The effect of perceived campus learning environment on students' self-determined motivation in vocational studies

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the unidirectional relationship between the campus learning environment as perceived by students, the satisfaction of basic psychological needs, and self-determined motivation, using Deci and Ryan's self-determined theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985; 2002) and Vallerand's (1997) integrated motivational sequence. In addition, the impact of four campus environmental factors on studentsʼ satisfaction of basic psychological needs and their subsequent self-determined motivation is examined; these are teacher involvement, teacher support, studentsʼ collaborativeness, and supportive campus environment. This study also reveals the importance of the outside-classroom environment, which has not been investigated in detail in previous self-determined theory studies. The target population for this study was all full-time higher diploma students in the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (IVE). A total of 847 IVE students from eight IVE campuses participated in the study. The participant profile was 564 male and 245 female (38 students did not report gender), 411 in Year-1 studies and 436 in Year-3 studies, as well as 391 in business courses and 456 in engineering courses. Year-1 students got significantly higher mean score in the self-determined index (SDI) than Year-3 students, and business students were higher than engineering students in SDI. Besides, the mean score of SDI for the whole sample was 1.42 (SD = 3.64), ranging from a maximum score of 10.3 to a minimum score of -12.06, with a media of 1.57. The relatively low mean and the limited range of scores might suggest that IVE students' SDI score was lower than other populations examined by the AMS (e.g. Chen & Carey, 2009; Fairchild et al, 2005; Vallerand et al., 1992; Vallerand et al., 1997). This highlights the need to discover which campus environmental factors has the greatest linkage with IVE students' satisfaction of basic needs and their self-determined motivation and how this happens, as a way to tackle the possible problem of low motivation. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to find that Vallerand's (1997) integrative motivational sequence could be applied in Hong Kong vocation educational context to describe the relationships among campus learning environment as perceived by students, the satisfaction of basic psychological needs and self-determined motivation. Among the tested models, the fully mediated model best described the unidirectional relationships between the latent constructs: Supportive campus environment, studentsʼ collabortiveness, and teacher involvement had positive and significant links with studentsʼ self-determined motivation (both in terms of self-determined index or intrinsic motivation) through the mediation of basic needs satisfaction. Teacher support also exerted a positive but insignificant effect on self-determined motivation via the satisfaction of basic needs. In addition, the supportive campus environment was found to have the highest direct link with studentsʼ satisfaction of basic needs and indirect links with SDI and IM, with studentsʼ collaborativeness and teacher involvement ranked the second and third respectively. Teacher support had positive but insignificant impact. Year-3 students shared the same rank order about the relative importance of the four campus learning environment factors but Year-1 students did not perceive any significant difference among the four factors. It is possible that these findings were due to the characteristics of IVE students (e.g. developmental stage and their past academic experience), as well as the IVE course arrangements. The present study is important because it provided empirical evidence to examine IVE students' motivation orientations through a person-in-context perspective and to explore the possibility of a more proactive approach in solving possible motivational problems through the manipulation of campus social contexts. The findings also suggested that more emphasis should be put on supportive campus environment and students' collaborativeness, areas which have often been neglected in previous SDT studies. However, the present study did only find partial support to the expected simplex structure of correlations among the seven motivation orientations in the Academic Motivation Scale (AMS). This highlights the need to re-examine whether the question items could reflect the corresponding motivation orientation and to review the concept of the self-determined continuum.

本研究是建基於自我決定理論(Deci & Ryan, 1985; 2002) 及Vallerand (1997) 的內外動機原因序列，旨在探討職訓學生的自決動機與校園學習環境及自我決定中的需要滿足(下文為需要滿足) 之直線關係。 同時，亦比較四項校園學習環境的原素(包括：老師參與, 老師支援, 同學間互助及校園支援環境) 對學生的需要滿足及自決動機所產生的直接及間接影響。 另外，本研究闡明了在自我決定理論研究中常被忽略的課室以外環境對自決動機的重要性。 本研究的對象是就讀於香港專業教育學院(IVE) 的全日制高級文憑學生， 參與者來自八間IVE學院，合共847位學生；當中包括564位男生及245女生(38位同學沒有報告性別)， 亦可分為411位一年級生及436位三年級生， 及391位商科生和456位工科生。 研究發現一年級生比三年級生的自我決定指數(Self-determined Index,SDI) 明顯較高，商科生亦明顯比工程生高，若整體而言，參與者的平均SDI為1.42(標準差=3.64)，最高指數為10.3而最少指數值為 -12.06，中位數為1.57，與其他相類似並同樣使用學術動機量表(Academic Motivation Scale, AMS) 的研究比較, 本研究發現IVE學生的SDI平均值是相對低及相對窄，固證明認知IVE學習環境如何與學生的自決動機及需要滿足相連是非常重要，並需從中發掘如何利用環境因素來解決低學習動機問題。 本研究採用了結構方程模型(Structural Equation Modeling, SEM) 來証明Vallerand (1997) 的內外動機原因序列能應用在香港的職訓學生身上, 並發現中介模型最能描述校園學習環境, 需要滿足及自決動機的直線關係： 校園支援環境、 同學間互助及老師參與皆對學生的需要滿足有直接及正面的相關， 從而再間接並正向連繫學生的自決動機(即自決動機指數及內在動機)；老師支援雖分別對需要滿足有正面連繫及對自決動機有間接連繫, 但指數並不明顯。 再者，當四項校園學習環境要素相互比較， 校園支援環境對需要滿足的直接連繫及對自決動機的間接連繫皆為最高， 同學間互助及老師參與的影響則為第二及第三， 而老師支援的直接及間接的影響則最少及不明顯，這個排序亦應驗在三年級生，但一年級生則對四個校園學習環境要素未感明顯分別；相信這項發現可能與IVE學生的特式 (如： 學生成長階段, 學業經歷) 及與IVE的課程行政安排有關。 本研究証明可用人與環境互動的領域來了解香港職訓學生的學習動機情況，並提倡透過運用學院間人際互動的環境去提升他們的學習動機， 並且發現在自我決定理論研究中常被忽略的課室以外環境 (包括校園支援環境及同學間互助) 的重要性。可是， 本研究的數據未能顯示學術動機量表(AMS) 提出七項動機之間的連續體關係， 從而帶出重新檢示AMS測試題目與動機項目對應性的需要，及質疑自我決定的動機線性關係的概念可用性。