A Case Study Of Student Teachers’ Academic Engagement From Self-determination Theory Perspective

As previous studies have shown,the average level of STs’ academic engagement deviates from the ideal expectations.Besides,there is evidence that STs pay little attention to academic learning or even abandon it and value teaching practices more than academic learning.Therefore,student teachers’ academic engagement in teacher education programs needs to be analyzed as it influences student teachers’ academic achievement.The research questions of this study are:1.What was the level of Lucy’s(an M.Ed.student teacher)academic engagement during the first academic year?2.What were the contributing factors in Lucy’s academic engagement during the first academic year?The case study approach was adopted to explore an M.Ed.student teacher’s academic engagement in a normal university affiliated with Ministry of Education of China.This study was under carefully controlled data source triangulation(Carter et al.,2014),such as semi-structured interviews,documents,and self-reported questionnaires.Three interviews were conducted to investigate Lucy’s perceptions of,the manifestations of,and the contributing factors in her academic engagement.The documents collected included reflective writing,her email,and study records.Two self-reported questionnaires were to identify Lucy’s academic engagement and her learning motivation,which were used twice during the first academic year.This study found that Lucy had a high level of academic engagement.However,it was accompanied by both deep and surface learning with dual nature.On the one hand,behaviorally,she invested much time to accomplish academic tasks;emotionally,she enjoyed and identified with academic learning;cognitively,she actively used strategies.On the other hand,her academic engagement was mainly task-oriented and she failed to conduct original research.According to the theoretical framework based on self-determination theory(Ryan&Deci,2017),academic engagement was a product of the dynamic interplay of psychological factors.At the presage stage,previous educational experiences and learning determination influenced Lucy’s level of academic engagement;at the process stage,basic psychological needs and self-regulation strategies were the decisive factors.Implications of this study highlight the need for student teachers to understand their academic engagement and make use of factors to improve their level of academic engagement,especially autonomous engagement.For the teacher education programs,structural support should be provided to engender and enhance student teachers’academic engagement.