Article Gold Open Access 2023

Exploring Chinese and Ethiopian higher VET adolescent learning motivation through the lens of self-determination theory

PLOS ONE
Journal · Vol. 18 · Issue 5 May · Art. e0285439
Abstract

Ethiopia and China share a common educational agenda in cultivating and obtaining competent vocational graduates who fulfill the need of the modern, technologically advanced industrial workplace. Unlike most evidence, the present study adopted Self-determination Theory to understand Ethiopian and Chinese higher Vocational education and Training (VET) college students’ learning motivation. Hence, this study recruited and interviewed 10 volunteers senior higher VET students from each setting to unfold their satisfaction with psychological needs. The study’s main finding affirms that although both groups felt the autonomy of choosing the vocational field they sought to master, their learning process was submissive to their henpecked teaching method, which ultimately restrained the participants’ feeling of competence for being enclosed in less practical training space. As per the study findings, we forward feasible policy and practical implications suggested for meeting the motivational needs of VET students and promoting learning stability. ©: © 2023 Khalid et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Keywords

Author Keywords

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Index Keywords

Teaching learning female human male psychology Humans adolescent Article Students Vocational education student motivation controlled study vocation human experiment satisfaction clinical article East Asian East Asian People personal autonomy college student theoretical study
Author Affiliations
College of Teacher Education, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, Zhejiang, China
Faculty of Education, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
Funding & Acknowledgements
No funding information
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