published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / abstract / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This study employed a longitudinal cross-lagged panel design to evaluate the effect of teachers’ self-efficacy on their motivation to participate in professional development. Data were collected from 43 Hong Kong secondary school teachers at 2 measurement points. The cross-lagged panel analyses revealed teachers’ higher self-efficacy predicted lower motivation to join the professional training programme. However, this negative effect brought by self-efficacy was only significant if the programme was appealing to the teachers at Time 1. Correlation statistics also showed that teachers with higher self-efficacy tended to rate their familiarity of the programmes higher at both measurement points. The meaningfulness of the programmes was also positively correlated with the motivation to join the programmes. / published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

The construct of parental control and its role in influencing children’s motivation in collectivistic cultures have been hotly debated. Two studies examined Hong Kong Chinese children’s perception of parental control and its relation with their academic motivation with sociocultural considerations. In Study 1, children (n = 24) were invited to participate in a focus group to report what parental control meant to them. The qualitative data obtained in the discussion were then used to construct questionnaires for investigating the perception of children from different income groups towards low and high level of parental controlling behaviors in Study 2. Children (N = 294) from lower and higher income groups were randomly assigned to complete the questionnaires consisting of either low or high control scenarios. Results indicated that children from different income families viewed parental control similarly. Mild forms of controlling behaviors were considered as signs of love and care, while intense forms were perceived as signs of control. Interaction effects were found for children’s perceived level of love and control towards the behaviors depicted in the scenarios and their mothers’ frequency of performing those behaviors in real life on their academic motivation. The present research provided a clearer conceptualization of the construct of parental control in Chinese societies and supported the applicability of the self-determination theory in the Hong Kong context. / published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Leaders often manage both chaos and diversity. We can improve our leadership effectiveness by better understanding our motives and behaviors, and those of our followers. A potential tool for leadership development is the Instinctual Variant Questionnaire (IVQ). Based on Enneagram theory (pronounced “ANY-a-gram”), this online instrument is designed to assist users in identifying how three behavioral drives, or variants, may be helping or hindering their dispositions. Each reside in us, but one typically dominates, one supports, and one tends to impede our behaviors and motives. Through an understanding of one’s variants and order of preference, it is possible to increase self-awareness of our motives and behaviors. While the IVQ proposes to measure one’s preferred order of variants, no formal test of reliability and/or validity was found published prior to this study. The purpose of this study was to test the reliability and criterion-related validity of the IVQ. Reliability was tested using Cronbach’s alpha.Results indicated alpha values between .82 and .85 for the three variants measured,suggesting internal reliability.Validity was tested using data collected from a 120-person sample. The instrument’s results were compared to self-reported primary variant types obtained from those who had a high confidence level in accurately identifying their most dominant type. The IVQ was found to be a strong predictor of the three self-reported variant types. Three binary logistic regression models were run. Omnibus tests were significant for all three models at the p < .001 level (self-preservation chi-square statistic = 82.57, social chi-square statistic = 56.47, and sexual chi-square statistic = 51.77). A multinomial regression model, using self-reported dominant types as the dependent variable and IVQ scores as the independent variable, confirmed predictability of the IVQ. When z-scores were obtained based on the classification hit-rates from all four independent models, classification accuracy was found to be a significant improvement over guessing. Further analysis also suggested age, gender, marital status, education level, or number of years spent studying the Enneagram do not factor into IVQ results. Support for the IVQ to beused as a tool by leaders to better understand themselves and their followers is presented. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

This study investigated the motivating and engaging factors of jazz programs present in the learning environments of avocational jazz musicians in higher education. The investigation explored these factors as perceived by the learners themselves as well as the educators tasked with creating enriching musical experiences for their college students. The student participants for this study consisted of college students currently enrolled at a liberal arts college in the NorthAbeles, east, all of whom perform in the jazz ensemble at their institution. The setting of liberal arts colleges was chosen for the study as an environment where students are actively learning and performing jazz music while pursuing other academic interests more closely related of their desired future professional goals. The educator participants came from the same institutions and provided data in specific regard to their experiences working with this unique population of jazz learners. Students reported their motivations were peaked by the social element inherent to the ensemble experience, their desire to exercise their creativity, and the value of diverse learning environment as part of their overall college experience. On the other hand, educators from the same institutions found that they were best serving their students by demonstrating their own enthusiasm for the music, demonstrating the critical thinking element of jazz learning, and understanding that the students more closely relate the ensemble to a recreational activity available at the college. The study gathered data from focus group interviews with 49 students and 6 one-on-one interviews with jazz educators at liberal arts colleges. The questions for these interviews and focus groups were derived from an earlier pilot study of the same population of jazz learners and liberal arts music educators, and the analysis paralleled reported findings to relevant motivational theories and pedagogical practices common to jazz performance education.

Ho, Pui Yung. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 34-41). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgements --- p.iii / Table of Contents --- p.iv / Introduction --- p.1 / Background --- p.3 / Work Value Congruence / Study 1 --- p.5 / Methodology / Analysis & Results / Discussions / Study 2 --- p.11 / Background & Hypotheses / Methodology / Results / Discussions / General Discussions --- p.27 / Conclusion --- p.32 / References --- p.34

The central aim of this thesis was to investigate relationships between students’ goals and self-concepts and to demonstrate how these two sets of motivational variables interact to influence academic achievement. Answers were, thus, sought for vexed questions concerning the causal ordering of students’ goal orientations, academic self-concepts and academic achievement by hypothesising three competing models of causality: a/ goal orientations affect academic self-concepts, which in turn affect subsequent academic achievement, b/ academic self-concept affect goal orientations, which in turn affect subsequent academic achievement, and c/ goal orientations, academic self-concepts, and academic achievement affect each other such as they are reciprocally related over time. Findings from this research hold important implications for our theoretical understanding of factors affecting student motivation, and also for educational practice and research relating to students’ goals and academic self-concepts. These implications, in turn, provide new perspectives for promoting optimal motivation and academic achievement amongst secondary school students. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Improving the achievement of students in New Zealand is a major commitment of the Government. In his report on the national education priorities, the Minister of Education (2003) clearly stipulates the key goals and strategies across the education system to improve educational outcomes. One of the two major goals, which is a part of the key priorities for the next three years, is to "reduce systematic underachievement in education" (p. 8). To attain this goal the focus of the Government will be, among others, to lift the achievement levels of the bottom 25% especially in literacy and numeracy, increase retention in senior secondary school, and increase achievement at higher tertiary levels by all cultural groups. Strategies focus on raising expectations for achievement of all learners, focusing on quality teaching, strengthening family and community involvement and focusing on learning outcomes. Fancy (2004), Secretary of Education in New Zealand, states that from the 1990s there is a shift in focus in the education sector from that of good administration to effective teaching and clearer expectations on student achievement. A crucial factor in achievement is self-efficacy. Research has been extensive on the relationship between self-efficacy and student achievement in academic settings. With increasing diversity in the student population, and wide disparities in achievement of students in New Zealand, the need to assess student self-efficacy emerges as a valuable source of evidence about students' self-beliefs in achievement in distinct subjects, and in the use of cognitive, motivational, self-regulatory strategies and related determinants of achievement. The concept of self-efficacy is based on the triadic reciprocality model symbolising a relationship between: (a) personal factors i.e., cognition, emotion, and biological events, (b) behaviour, and (c) environmental factors (Maddux, 1995). Cognition, emotion and behaviour are the domains of personality which form the basis of research in self-efficacy. Self-report scales are most commonly used in the assessment of self-efficacy. The guidelines to construct scales to assess selfefficacy have been specified by Bandura (2001). These guidelines highlight the importance of developing self-report measures which are task specific, and take into consideration all three domains of self-efficacy and three levels within each domain. Suggestions to develop measures which are reliable and have content validity have been provided in the guidelines. Self efficacy is viewed as a multidimensional construct which shares a reciprocal relationship with various determinants of learning and achievement. The determinants considered in the present study include: (a) motivation strategies, (b) cognitive strategies, (c) resource management, (d) self-regulated learning, (e) meeting others' expectations, and (f) self-assertiveness. The major aims of the present research are to assess diverse students' self-efficacy in mathematics, and the relationship between self-efficacy and achievement. Students' self-efficacy in the use of specific learning strategies is further explored. Teachers' beliefs in the use of learning strategies within the classroom context are also surveyed. Situated in multicultural schools with groups of diverse students, participants were students who opted for mathematics in Form VI and Form VII from three schools, and mathematics teachers from one of the secondary schools. In Phase I, self-efficacy is assessed in the context of the three domains; that is, cognitive, behavioural and emotional self-efficacy. A survey of students and teachers' self beliefs in the use of learning strategies is undertaken in Phase II of the study. The scores on the scales of self-efficacy in mathematics and in use of learning strategies are correlated with students' achievement results in mathematics. While the findings from the study show students reporting moderately high levels of self-efficacy, the perceived levels of self-efficacy in the different domains is not reflected in achievement in mathematics. The reasons for this incongruence is explored in the context of student achievement trends, and the wider socio-cultural and historical context of New Zealand society, with recommendations including a four-point strategy to raise achievement of students.

Critics of currently available school motivation research consistently identify shortcomings such as the lack of a theoretical basis for defining and interpreting the construct and the poor quality of instruments used to measure it. There is a dearth of reliable, valid, theoretically informed, and cross-culturally comparable standardised measures of motivation. Whilst a number of theorists have proposed that motivation may be a multidimensional construct and may also be hierarchical in nature, partly due to the lack of available multidimensional measurement instruments, there has been limited research testing such theoretical propositions. The present investigation comprised two inter-related study components. The purposes of Study 1 were to (1) develop a valid and reliable multidimensional measure of school motivation based on Maehr’s Personal Investment Theory that was robust in diverse cultural settings; and (2) test the multidimensional and hierarchical structure of school motivation to elucidate the nature and structure of student motivation cross-culturally and further extend motivational theory and research. The purpose of Study 2 was to (1) test the relation of multidimensional components of student motivation and academic achievement in cross-cultural contexts, to further elucidate the relations amongst these constructs; and (2) to identify similarities and differences in motivational profiles for different cultural groups in order to support the validity and usefulness of the multidimensional motivation instrument in educational settings. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to validate the psychometric properties of the measures, and reliability tests were conducted to establish the internal consistency for each scale. Factorial invariance analysis was conducted to examine the equivalence of the data structure across cultural groups, and structural equation modelling (SEM) was conducted to examine the structural relations between eight ISM motivation factors and four outcome measures (Math, English, GPA, School attendance). Multivariate analysis of variances was conducted to examine statistical difference among the seven cultural groups in relation to eight ISM scales. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)