published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

The purpose of this study is to investigate motivational perspectives of student and teacher at City University of Hong Kong. Questionnaires were distributed to students and teachers for quantitative data collection. With the use of Dornyei and Csizer's (1998) macrostrategies and clusters, this study hopes to suggest motivational actions and strategies in order to understand and discuss better L2 learning and teaching environments among teachers and students. 2. Introduction. Research on motivation has contributed immensely in the area of social psychology but also more recently in the past few decades to language development in the L2 arena. L2 motivation is multifaceted and contains features of personality and social dimensions that are embedded into the culture of a community (Dornyei, 1998). A person's self-identity to learn an L2 plays a vital role in motivation since learning and mastering a language differ from subject matters such as mathematics (Dornyei, 1998). These shifts towards social psychology lead to the further research in L2 learning. Teachers' skills are essential to student motivation which is central to teaching effectiveness (Dornyei, 1998). The importance of teacher expectations is a vital part of research for teachers who would have a huge influence on student motivation as the authoritative figure of the classroom. For instance, according to Cheng (2011), "motivation is then looked into not only from the learners' point of view but also teachers perception of motivation, teaching practices and their relation with learners performance". Studies conducted by Dornyei and Csizer (1998) where Hungarian teachers were asked about their perspectives on motivation and Cheng and Dornyei (2007) in which English teachers from Taiwan participated in a study about motivation perspectives, reinforce the importance of studying the perspectives of teacher motivation. A small scale study conducted by Ya-Nan He titled "Motivational Strategies: Students' and Teachers' Perspectives" (2009) at Kent State University in the USA studies the perspectives of teacher and student on teacher actions. Va's study is an extension of the Dornyei and Csizer's (1998) and Cheng & Dornyei's (2007) studies, where her quantitative study surveyed 40 students from various nationalities and 11 teachers.

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

This thesis is on motivation. It is an action research case study of my own classroom practices coupled with the study of motivational forces that drive or inhibit students to learn or disengage. As Covington (1998) cited in McDonough (2007:370) offers: “the importance of the beliefs learners hold about themselves, and therefore their level of aspiration and the kinds of strategies they operate or can be taught to adopt, to achieve what they want for themselves”. It incorporates the instrumental planning, teaching and supporting that the teacher’s role in the classroom defines. The time frame, participants and research methods such as interviews and questionnaires are all outlined within. The findings showed that students in my classroom were intrinsically motivated and regarded learning English as important, useful, fun and participated in classroom activities with a sense of enjoyment. The implications of the research study indicates motivational strategies have their place in the classroom. With an increased understanding of these motivational strategies, their implementations and the motivational dynamics that interplay within the classroom, motivational levels can be raised further and with a concerted effort of building relationships between teachers and students, appropriate and relevant contents and contexts, a step towards the bridging of learning and language acquisition of English by students in local CMI schools can be envisioned and realized. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

In recent years, the Invitational Education (IE) philosophy and its application into schools have been spreading from the West to East. Many schools at different levels: kindergarten, primary and secondary schools, are gradually adapting this philosophy together with their own curriculum to enhance students’ learning. This philosophy is believed that human potential can best be realized to invite development, and by people who are intentionally inviting with themselves and others. Being the secondary school that is of the same sponsoring body of the pioneer primary school for introducing Invitational Education to Hong Kong, the school possesses great potential to be developed as a truly inviting school. However, at the same time, as a new school, many ideas were needed to be developed including policies, student activities, and new ideas for the curriculum, developing programs for different stakeholders and establishing networks with other schools. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to know how the implementation of IE philosophy affects on students’ learning in a Hong Kong secondary school – case study. There are 3 main questions: (1) How is teaching and learning is shaped or affected by IE? (2) What are the factors affecting the success or applicability of IE in the school? (3) Is IE applicable in the school under study? This study adopts a mixed approach in its method of inquiry because of its descriptive and exploratory nature. The outcome shows that the staff is pleased to have Invitational Education philosophy adopted in the case school. It could help the teachers to shape their way of teaching with invitational education qualities but this needs further research. There is a lot of room for improvement as there are factors that affect the success or application of IE in the school. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Invitational Education (IE) is a theory to be practiced in the five areas of People, Places, Processes, Policies, and Programmes (the five P’s). The emphasis of IE on creating an inviting school environment, developing students’ self-concept, and fostering positive perceptions of school is well supported in the field of education. This study investigated the invitational climate of seven secondary schools in Hong Kong that implement IE. The research involved a large scale survey of the seven schools that received the “Inviting School Fidelity Award” in 2008, followed by a qualitative study undertaken in the school with the highest invitational climate. A Chinese translation of the revised Inviting School Survey (ISS-R; Smith, 2005) was used to measure the invitational climate in the seven schools. The five subscales of ISS-R were found to be valid and reliable in a sample of 706 Grade 11 students. Students’ perceptions of the invitational climate in the key areas of People, Places, Processes, Policies, and Programmes were analyzed. The findings of this study suggested that indications of invitational climate in the five P’s could facilitate teachers’ and administrators’ consideration in improving invitational practices to cater for the needs of different groups of students. Teachers also need to be aware that IE may be perceived and received differently by students of different genders and levels of ability. In addition to the invitational climate, students’ affective and social development were also examined in the areas of academic affect (feelings about learning and achieving in school), academic self-concept (beliefs about oneself as a learner), self-regulation(the ability to manage one’s own learning and behaviour), goal setting (setting own learning targets), and social concern(concern for self and others). Correlations were found between the five key components of IE and students’ academic affect and self-concept, self-regulation, goal setting and effort, and social concern. ANOVA revealed differences in perceptions and outcomes across different academic achievement levels, and by gender. Results supported the view that IE encourages students to become self-motivated and autonomous learners. The qualitative part of the study involved individual and focus group interviews with 30 Grade 11 students from the IE secondary school with the highest invitational climate (according to the ISS-R survey). Students’ perceptions of the school climate were examined in relation to five key areas―People, Processes, Policies, Places, and School Programmes. The aim was to explore how these five areas influence students’ academic affect, academic self-concept, self-regulation, goal setting, and social concern. Findings suggested a definite relationship between these five areas of affective and social development of the students and their perceptions of the inviting school climate, particularly the influence of teachers, and the processes used to encourage autonomy in learning. In addition, this qualitative section confirmed the survey findings that students with different levels of academic achievement had different perceptions of invitational climate. Less-able students felt less positive than more-able students about the inviting nature of people, policies, and places. Implications for the implementation of Invitational Education to cater for learner diversity are discussed. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Education

As one of the most influential constructs in educational psychology, academic motivation represents individuals’ drives and energies to learn; as an emerging construct attracting increasing interest, engagement manifests individuals’ drives and energies, such as the use of self-regulation strategies. However, little existing research simultaneously considers these two groups of constructs within one framework, or takes their antecedents and outcomes into account, especially in regards to Chinese university students. The present study attempts to systematically study motivation and engagement on the basis of social-cognitive motivation theory and achievement orientation theory as a means of unifying substantive and empirical claims. To accomplish these purposes, two studies, each with two parts, have been conducted with Chinese university students as participants. In Study One, Part One explores the factor structure of several instruments – including the Motivation and Engagement Scales-University/College (MES-UC), the Goal Orientation and Learning Strategies Survey (GOALS-S), the Scale of Institution Integration (SII) and the Academic Satisfaction Questionnaire (ASQ) – in half the sample (426 cases). Cross-validation with the other half of the sample is then undertaken (423 cases). Part Two investigates a process model, which includes student multiple motivational beliefs, engagement and educational outcomes through path analysis. The results suggest that students’ work avoidance goal predicts their academic dissatisfaction directly and indirectly via maladaptive engagement; their social concern goal indirectly predicts intellectual development via adaptive engagement; their social approval goal directly influences achievement; and student engagement mediates the impacts of other motivational beliefs on their academic dissatisfaction, intellectual development and achievement. Furthermore, social concern, social approval, social status goals and work avoidance goals are significantly related to motivation and engagement. 　　In Study Two, Part One cross-validates the MES-UC instrument in a new independent sample (836 cases) of Chinese university students. Other instruments including the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) and the Patterns of Adaptive Learning Survey (PALS) are also validated. Part Two investigates a process model, which includes classroom goal structure, motivational beliefs, engagement and achievement through path analysis. The results find that the classroom mastery goal structure predicts adaptive and maladaptive engagement via adaptive motivation, and the classroom performance-avoidance goal structure affects maladaptive engagement via personal performance-approach goal orientation and maladaptive motivation In summary, by considering the classroom goal structure as a contextual antecedent and a variety of motivational beliefs as individual antecedents, as well as achievement-related constructs as outcomes, the thesis finds the mediation effect of motivational beliefs between classroom goal structure and student engagement, as well as the mediation effect of engagement between motivational beliefs and achievement-related outcomes. The thesis also summarizes the main contributions, and implications, noting the limitations and pointing out some directions for future research in the field of student motivation and engagement. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education