Shui-fong Lam

Who Makes the Choice? Rethinking the Role of Autonomy and Relatedness in Chinese Children’s Motivation

The importance of autonomy for childrens motivation in collectivistic cultures has been debated hotly. With the understanding that autonomy is not equivalent to freedom of choice, 4 studies addressed this debate by investigating how socioemotional relatedness, choice, and autonomy were related to Chinese childrens motivation. Study 1 (N = 56, mean age = 10.77 years), Study 2 (N = 58, mean age = 10.59), and Study 3 (N = 48, mean age = 10.53) found consistently that freedom of choice mattered less if children were socioemotionally close to the adults who made choices for them. However, Study 4 (N = 99, mean age = 11.27) showed that autonomy mattered at every level of socioemotional relatedness. These results suggested that socioemotional relatedness might have facilitated internalization and that children who did not have choice might still feel autonomous.

The effects of competition on achievement motivation in Chinese classrooms

BACKGROUND Laboratory studies have consistently found that competition induces performance goals and affects learning motivation. However, the ecological validity of these results is yet to be established. There is a need for investigation of whether the results hold in both the classroom context and non-Western culture. AIM The study investigated the effects of competition on learning motivation among Chinese students in an authentic classroom setting. SAMPLE The participants were 52 students of grade 7 from two Hong Kong secondary schools. METHOD They were randomly assigned to either competitive or non-competitive conditions in a 2-hour Chinese typewriting course. RESULTS Students in the competitive condition performed better in easy tasks than their counterparts in the non-competitive condition. However, they were more performance-oriented and more likely to sacrifice learning opportunities for better performance. They were also prone to have worse self-evaluation after failure. Although there were no statistically significant differences between the two conditions in task enjoyment and achievement attribution, the direction of the differences was consistently unfavourable to students in the competitive condition. CONCLUSION The findings were consistent with the predictions of goal theory. Competitiveness induces performance goals and worse self-evaluation after failure among Chinese students in a classroom setting, as was found with Western students in a laboratory setting.

Understanding Student Engagement with a Contextual Model

In the present study, student engagement was conceptualized as a metaconstruct with affective, behavioral, and cognitive dimensions. As the indicators in each of the three dimensions were unpacked from facilitators and outcomes, we were able to investigate how student engagement was associated with its antecedents and outcomes in a sample of Chinese junior secondary school students (N = 822). The results supported a contextual model for understanding student engagement. They revealed that students were engaged in school when they felt that their teachers adopted motivating instructional practices and they had social-emotional support from their teachers, parents, and peers. Their engagement was high when they had high self-efficacy, endorsed learning goals, and effort attribution. Most importantly, when students were engaged in schools, they experienced positive emotions frequently and their teachers rated them high on academic performance and conduct. The findings have implications for interventions for the enhancement of student engagement in school.

Understanding and Measuring Student Engagement in School: The Results of an International Study from 12 Countries.

The objective of the present study was to develop a scale that is appropriate for use internationally to measure affective, behavioral, and cognitive dimensions of student engagement. Psychometric properties of this scale were examined with data of 3,420 students (7th, 8th, and 9th grade) from 12 countries (Austria, Canada, China, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Malta, Portugal, Romania, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States). The intraclass correlation of the full-scale scores of student engagement between countries revealed that it was appropriate to aggregate the data from the 12 countries for further analyses. Coefficient alphas revealed good internal consistency. Test-retest reliability coefficients were also acceptable. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the data fit well to a second-order model with affective, behavioral, and cognitive engagement as the first-order factors and student engagement as the second-order factor. The results support the use of this scale to measure student engagement as a metaconstruct. Furthermore, the significant correlations of the scale with instructional practices, teacher support, peer support, parent support, emotions, academic performance, and school conduct indicated good concurrent validity of the scale. Considerations and implications regarding the international use of this student engagement in school measure are discussed.

The International School Psychology Survey. Data from Australia, China, Germany, Italy and Russia.

Using the International School Psychology Survey (ISPS) this study aims to advance our knowledge of the characteristics, training, roles and responsibilities, challenges and research interests of school psychologists around the world. Data are presented from five countries; Australia, China (Hong Kong), Germany, Italy and Russia. The ISPS contributes valuable information regarding the profession of school psychology in each of these countries. Building upon the ISPS data previously gathered in Albania, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece and Northern England, this study yields additional information regarding the training, roles, responsibilities and contexts of school psychologists. Information from international colleagues provides unique insights regarding similarities, differences and diversity among school psychologists in different countries.

Cultural universality and specificity of student engagement in school: The results of an international study from 12 countries

BACKGROUND A comprehensive understanding of the contextual factors that are linked to student engagement requires research that includes cross-cultural perspectives. AIMS This study investigated how student engagement in school is associated with grade, gender, and contextual factors across 12 countries. It also investigated whether these associations vary across countries with different levels of individualism and socio-economic development. SAMPLES The participants were 3,420 7th, 8th, and 9th grade students from Austria, Canada, China, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Malta, Portugal, Romania, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States. METHODS The participants completed a questionnaire to report their engagement in school, the instructional practices they experienced, and the support they received from teachers, peers, and parents. Hierarchical linear modelling was used to examine the effects at both student and country levels. RESULTS The results across countries revealed a decline in student engagement from Grade 7 to Grade 9, with girls reporting higher engagement than boys. These trends did not vary across the 12 countries according to the Human Development Index and Hofstedes Individualism Index. Most of the contextual factors (instructional practices, teacher support, and parent support) were positively associated with student engagement. With the exception that parent support had a stronger association with student engagement in countries with higher collectivism, most of the associations between the contextual factors and student engagement did not vary across countries. CONCLUSIONS The results indicate both cultural universality and specificity regarding contextual factors associated with student engagement in school. They illustrate the advantages of integrating etic and emic approaches in cross-cultural investigations.

How Parents Perceive and Feel about Participation in Community Activities The Comparison between Parents of Preschoolers with and without Autism Spectrum Disorders

The present study compared how parents of preschoolers with and without Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) perceived and felt about participation in community activities. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 380 Hong Kong parents of preschoolers with ASD and 214 Hong Kong parents of preschoolers without ASD. The two groups were not different in their willingness and frequency of participation in community activities. However, the psychological processes underneath their willingness were very different. Among the parents of preschoolers with ASD, their willingness was associated with how they perceived the difficulty and importance of the participation and what emotions they experienced during the activities. This pattern of association was not evident among the parents of preschoolers without ASD.

A Latent Class Growth Analysis of School Bullying and Its Social Context: The Self-Determination Theory Perspective.

The contribution of social context to school bullying was examined from the self-determination theory perspective in this longitudinal study of 536 adolescents from 3 secondary schools in Hong Kong. Latent class growth analysis of the student-reported data at 5 time points from grade 7 to grade 9 identified 4 groups of students: bullies (9.8%), victims (3.0%), bully-victims (9.4%), and typical students (77.8%). There was a significant association between academic tracking and group membership. Students from the school with the lowest academic performance had a greater chance of being victims and bully-victims. Longitudinal data showed that all 4 groups tended to report less victimization over the years. The victims and the typical students also had a tendency to report less bullying over the years, but this tendency was reversed for bullies and bully-victims. Perceived support from teachers for relatedness significantly predicted membership of the groups of bullies and victims. Students with higher perceived support for relatedness from their teachers had a significantly lower likelihood of being bullies or victims. The findings have implications for the theory and practice of preventive interventions in school bullying.

Continuing Professional Development in School Psychology Perspective from Hong Kong

A questionnaire survey was conducted in Hong Kong to investigate the types, frequency, popularity and quality of continuing professional development (CPD) in school psychology. The results indicated that 60 percent of the 32 respondents received regular supervision, however, the majority met their supervisors less than once a month. The characteristics of their supervisors also suggested that the supervision tended to be administrative instead of professional in nature. The most popular CPD activities were attending conferences/seminars, self-study and individual supervision. Large variation was found among the school psychologists from different work settings. The few school psychologists in private practice reported the least amount of CPD activities. The results are discussed with reference to the need to establish regulatory systems with mandatory CPD.

The enhancement of community integration: Coping strategies of Chinese parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

This study presents a collaborative research project by school psychologists and educators in Hong Kong. It investigated the coping strategies used by Chinese parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (N = 380) to enhance their children’s community integration and how these strategies were related to their perceptions of community integration and willingness to engage their children in community activities. A factor analysis of questionnaire responses revealed three clusters of coping strategies: Constructive, avoidant, and confrontational strategies. Parents’ willingness to engage their children in community activities was predicted positively by their use of constructive strategies but negatively by their use of avoidant strategies. Confrontational strategies had no predictive power. Parents who used constructive strategies often tended to report more positive emotions and perceive greater importance for engaging their children in community activities.