The Motivational Profiles and Perceptions of Schooling of Asian Students in Australia

Asian-background students are performing better than other groups within the Australian educational setting. In order to investigate the reasons for this achievement advantage, this study examines the motivational profiles of Asian-background and Anglo-background students in New South Wales Australia. The research utilises personal investment theory and self-concept theory to provide a research framework. 283 Asian-background and 887 Anglo-background students were administered the Inventory of School Motivation, the General Achievement Goal Orientation Survey, the Facilitating Conditions Survey, and the Academic Self Description Questionnaire. While the motivational and self-concept profiles of the two groups were surprisingly similar, there are core significant differences that help explain the Asian students’ achievement advantage. Asian-background students are highly task oriented and significantly more effort oriented, more competitive, praise and token oriented than the Anglo-background students. They have a significantly stronger sense of purpose for schooling and are more performance oriented. Asian-background students also have a stronger intention to go on to university and further study, value school and like school more than their Anglo peers. These results are consistent with those reported in earlier studies with Asian American students.

Women and the personal meaning of competition: A qualitative investigation

Using a qualitative design, the purpose of this study was to investigate the personal meaning of competition to the female mountain bike racer. Interviews were conducted with nine female mountain bike racers of varying levels of experience, and were designed to elicit information relevant to the athlete’s understanding of her experience of competition, as well as, the personal meaning she attached to that experience. The codification of participant responses resulted in the identification of eight main themes including self-fulfillment, perceived competence, social support and camaraderie, health and fitness, joy of the experience, focus and self-control, external benefits derived from racing, and goal-direction. The findings of the study were, in general, supportive of the components of meaning posited by Personal Investment Theory (Maehr & Braskamp, 1986). Practical implications from this study include developing strategies for increasing the meaningfulness of the competitive experience for females in order to promote participation in physical activity.

Secondary School Physical Education Teacher Motivation: An Application of Personal Investment Theory

The purpose of this study was to examine physical educator work motivation using personal investment theory as a theoretical framework. Public secondary school teachers (n = 73) voluntarily completed SPECTRUM, a 200-item Likert scale inventory that measures 20 self and work perception categories. One-way ANOVA results revealed few within-group perception differences based on gender, age, years of teaching experience, or job capacity. Then z tests were used to determine perception differences between physical educators and a preexisting normative sample. Comparison between groups revealed that the physical educators reported significantly lower (p < .05) incentives for accomplishment and recognition, and significantly higher (p < .05) affiliation incentives. Physical educators also reported significantly fewer (p < .05) perceived opportunities for recognition and power and significantly lower (p < .05) levels of organizational commitment. These findings provided preliminary insight into how teachers’ perceptions of themselves, their jobs, and their work environments may operate together to result in common behavioral patterns.