International Students’ Motivation and Learning Approach: A Comparison with Local Students

Psychological factors contribute to motivation and learning for international students as much as teaching strategies. 254 international students and 144 local students enrolled in a private education institute were surveyed regarding their perception of psychological needs support, their motivation and learning approach. The results from this study indicated that international students had a higher level of self-determined motivation and used a deep and surface learning approach more extensively than local students. Perceived psychological needs support positively predicted intrinsic motivation, identified regulation and a deep learning approach for both groups. There were also differences in the effects of motivation on learning approach between the two groups. Further possibilities for exploration are discussed in this study

Revising and Validating Achievement Emotions Questionnaire - Teachers (AEQ-T)

Achievement Emotions Questionnaire - Teachers (AEQ-T) measures teachers’ anger, anxiety, and enjoyment related to instruction. The purpose of this research is to revise and validate AEQ-T to include pride and frustration. Also, this study aimed to replicate previous research on anger, anxiety, and enjoyment and validate this expanded measure in an Asian context. The revised AEQ-T was tested using Exploratory Factor Analysis for 150 Japanese teachers, and then cross-validated with 208 Korean teachers using Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Results showed that four emotions of anger, anxiety, enjoyment, and pride had acceptable levels of internal consistency and clear factor structure. However, frustration items had low reliability and cross-loaded with anger factor. This study provides empirical evidences to include pride to measure teachers’ emotions, and suggests the need to develop a more refined understanding and distinction between anger and frustration

Differential Effects 1 Running head: DIFFERENTIAL EFFECTS OF INSTRUCTION Differential Effects of Traditional and Constructivist Instruction on Students' Cognition, Motivation, and Achievement Differential Effects of Traditional and Constructivist Instruct

Abstract This study examined the differential effects of constructivist and traditional instruction on students' cognitive, motivational, and achievement outcomes in English classrooms, using a large representative sample of 3251 Grade 9 students from 117 classes in 39 schools. Results of hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) show differential cross-level effects: After controlling for students' gender and socioeconomic status, constructivist instruction was a significant positive predictor of students' deep processing strategies, task values, and English achievement, whereas traditional instruction was a significant positive predictor of students' surface processing strategies and a negative predictor of English achievement. Our findings provide empirical evidence for the differential effects of constructivist and traditional instruction on multiple outcomes, including students' achievement and psychological processes that are important for learning. Differential Effects

Primary and secondary students' motivation in learning English :Grade and gender differences

Student motivation may have significant influences on essential academic outcomes. However, students' motivation may decline as they grow older. This study examined six motivation constructs (self-efficacy, interest, mastery goal orientation, engagement, avoidance coping, and effort withdrawal) of students from 78 schools in Singapore (N = 4214) in learning English. Using a large and diverse sample of primary 5 (5th grade) and secondary 3 (9th grade) students, grade and gender differences in these constructs were examined. Applying a MIMIC approach to structural equation modeling, the paths from grade and gender as well as the grade × gender interaction variable were found to be significant. That is, (a) the scores for self-efficacy, interest, mastery goal orientation, and engagement tended to be lower whereas avoidance coping and effort withdrawal tended to be higher for the secondary students, (b) boys tended to have lower scores; and (c) the gap in motivation between primary and secondary tended to be greater for girls. Since motivation may have important influences on subsequent learning outcomes, we need to seriously consider the implications of these grade- and gender-related patterns and pay attention particularly to boys in primary schools and girls in secondary schools. © 2011 Elsevier Inc.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

The importance of autonomy support and the mediating role of work motivation for well-being: Testing self-determination theory in a Chinese work organization

We examine relations between perceived organisational autonomy support and different types of work motivation and well-being outcomes in 266 teachers from two government schools in China. We hypothesised that greater autonomy support would be associated with more autonomous forms of employee motivation, and that teacher motivation would in turn mediate the effects of autonomy support on indicators of work well-being (i.e., job satisfaction, work stress and physical ill symptoms). Results generally supported the hypothesised relations between perceived autonomy support and SDT's five types of motivations. Findings also showed that perceived autonomy support predicted job satisfaction directly and indirectly through the mediating roles of intrinsic motivation, identified regulation, introjected regulation and external regulation. Perceived autonomy support predicted work stress directly and indirectly through the mediating roles of external regulation and amotivation. Autonomy support also predicted illness symptoms via the mediating roles of intrinsic motivation, introjected regulation and amotivation. The current findings highlight how perceived organisational support for autonomy relates to motivational differences in a Chinese work context, and the potential relevance of autonomy support for employee well-being

Revising and Validating Achievement Emotions Questionnaire – Teachers (AEQ-T)

Achievement Emotions Questionnaire - Teachers (AEQ-T) measures teachers’ anger, anxiety, and enjoyment related to instruction. The purpose of this research is to revise and validate AEQ-T to include pride and frustration. Also, this study aimed to replicate previous research on anger, anxiety, and enjoyment and validate this expanded measure in an Asian context. The revised AEQ-T was tested using Exploratory Factor Analysis for 150 Japanese teachers, and then cross-validated with 208 Korean teachers using Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Results showed that four emotions of anger, anxiety, enjoyment, and pride had acceptable levels of internal consistency and clear factor structure. However, frustration items had low reliability and cross-loaded with anger factor. This study provides empirical evidences to include pride to measure teachers’ emotions, and suggests the need to develop a more refined understanding and distinction between anger and frustration.

Latent profile analysis of students’ motivation and outcomes in mathematics: an organismic integration theory perspective

The purpose of the current study was to identify the motivation profiles at the intraindividual level using a latent profile analyses (LPA) approach. A total of 1151 secondary school students aged 13 to 17 years old from Singapore took part in the study. Using LPA, four distinct motivational profiles were identified based on four motivation regulations. Profile 1 has very low introjected and low autonomous motivation (6% of sample). Profile 2 had high external and identified regulations and very low intrinsic regulation (10%). Profile 3 consisted of students with high identified and intrinsic regulations (51%). Profile 4 had moderately low identified and intrinsic regulations (33%). The results showed that the four profiles differed significantly in terms of effort, competence, value, and time spent on math beyond homework. The best profile (Profile 3) reported highest scores in effort, value, competence and time spent on Math beyond homework. The worst profile (Profile 1) reported lowest scores in all the four outcome variables