Wang, John Chee Keng

The motivated strategies for learning questionnaire (MSLQ) is widely used as a self-report instrument to assess students' motivation and self-regulation. This study utilized the MSLQ Junior High to examine the motivational beliefs and self-regulation of secondary school students (Grades 8 and 9) from Singapore. The instrument was slightly modified and administered to students (N = 610) in mathematics and science classes. In the first sample, 314 students completed the MSLQ Junior High while a second sample of 296 students completed the revised MSLQ Junior High. Using a congeneric approach of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), the five-factor measurement model was determined with the first sample. This measurement model was further supported using a second sample and its goodness-of-fit indices were compared with other CFA models. Statistical findings showed that the five-factor structure of the revised MSLQ Junior High had a good model fit. The present study contributes a novel methodological approach by investigating the parsimony confirmatory factor structure of the revised MSLQ Junior High in local academic contexts.

The present study tested the cross-cultural generalizability of the measurement and structural parameters of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) among youth in a physical activity context. Pupils from five cultural groups completed measures of attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control (PBC), and intentions for physical activity. Five weeks later, participants completed self-report measures of physical activity behavior. Confirmatory factor analyses and multi sample structural equation models revealed well-fitting models within each sample with minimal variations in the measurement parameters across cultures. There were a few significant cross-cultural differences in the structural relations among the TPB constructs. Attitudes predicted intentions in all samples (β range = .300 to .550), whereas the effect of the subjective norms on intention was nonsignificant in all but the Hungarian sample (β = .243). Conversely, the effect of PBC on intentions was significant (β range = .302 to .573) in all but the Hungarian sample. Findings support the generalizability of the measures and pattern of effects for the TPB among young people in a physical activity context.

The National Education (NE) programme was set up in Singapore schools in 1997 to inculcate national identity and national values in the younger generation. Teachers in schools are given the important role to develop a shared sense of nationhood among their students. However, no study has examined the motivation of teachers to teach NE in schools. The purpose of the present study was to examine pre-service teachers’ motivation, perceptions of NE, perceived competence to teach NE and feelings about the NE programme provided in their teacher training course using cluster analysis. The study involved 4242 pre-service teachers (1229 males, 2986 females, 27 missing information) from the National Institute of Education (NIE) in Singapore. The results showed that 15.6% of the teachers belonged to a ‘high amotivation’ cluster, 38.0% formed a ‘high externally regulated’ cluster, 19.9% made up a cluster labelled as ‘low externally regulated’ and the rest (26.5%) had an ‘intrinsically regulated’ profile. The four clusters showed significant gender and programme differences. In summary, the results of the cluster analysis supported the concurrent validity of the clusters in terms of pre-service teachers’ perceptions of NE involvement, importance, NE as government propaganda, competence to teach NE and satisfaction with the NE programme provided in their teacher training course.

Digital gaming is fast becoming a favorite activity all over the world. Yet very few studies have examined the underlying motivational processes involved in digital gaming. One motivational force that receives little attention in psychology is passion, which could help us understand the motivation of gamers. The purpose of the present study was to identify subgroups of young people with distinctive passion profiles on self-determined regulations, flow dispositions, affect, and engagement time in gaming. One hundred fifty-five students from two secondary schools in Singapore participated in the survey. There were 134 males and 8 females (13 unspecified). The participants completed a questionnaire to measure harmonious passion (HP), obsessive passion (OP), perceived locus of causality, disposition flow, positive and negative affects, and engagement time in gaming. Cluster analysis found three clusters with distinct passion profiles. The first cluster had an average HP/OP profile, the second cluster had a low HP/OP profile, and the third cluster had a high HP/OP profile. The three clusters displayed different levels of cognitive, affective, and behavioral outcomes. Cluster analysis, as this study shows, is useful in identifying groups of gamers with different passion profiles. It has helped us gain a deeper understanding of motivation in digital gaming.

This study examined stability and transitions of school-aged children's self-determination theory-based need satisfaction profiles in physical education (PE) over three years. Participants were 1121 (girls 573, boys 548) Finnish school children. The self-report data were assessed using identical procedures from 2017 to 2020. Three latent need satisfaction profiles were identified: Low, Mid, and High need satisfactions. Transitions mainly occurred between grade 5 and 6 in elementary school, after which the profile memberships remained relatively stable. The profile memberships were not school- or PE group dependent over time. These results indicate that school-based actions to achieve a positive impact on need satisfaction development could already be commenced in the early school years, as it may be more challenging to induce positive changes in student behaviours after children have transitioned to middle school.

This study tested the generalizability of the factor pattern, structural parameters and latent mean structure of a multidimensional, hierarchical model of physical self-perceptions in adolescents across gender and grade. A children’s version of Fox and Corbin’s (1989) Physical Self-Perception Profile (C-PSPP) was administered to seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade high school students (N = 2969). Two a priori models were proposed: a confirmatory factor analytic model proposing a multidimensional model of physical self-esteem and a structural equation model that hypothesized a multidimensional, hierarchical structure with global self-esteem as a superordinate construct and physical self-worth as a domain-level construct governing the subdomains of the C-PSPP. Using the FASEM approach (Bentler, 1986), both models satisfied multiple criteria for goodness-of-fit with the data in each individual gender and grade sample. Tests of the invariance of the factor pattern and structural parameters for both models across gender and grade were supported. Consistent with findings from other contexts, latent means analysis suggested that physical self-esteem scores were higher in boys and in seventh-grade adolescents.

The capacity for random movement production is known to be limited in humans (e.g., Newell, Deutsch, & Morrison, 2000). We examined the effects of a brief mindfulness induction on random movement production because there are useful implications for variability in solving movement-related problems. The main task involved randomly clicking the 9 boxes in a 3 × 3 grid presented on a computer screen for five minutes. We characterized the sequence of clicking in terms of degrees of randomness, or periodicity, based on the fit, or probability, of the experimental data with its best fitting Bayesian network (4-click memory nodes) using the Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approach. Sixty-three participants were randomly assigned to either the experimental or the control condition. Mixed design repeated-measures ANOVA results show that the short mindfulness induction had a positive effect on the randomness of the sequence subsequently produced. This finding suggests that mindfulness may be a suitable strategy for increasing random movement behavior.

In this era of relentless change, explosion of information, and proliferation of technological innovations, it is too simplistic to think that teachers can teach their students everything they need to know in their lifetime. In a world filled with problems that require complex solutions, and issues that are not documented in books and manuals, it is naive to attempt to “drill” and “discipline” students so that they know the “correct” answers. With this reality check, we need to take a cold hard look at what we do in classrooms and schools when we educate our students. We are doing a disservice to our students if we teach content and routines that become obsolete or impart skills that are not transferable. But more importantly, we are shortchanging our students if we champion learning processes that do not impact on life-wide learning, create learning environments that do not encourage self-determination, and develop students who do not have the drive to learn independently.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between sport experiences and psychological needs satisfaction of Singapore high school athletes who were involved in inter-school competition. A total of 1250 school athletes from 22 sports participated in the study. The athletes were between 13 and 18 years old and had an average of 3 years of experience in school sport (SD=.18). Cluster analysis was employed to identify homogenous groups based on the seven developmental experiences domains of the Youth Experience Survey (YES 2.0; Hansen & Larson, 2005). A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to determine whether differences existed among the clusters in terms of psychological needs satisfaction (i.e., sense of autonomy, perceived competence and relatedness). The results of the cluster analysis showed that there were different subgroups of athletes with distinct developmental experiences, and they varied in the degree to which their psychological needs were satisfied. Generally, subgroups that had high levels of positive experiences and low levels of negative experiences in sport had better fulfillment of psychological needs. It is important to ensure that policies and programmes are formulated, delivered and monitored effectively to promote positive experiences for youth who are involved in competitive sports.