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Digital portfolios have gained an increasing prominence in teacher education programmes around the world as a consequence of research which purports their multiple benefits to users and of their potential to represent beginning teachers' practices. Despite the current popularity of digital portfolios, the nature of their use is still not well understood. This article explores how student teachers use digital portfolios in a teacher education programme in Singapore from an economics perspective. It posits that the adoption of an economic lens would shed new light on existing understandings and raise awareness of how and why student teachers use digital portfolios the ways they do. Reference to a range of economic concepts would will help to better understand educational outcomes. The article considers the implications of the findings for informing how digital portfolios are implemented and raises issues for consideration in further implementation efforts and in future research.

The purpose of this study is to develop and validate an 18-item Problem-based Learning Process Inventory (PBLPI) for learning in this 21st century. Preservice teachers at the National Institute of Education (NIE) doing Educational Psychology are exposed to a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) environment. Findings from Exploratory Factor Analysis of 1,041 preservice teachers provided evidence for a three-factor solution -- Problem Posing, Scaffolding and Connecting. Results from Confirmatory Factor Analysis of 1,029 preservice teachers provided additional support for the results obtained from Exploratory Factor Analysis. Moderate to high reliability coefficients for the PBLPI scores demonstrated PBLPI as a reliable and valid instrument to measure learners' perception of the key PBL processes.

Using the self-determination theory (SDT), this study sought to understand motivational profiles and their links to psychological learning attributes. Participants were 90 secondary three (grade 9) students, aged 15 to 16 years old, from an elite all-girls school in Singapore. Hierarchical cluster analysis revealed three clusters of students with distinct motivational profiles. MANOVA, ANOVA and post hoc tests showed that the three clusters differed significantly in self-efficacy, intrinsic task value, effort and enjoyment in learning. A "highly motivated" cluster characterised by high introjected, identified and intrinsic regulations was found to be most adaptive, with the "highly motivated" cluster being associated with the most optimal psychological learning attributes. An "unmotivated" cluster characterised by high amotivation was found among this sample of high-ability students, with the "unmotivated" cluster being the least adaptive. The importance of understanding how the different motivational regulations were combined to influence psychological learning attributes was discussed.

The present study focuses on the perspectives of teachers and students in Singapore schools after an autonomy-supportive classroom intervention. Nurturing of students to become motivated and self-regulated learners can be achieved by promoting an autonomy-supportive learning climate. This study examines the perspectives of teachers and students in an in-depth and meaningful manner after the classroom intervention. Through students' viewpoints, teachers can understand their structure of teaching style and students' expectations. Findings of semi-structured interviews with students and teachers were analyzed, with emerging themes discussed in the context of literature. Based on qualitative data, this preliminary study explores a rich and meaningful insight to students' expectations of their teachers and teachers' expectations towards their students. The qualitative data provided relevant and practical insights into the classroom intervention, suggesting that teachers should be aware of their instructional behaviors in class as such acts might have ramification on students' perception, motivation and learning. Limitations and implications are also discussed.

This paper, using the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) as the underpinning framework, examines student teachers' basic psychological needs, their subjective experience and their perceived teaching competence during practicum. It attempted to establish whether there were distinct groups of student teachers with different needs satisfaction, and how their levels of needs satisfaction were related to the groups' subjective experience and perceived teaching competence. Quantitative data were collected. Data were analysed using cluster analysis and MANOVA. Overall, the results suggest that SDT can be effectively utilized as a framework for looking at how needs satisfaction is related to student teachers' subjective experiences and perceived competence in teaching during practicum. The findings from this study are useful in providing evidence for teacher educators to strengthen their practicum model and plan mentoring workshops. The findings also provide much-needed insights into groups of student teachers that may need more support during practicum. Finally, the findings may help mentors understand their mentees better.

Dear authors and reviewers, We celebrated the first issue of the International Journal of Studies in Psychology (IJSPSY). We are excited and inspired to start this new journey through its mission and objective. We believed that IJSPSY is a reality responding to ensure that our knowledge is continuously relevant and responsive to different communities' needs. The understanding of diversity in psychology could bring various cultures together. The genesis of the world revealed that human beings are born with inherent abilities, talents, and capacities; and build on the strengths and talents they already have to improve their holistic well-being. We do not always have to reinvent ourselves for successful well-being. Instead, we need to find ways to deploy “best self” in new and significant ways, bringing knowledge systems in psychology, augmenting, enabling, and enhancing holistic learning with the vision of the International Journal of Studies in Psychology (IJSPSY). This should be done by conducting responsive research and has significant relevance to the researchers, scholars, practitioners, and policymakers that the IJSPSY Editorial Board voted to launch a new journal. The IJSPSY's goal is to shape psychology studies' direction by encouraging scholarship that affects research and practice in public and private sectors, solving complex, interconnected, and interrelated problems. Furthermore, it helps to connect with other disciplines and produce ‘quantum’ knowledge, rather than fragmented and binary knowledge systems.

The benefits of cooperative learning strategies, such as group project work, have been advocated in a wide range of educational contexts. There is however, scant information on the outcome of such programs on students of low academic ability. In this study, interviews were conducted with four groups of low-ability students, with the aim of investigating their perceptions on the effectiveness of group project work in promoting their social and cognitive skills. Our findings show that although the students recognized that the program improved their competence in interacting with others, there are problematic organizational and instructional issues that have to be ironed out before students can profit fully from cooperative learning programs.

The computer-supported Project Work classroom learning environment discussed in this paper represents a paradigm shift from teacher-centered to student-centered teaching and learning in Singapore schools. Besides the face-to-face weekly lessons in existing Project Work classrooms, the students engaged in computer-supported online forum discussions. Two hundred and sixty students and 26 teachers from seven high schools participated in this study. Their perceptions of this new learning environment were assessed using a modified version of the Web-based Learning Environment Instrument (WEBLEI). In addition, the instrument was also validated. The WEBLEI exhibited satisfactory internal consistency reliability and discriminant validity. Comparing the actual and preferred perceptions of the students and teachers revealed that there were differences between the actual and preferred perceptions for both students and teachers. With these in mind, the implications for using technology to support the face-to-face teaching and learning in Project Work classrooms are discussed in this paper. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)

Many studies support the existence of a significant decline in students' academic self-concept from early to mid-adolescence. In comparison, the findings on gender effect are less conclusive. This study aimed to determine whether there is any grade or gender effect on adolescents' academic self-concept in the Singapore context. Specifically, the cross-sectional study was conducted with Secondary 1, 2 and 3 students (N = 656) in a government co-educational school. The results established a significant main effect according to grade, with Secondary 3 students having significantly lower academic self-concept (scale and subscales) than Secondary 1 and 2 students. In addition, there was a significant main effect for gender, with female students having significantly higher perceived academic effort (academic self-concept subscale) than their male counterparts.

The Professional Practice and Inquiry (PPI) course was introduced to equip pre-service teachers with the knowledge, skills, and values required to develop them into reflective practitioners with a strong teacher identity. This study looks into the efficacy of the course in the preparation of thoughtful and reflective teachers. Self-reported questionnaires were administered to the pre-service teachers. Interviews were conducted to complement the quantitative findings. Findings suggested that pre-service teachers (1) were more aware of their teaching identity, (2) perceived themselves as teacher inquirers, (3) were more able to engage in cognitive self-regulation, and (4) were more cognizant of their Graduand Teacher Competencies.