels of technology skills tended to be passive in the OLC. Cultural contexts revealed that lack of experience and caution about expressing opinions made teachers feel ewuh pakewuh, a shyness in openly expressing their thoughts. Despite these barriers, the study provided evidence that teachers improvised and dealt with situations as they rose. The findings of this study provided evidence that participation in the OLC had significant impacts on teachers’ professional learning. Teachers altered their mode of using technology either as a partner or as an extension of self as they gained more confidence in their own learning. The teachers gradually transformed their participation from peripheral to full participation in promoting the use of technology for teaching mathematics. The research provides new insights into ways teachers can be helped to develop their professional learning in the use of technology for teaching mathematics through participation in OLCs. Particularly for Indonesia, the findings of this research provide an OLC-based model that could be implemented in other contexts that share similar technology landscapes and sociocultural heritages

Developing Signalong Indonesia: issues of happiness and pedagogy, training and stigmatisation

Signalong Indonesia (SI), a key word signing approach, was created to support the development of Indonesian inclusive schools. A mixed methods approach collected data about teacher’s beliefs and experiences regarding SI from the first two schools to pilot it. Thirty-two teachers completed questionnaires, followed by interviews with nine teachers. Three themes emerged: understanding the nature of SI, the stigmatisation of signers and its reporting by teachers, and the nature of happiness in inclusive pedagogy. The latter reveals, for the first time, the importance of Suka as a culturally mediated intrinsic part of Indonesian inclusive pedagogy. The findings suggest recommendations about SI materials and training, and indicate a new research area regarding inclusive pedagogies within different cultures

Assessing the Effectiveness of Automated Emotion Recognition in Adults and Children for Clinical Investigation

Recent success stories in automated object or face recognition, partly fuelled by deep learning artificial neural network (ANN) architectures, has led to the advancement of biometric research platforms and, to some extent, the resurrection of Artificial Intelligence (AI). In line with this general trend, inter-disciplinary approaches have taken place to automate the recognition of emotions in adults or children for the benefit of various applications such as identification of children emotions prior to a clinical investigation. Within this context, it turns out that automating emotion recognition is far from being straight forward with several challenges arising for both science(e.g., methodology underpinned by psychology) and technology (e.g., iMotions biometric research platform). In this paper, we present a methodology, experiment and interesting findings, which raise the following research questions for the recognition of emotions and attention in humans: a) adequacy of well-established techniques such as the International Affective Picture System (IAPS), b) adequacy of state-of-the-art biometric research platforms, c) the extent to which emotional responses may be different among children or adults. Our findings and first attempts to answer some of these research questions, are all based on a mixed sample of adults and children, who took part in the experiment resulting into a statistical analysis of numerous variables. These are related with, both automatically and interactively, captured responses of participants to a sample of IAPS pictures