Chong, Wan Har

This study examines the academic and social self-regulatory functioning of thirteen-year old secondary one students from different academic streams, and the role personal agency beliefs plays in facilitating such functioning. The thesis assumes that both academic and social self-regulation. and the self-beliefs of academic and social efficacy, specific aspects of self-concept and affiliation-based motivation are important in enhancing strategic learning and successful school engagement. It questions the validity of Western conceptualized and individualistically-oriented motivational concepts, and argues for a role for affiliation-based motives in supporting students' academic and social initiatives in a largely collectivistic context like Singapore. It also examines whether both academic and social self-regulation share common underlying processes, so that by reinforcing these processes, it may be possible to strengthen both academic and social functioning. An intervention programme was designed to test out the conceptual model involving the postulated relations between self-regulatory processes and motivational variables with low achieving students. Unlike many cognitive interventions that were specifically designed to teach strategies to enhance learning, this training aimed at strengthening the students' self-regulatory functioning an,d underlying motivational beliefs that come to influence educational outcomes.

Express stream students rank amongst the top in international benchmarking comparisons in TIMMS and PISA, but those from the Normal Academic and Normal Technical streams obtain lower-than-average scores comparable to students from developing countries. Although a differentiated program has been specially tailored to cater to their pace of learning, many still fail to perform because educators may not have adequately considered the circumstances under which they are willing to participate and learn. Substantial research indicates that besides academics, a range of social, psychological, interpersonal and emotional factors also contribute to educational performance and achievement. To gain perspective on the respective contribution of multiple factors and encapsulate the systemic influences at individual and contextual factors on the long-term academic and non-academic trajectories of these students, this study uses a student engagement framework to unravel the educational challenges facing Normal stream students. Student engagement refers to a student’s active involvement in a task or activity and it captures the gradual process by which they connect with or disconnect from school. This framework describes students’ feelings (affective), behaviours and thoughts (cognitive) about their school experiences, and is predominantly used to understand student problems associated with significant academic or discipline problems and eventual school dropout in research situated in western contexts.

The study aims to provide an insider perspective of inclusion in Singapore primary schools. Two hundred educators were interviewed about their perceptions and experiences of inclusion. Findings shed light on the definition and implementation of inclusion, teachers’ personal experience, perceived barriers to and facilitators of to inclusion, and its advantages and disadvantages. Inclusion as currently practised in Singapore is an integration pull-out model. Teachers shared slightly more negative than positive experiences and provided valuable insights into the challenges and rewards of inclusion. Teacher attitude, a critical factor for successful inclusion, is related to perceived school support. More than training, teachers need to experience success. There are implications for school leadership, training, class allocation for special needs, and assessment.

In a knowledge-based economy, an effective learner takes greater self-direction, independence and initiative in the learning process and, thus is required to draw on personal motivational resources to manage and perform. Such strategic learning is particularly critical at the secondary school level when the syllabi are more cognitively demanding and regulation of one's behaviour towards effective learning is increasingly called upon. This paper therefore seeks to examine the relationships between prior achievement, academic and social self-regulation, and students' self-beliefs from the survey findings of 540 lower secondary school students in Singapore.

This study investigates the effects of a classroom-based intervention program aimed at enhancing low achieving students' self-perceptions of their own ability, agency, control, and efficacy. The quasi-experimental study with 89 secondary school students was carried out over ten 35-45 minute weekly sessions in two Singapore schools. By adopting a socio-cognitive perspective in which self regulatory processes and personal agency beliefs are incorporated, the program aimed at fostering the students' will through helping them to appraise their role in assuming personal responsibility in change processes, and their skill through using various metacognitive and cognitive strategies to effect personal changes. The exposures to the instructional activities showed a positive impact on the self-efficacy and self-regulation in the academic domain but not on aspects of self-concept, social efficacy and social regulation, suggesting that these two socio-cognitive variables may be more amenable to change than social constructs that are less definable and more general conceptually. Qualitative data provided useful feedback on how the concepts could be refined to help create greater metacognitive knowledge and awareness of school-related skills in the students. Educational implications for the classroom were discussed in the light of these findings.

This study examines the influence of both student and teacher perception of the student-teacher relationship on student's attitude towards teachers and school. It also seeks to explore any gender differences in the perception of teacher-student relationship between male and female adolescents. A sample of 1,266 students (541 girls and 725 boys) from six different middle schools in Singapore participated in this study. Findings indicated that gender differences were observed for certain dimensions in the teacher-student relationship predicting their attitude towards teachers and school. Possible explanations for the obtained results were suggested and implications of the findings were also discussed.