Nie Youyan

A study of the implementation of the Strategies for effective engagement and development (SEED). SEED "aimed to assist teachers in engaging learners and support student development by utilising effective teaching strategies, which built upon an understanding of learner needs and learning styles of children in lower primary. As such the SEED initiative advocates the adoption of developmentally appropriate teaching practices and assessment modes." -- p. 4-5.

The purpose of this study is to revise the Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES), developed by Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk Hoy (2001 ) and to examine its factorial, predictive, convergent and discriminant validity, as well as its intemal consistency reliability. One hundred nine primary and secondary school teachers in Singapore participated in this research. The revised scale consists of three factors: efficacy for instruction, efficacy for classroom management, and efficacy for motivation. The revised sub- scales showed good intemal consistency reliability. The factor analysis results also indicated that the specific teacher efficacy beliefs could be further collapsed into one general factor. The convergent validity was good but the discriminant validity was weak. The appropriate use of TSES is also discussed.

This study examines whether the relation between authoritative parenting and student outcomes is mediated by students’ self-efficacy and task value, using a structural equation model. Our study was based on adolescents’ self-report data of 2090 Grade-9 students from 39 schools in Singapore. The results of the study confirm the mediating role of self-efficacy and task value in the relations between authoritative parenting and student outcomes. In addition, some direct associations were also found between authoritative parenting and student engagement and disengagement in the classroom. Students with warm, firm, and democratic parents tended to have better school performance and stronger engagement in school.

Description of the aims of this research project This research project has two objectives: (1) identify a repertoire of school leaders' autonomy-supportive behaviours which are a ssociated with teachers' psychological needs satisfaction and autonomous motivation; and (2) develop and validate an Autonomy-Supportive School Leadership Behaviours scale for assessing school leaders' autonomy-supportive behaviours. There are two research questions to guide the study:
1. Which behaviours of school leaders are perceived by teachers as 'autonomysupportive'? 2. What is the psychometric property of the Autonomy-Supportive School Leadership Behaviours scale?

This study examined how classroom management practices—teachers’ control and care—were differentially associated with students’ engagement, misbehavior, and satisfaction with school, using a large representative sample of 3196 Grade 9 students from 117 classes. Results of hierarchical linear modeling showed differential relations: After controlling for students’ gender and socioeconomic status, both control and care were positively related to student engagement. Moreover, control was a significant negative predictor of classroom misbehavior and care was a significant positive predictor of satisfaction with school. Our findings underscore the importance of blending teacher control and care to achieve multiple goals of classroom management.

Based on the perspective of Self-Determination Theory (SDT), this research examined the mediating role of teachers’ psychological needs satisfaction in explaining the relationships between perceived principal’s learning support and teachers’ work-related outcomes. Results from a convenience sample of 180 Singapore primary school teachers revealed that perceived principal’s learning support directly predicted psychological needs satisfaction (i.e. autonomy, competence and relatedness), change-oriented work behaviour and organisational commitment. Psychological needs satisfaction partially mediated the relationships between perceived principal’s learning support and change-oriented work behaviour as well as organisational commitment. The findings could contribute useful insights to teacher education and SDT research and practice.

This three-wave longitudinal study underscores the importance of identifying elements in school settings that can help academically at-risk students--those who are likely to follow a trajectory of low achievement or academic failure-- to develop academic resilience. The study utilised both quantitative (i.e., survey questionnaires and standardised achievement tests) and qualitative (i.e., open-ended questions and semi-structured interviews) approaches, and focused on two subject domains--English Language (EL) and Mathematics (Maths). The participants of the study were 1305 students from 22 schools in Singapore. These students were considered as potentially at-risk academically as their aggregate scores in the Primary School Leaving Examination were lower than the cohort’s mean score. From this pool of students, students facing different levels of academic risk (i.e., low, moderate and high) in EL or Maths were identified on the basis of their school grades and scores in standardised achievement tests at the end Secondary One (S1). Low language or numeracy proficiency on entry to secondary school, which is a critical transition phase in students’ life, was considered as a significant risk factor that can directly predispose students towards continued poor academic performance in later years.
The profiles of the students in the three risk groups were compared in relation to their background characteristics and the focal variables of this study: socio-emotional strengths (i.e., emotional awareness, empathy, goal setting, social competence, and emotional regulation), academic motivation (i.e., amotivation, extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation), perceived relatedness with teachers (i.e., student-to-teacher communication, teacher trust and teacher alienation), and perceived teacher autonomy and competence support. The results of the study suggest that, compared to students facing low academic risk, students facing high academic risk tended to report lower emotional awareness, goal setting and perceived teacher support; and higher amotivation, teacher alienation, and student-to-teacher communication. These variables can be considered as potential foci of interventions that can be implemented before or at the beginning of secondary school in order to preclude students from facing high levels of academic risk or to mitigate the effects of academic risk factors.
This study applied a dual approach in defining academic resilience. Using a trait-based approach, subjective academic resilience was defined as the students’ capacity to effectively handle challenges, adversities, pressures and setbacks in school setting; it was measured using students’ self-ratings on items acting as indicators of trait-based or dispositional form of academic resilience. Using a process- based approach, objective academic resilience was defined as the achievement of positive academic outcomes despite the presence of challenging situations or risk factors (i.e., low achievement on entry to S1). In this study, a positive academic outcome is assessed in Secondary Three (S3): It corresponds to at least a passing grade in EL (or Maths) and/or a score in standardized achievement tests in Reading (or Maths) above the 23rd percentile of the norming population.
Focusing on objective academic resilience, high-risk students who achieved positive academic outcomes in S3 were considered as resilient, and those who remained at a high-risk status were considered as less resilient. Compared to the less resilient students, the resilient students tended to report a greater improvement in goal setting, emotional awareness, and student-to-teacher communication and had a more stable perceived teacher trust over three years. The resilient students tended to have lower amotivation and teacher alienation than their less resilient peers. There were also indications that the resilient students were more competent in setting goals and in working towards their goals; they also tended to frame failure and deal with failure more positively, and to report receiving more competence and relatedness support than their less resilient peers. The key sources of support that helped students deal with academic challenges were mainly peers, followed by family members and teachers.
The results of the study also indicate that student-to-teacher communication and students’ goal-setting ability (particularly, a positive change), perceived teacher competence support, and students’ emotional regulation were the most consistent positive predictors of academic resilience in both objective and subjective forms. The aforementioned factors were found as significant predictors of academic resilience more consistently and strongly in relation to EL than Maths.