Perceived autonomy support and agentic engagement among Malaysian undergraduates: the mediatory role of personal best goals

ABSTRACT

Despite continuously growing literature that emphasises the significant role of students’ agency in classroom activities, the construct of agentic engagement has received scant attention in recent empirical research. Drawing from the self-determination theory, the present study aims to determine the relationship between teacher autonomy support and agentic engagement, and explore whether personal best goals mediate such associations. For this purpose, using a cross-sectional design, data from 536 university students in northern Malaysia were analysed. The associations among the constructs were evaluated using structural equation modelling. The empirical results indicate that students’ perceptions of teacher autonomy support were associated with personal best goals and agentic engagement. In addition, the findings suggest that personal best goals significantly mediate the relationship between teacher autonomy support and agentic engagement. These findings highlight the critical role of personal best goals as a mechanism by which an autonomy-supportive teaching style facilitates students’ agency during their learning activities.

KEYWORDS:

• Autonomy support
• personal best goals
• agentic engagement
• higher education
• self-determination theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Abderrahim Benlahcene

Abderrahim Benlahcene Gained his PhD in Educational Psychology at the School of Education and Modern Language at Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM). His research interests include motivation and engagement for learning in higher education.

Rosna Awang-Hashim

Rosna Awang-Hashim Professor Rosna Awang-Hashim (BA, MA, UNT Texas) (PhD, USC Los Angeles) is a motivation scientist and an educational psychologist at the School of Education, Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) and the Editor-in-Chief of the Malaysian Journal of Learning and Instruction (MJLI; ESCI WoS, SCOPUS, ERA, ACI). Her research interests include motivation psychology, learning and teaching in higher education, socio-psychological processes in learning and teaching interactions & academic and contextual leadership. She was a former Dean of the School of Education & former Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic and International) of Universiti Utara Malaysia.

Amrita Kaur

Amrita Kaur Amrita Kaur is an Associate Professor at the College of Liberal Arts, Wenzhou-Kean University, China. She teaches postgraduate courses in Educational Psychology, Educational and Psychological Measurement and Evaluation, and Research Methodology. Her research interests include teaching and learning in higher education, assessment, learning motivation and engagement and cross-cultural studies for learning. She is the editorial member of Scopus indexed journal –Malaysian Journal of Learning and Instruction.

Wan-Zalina Wan-Din

Wan-Zalina Wan-Din Wan-Zalina Wan-Din is lecturer at the School of Education and Modern Language at Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM).