The dark side of pandemic-era flexible learning: Using mixed methods to investigate psychological need frustration and its role in behavioral (dis)engagement

• Main Author: Española, Raymon P.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2023
• Subjects: Open learning; Frustration; College students > Philippines; Mixed methods research; Educational Psychology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdd_counseling/6; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etdd_counseling/article/1005/viewcontent/The_dark_side_of_pandemic_era_flexible_learning__Using_mixed_meth__1__Redacted.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

This mixed-methods study aimed to understand why college students disengaged from flexible learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Grounded in self-determination theory, the study proposed that pandemic-era flexible learning was a need-thwarting social context, with instructors, peers, and people at home as socializing agents who influenced the students' appraisals of psychological need frustration (PNF). The study had three phases, with each phase building on the previous one. Phase 1 involved focus group discussions (N = 27 in five groups) sampled purposively from a state university in northeastern Mindanao. The thematic analysis of their narratives led to the identification of seven eight themes of need-thwarting behaviors of various social agents, seven themes of appraisals of need frustration relative to those behaviors, and seven themes of consequences relative to those appraisals. Phase 2 involved the development of a context-specific measure of PNF in flexible learning. The validation process, which employed content validation, pilot testing, exploratory factor analysis (n = 190), confirmatory factor analysis, and hierarchical regression analyses (n - 385), led to a five-factor PNF measure. Phase 3 employed structural equation modeling and mediation analyses (n = 684) to test an integrated model of behavioral disengagement, revealing that global PNF-FL increased the likelihood of behavioral disengagement through amotivation and that every first-order dimension of PNF-FL had varying effects. The study has theoretical implications for researchers, as well as practical implications for both college students and practitioners, suggesting the need for collective action to foster adaptive use of flexible learning in the post-COVID world. Keywords: psychological need frustration, behavioral disengagement, amotivation, flexible learning, Filipino college students, mixed methods