Lei Mee Thien
Biographic Data
| ID | 266874 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lei Mee Thien |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lei Mee |
| FAMILY NAME | Thien |
| SIGNATURE | THIEN L M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Universiti Sains Malaysia |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8626-9825 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 37 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 8 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 37 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Distributed leadership and its covariation with teacher academic optimism dimensions
The predominant reliance on variable-centred analytical approaches in studies of distributed leadership and teacher academic optimism has often overlooked individual-level heterogeneity, potentially resulting in oversimplified conclusions about their relationship. This study addresses these gaps by employing a person-centred approach to uncover latent profiles of perceived principal distributed leadership and their associations with dimensions of…
Advancing Outward‐Oriented Internationalisation of Higher Education Through Development Assistance
As an emerging donor in the Global South, Malaysia has increasingly advanced development assistance (DA) through its internationalisation of higher education (IHE) agenda. DA can be understood as a policy domain at the intersection of HE and foreign policy, requiring alignment between the two agendas. Assessing how these policies and practices have evolved in the Malaysian HE sector is therefore important for generating evidence‐based insights in…
The complex dynamic between teacher turnover intention, principal and teacher psychological antecedents in Malaysian schools
Teacher turnover remains a persistent challenge in education, yet research often overlooks the complex and configural nature of its antecedents. Addressing this gap, this study examines how principal emotional support and key teacher psychological factors interact in configurations associated with teacher turnover intention. Data were collected from 426 primary school teachers in northern Malaysia and fuzzy set–qualitative comparative analysis wa…
Pathways of Servant Leadership in Lecturers' Work Engagement and Innovative Behaviour
As a positive leadership style, servant leadership draws attention to its role in motivating innovative behaviour and work engagement. Based on the self‐determination theory, this study focuses on validating servant leadership in the higher vocational college lecturers' work engagement and innovative behaviour. The link considered the mediating role of psychological empowerment and perceived organisational support, as well as the moderating effec…
Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education
This study integrates bibliometric analysis and systematic review methodologies to provide a comprehensive overview of research on artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education. Drawing on 621 publications and a focused analysis of 27 highly cited empirical studies, the study addresses six research questions concerning publication trends, prolific authors, influential documents, methodological approaches, research gaps and ethical consideratio…
Women leadership in higher education
The scarcity of literature in higher education addressing the enablers or challenging factors influencing the progression of women academics from middle-level to senior leadership roles is noteworthy. This study aims to explore the factors that enable or impede the advancement of middle-level women academics and identify recommendations for promoting women leadership in higher education institutions. This qualitative study has collected interview…
Profiling the Research Landscape of Student Leadership From 1930 to 2023
This study employs a bibliometric analysis to comprehensively explore 278 publications in student leadership from 1930 to 2023, mapping the literature in the field and revealing research trends, themes and potential areas of research. This study applied the biblioMagika tool and OpenRefine to clean and harmonise the messy data. The biblioMagika tool, VOSviewer and Biblioshiny software were used for data analysis. The United States is the most sig…
Chinese primary school teacher leadership behaviors
Background and Purpose: Teacher leadership is an important aspect of school leadership and is an essential factor in teaching quality across levels and disciplines. However, there is a deficit in the literature that describes a comprehensive conception and enactment of leadership behaviors among primary school teachers in the Asian context, including that of China. Methodology: This paper presents an explanatory sequential mixed methods study tha…
Configuring effects of learning-centred leadership in promoting teacher professional learning and teacher self-efficacy
Comprehensive investigation of configuring effects of the learning-centred leadership that could sufficiently explain teacher outcomes has not been adequately addressed in the literature. Drawing on complexity theory, this study aims to investigate how the four dimensions of learning-centred leadership combine to lead to increased teacher professional learning and teacher self-efficacy using a combination of symmetric and asymmetric approaches. D…
Linear and nonlinear relationships between instructional leadership and teacher professional learning through teacher self-efficacy as a mediator
Although the investigation of instructional leadership and teacher professional learning is well-documented in the literature, one overlooked question concerns the linear and nonlinear relationships between these two variables. This study aims to examine the linear and nonlinear relationships of principal instructional leadership on teacher professional learning through teacher self-efficacy as a mediator. This study has collected 335 teacher sam…
The relationship between distributed leadership and teacher well-being
Teacher well-being plays an important role in education reform because it marks teachers’ positive evaluation of and healthy functioning in their work environment. However, there has been insufficient research on the relationship between distributed leadership and teacher well-being and on how organisational trust works as a mediator between these two constructs. Based on responses from 587 teachers in primary schools in southwest China, this stu…
Does middle leaders’ learning-centred leadership matter in promoting teacher professional learning? A partial least squares analysis
The ignorance of the role of middle leaders as a ‘key broker’ between school principals and teachers in the literature has motivated this study to investigate the effects of middle leaders’ learning-centred leadership on teacher professional learning through teacher mastery goals and their self-efficacy with the moderating effect of the quality of communication between middle leaders and teachers. A total of 453 data were collected from 24 primar…
Fostering teachers’ readiness for leadership roles
Purpose This study delves into the less-explored domain of teachers’ readiness for leadership roles by investigating the direct and indirect relationships between positive school culture and teachers' readiness for leadership roles through affective-identity motivation to lead, and teacher optimism. Design/methodology/approach This study employed partial least squares structural equation modelling (WPLS-SEM) for data analysis. The data were gathe…
Understanding Middle Leaders' Distributed Leadership Factors as Necessary and Sufficient Conditions for Fostering Teacher Commitment to Change
This study aims to examine which middle leaders' distributed leadership factors (cohesive leadership team, participative decision‐making, leadership support and leadership supervision) are sufficient and to what degree these four factors are necessary for fostering high teacher commitment to change (TCTC). Data were gathered from 1018 Malaysian primary school teachers. The partial least squares analysis indicated positive relationships between th…
Spurring teacher well‐being from teacher leadership and basic psychological needs perspectives
This study aims to investigate the linear and nonlinear (non‐compensation) effects of teacher leadership on teacher well‐being dimensions through the three basic psychological needs dimensions (autonomy, competence, and relatedness). This quantitative cross‐sectional study used partial least squares structural equation modelling and artificial neural network (ANN) for data analysis. Data were collected using survey questionnaires from 728 Malaysi…
Happiness Among Malaysian University Students Who Stayed on Campus During Movement Control Order
The effects of school culture dimensions on teacher well-being across under-enrolled and high-enrolment schools
This study aims to examine and compare the school culture dimensions and its effects on teacher well-being across under-enrolled and high-enrolment schools. Data were collected from 452 Malaysian primary school teachers. The results showed that high-enrolment schools scored higher in the dimensions of goal orientation and participative decision-making. Goal orientation, leadership, and formal relationship dimensions have significant effects on te…
Investigating a multiple mediated-effects model of instructional leadership and teacher professional learning in the Malaysian School Context
The poor student performance in the Programme for International Student Assessment has urged the Malaysian authorities to upskill teachers’ professional learning. However, little is known about how instructional leadership contributes to teacher professional learning, especially in the Malaysian context. This study seeks to investigate the direct relationship between principal instructional leadership and teacher professional learning through the…
The elusive Malayan tiger ‘captured’
Substantial progress has been made in the knowledge base of educational leadership and management (EDLM) in societies across the world. However, the evidence base in developing countries such as Malaysia remains limited. Thus, this article reports the results of a systematic review of research on EDLM in Malaysia. The review aimed at describing key features of the Malaysian knowledge base in EDLM with respect to publication volume, journal outlet…
(Re)Investigating the pathways between instructional leadership, collective teacher efficacy, and teacher commitment
Purpose This study aims to investigate the direct and indirect relationships among principal instructional leadership, collective teacher efficacy, and teacher commitment using multilevel analysis. Design/methodology/approach This study employed quantitative cross-sectional research design. Data were collected from 1,328 teachers selected from 71 Malaysian primary schools. Findings The direct relationship between instructional leadership and teac…
The 100 Most-Cited Research Publications on Servant Leadership
This study analyzed the 100 most-cited servant leadership publications in the Scopus database from 1991 to 2021 by using bibliometric analysis. The analysis includes visualization, bibliographic coupling, co-occurrence, and co-authorship analysis. Country contributions were examined, with the United States emerging as the dominant contributor, followed by the Netherlands, Australia, China, and Canada. van Dierendonck and Liden being the most infl…
Satisfaction with School Life
This qualitative study aimed at gaining an in-depth understanding of the aspects that shaped pupils’ satisfaction with school life in a multiethnic Malaysian context. The multiple case study design was employed to understand and elicit pupils’ experiences, feelings, beliefs, thoughts and perceptions of their satisfaction with school life in three different types of Malaysian primary schools, namely national primary school (Malay-dominated), natio…
One-size-fits-all? A cross-validation study of distributed leadership and teacher academic optimism
This study aims to validate Western-based distributed leadership and teacher academic optimism scales in the Malaysian primary school context. This study further examined the relationships between distributed leadership and teacher academic optimism as well as each dimension of teacher academic optimism. Data were collected from 442 primary school teachers in Penang, Malaysia. This study used exploratory factor analysis and partial least squares …
Psychometric analysis of a Malay language version of the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale
The extent to which the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale (PIMRS) is sensitive and appropriate to be used in different cultural contexts remains underexplored in the literature. To address this research gap, this study attempts to validate a Malay language version of PIMRS by assessing convergent, discriminant, and criterion validity from a hierarchical perspective. Data were collected from 375 primary school teachers from 30 select…
Is ‘the more the better’? Investigating linear and nonlinear effects of school culture on teacher well-being and commitment to teaching across school size
Academic Coping, Friendship Quality, and Student Engagement Associated with Student Quality of School Life
Configuring effects of learning-centred leadership in promoting teacher professional learning and teacher self-efficacy
Comprehensive investigation of configuring effects of the learning-centred leadership that could sufficiently explain teacher outcomes has not been adequately addressed in the literature. Drawing on complexity theory, this study aims to investigate how the four dimensions of learning-centred leadership combine to lead to increased teacher professional learning and teacher self-efficacy using a combination of symmetric and asymmetric approaches. D…
Students as 'Customers
The scarcity of Malaysian undergraduate students' course experience and their overall satisfaction in higher education literature has prompted this study to examine the effects of five course experience quality factors on students' overall satisfaction and gender difference perspective. Data were collected from 315 undergraduate students at a Malaysian research university using a Malay version course experience questionnaire (CEQ). This quantitat…
Unveiling the Practices and Challenges of Professional Learning Community in a Malaysian Chinese Secondary School
Professional learning community (PLC) studies in the Asian Chinese nations remain scarce despite the emerging interest in the practice of PLC beyond the Western context. This study attempts to provide an understanding of the practices of PLC and challenges in implementing PLC in a Malaysian Chinese culture-dominated secondary school. This qualitative study used a phenomenological constructivist approach as a strategy of inquiry. Semi-structured i…
Specifying and Assessing a Multidimensional Friendship Quality Construct
Academic Coping, Friendship Quality, and Student Engagement Associated with Student Quality of School Life
Validating Teacher Commitment Scale Using a Malaysian Sample
This study attempts to validate an integrative Teacher Commitment scale using rigorous scale validation procedures. An adapted questionnaire with 17 items was administered to 600 primary school teachers in Penang, Malaysia. Data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with SPSS 19.0 and AMOS 19.0, respectively. The results support Teacher Commitment as a multidimensional construct with its four…
Teacher commitment
Specifying and Assessing a Multidimensional Friendship Quality Construct
Kepimpinan Distributif, Keadaan Dalam Sekolah, Dan Komitmen Guru Untuk Berubah
Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji hubungan antara kepimpinan distributif terhadap komitmen guru untuk berubah dengan keadaan dalam sekolah sebagai mediator. Kajian ini menggunakan reka bentuk kajian kuantitatif dengan kaedah tinjauan. Sampel kajian terdiri daripada 357 orang guru-guru sekolah menengah yang dipilih secara rawak daripada 20 buah sekolah di Daerah Seberang Perai Utara dan Seberang Perai Tengah di Pulau Pinang, Malaysia. Pendekatan…
The Reforms of National Assessments in Malaysian Education System
Although the impact of education policy reform could inform future policymaking initiatives, studies on education policy reform of student assessment are considered scarce. This study attempts to scrutinise the drivers, impacts, and challenges of education policy reform of the national assessment system in Malaysia based on policy documents and previous empirical studies. The findings indicated that the education policy reform of the Malaysian na…
Distributive Leadership Functions, Readiness for Change, and Teachers’ Affective Commitment to Change
Although the literature abounds with factors that contribute to organizational commitment and commitment to change, it is still unclear what factors influence teachers’ affective commitment to change. This study attempts to examine the relationships between two perceived distributive leadership functions, namely, leadership team cooperation and participative decision-making, and teachers’ affective commitment to change with the mediating effects …
Students as 'Customers
The scarcity of Malaysian undergraduate students' course experience and their overall satisfaction in higher education literature has prompted this study to examine the effects of five course experience quality factors on students' overall satisfaction and gender difference perspective. Data were collected from 315 undergraduate students at a Malaysian research university using a Malay version course experience questionnaire (CEQ). This quantitat…
Unveiling the Practices and Challenges of Professional Learning Community in a Malaysian Chinese Secondary School
Professional learning community (PLC) studies in the Asian Chinese nations remain scarce despite the emerging interest in the practice of PLC beyond the Western context. This study attempts to provide an understanding of the practices of PLC and challenges in implementing PLC in a Malaysian Chinese culture-dominated secondary school. This qualitative study used a phenomenological constructivist approach as a strategy of inquiry. Semi-structured i…
Nexus between distributed leadership, teacher academic optimism and teacher organisational commitment
Purpose This study aims to investigate the relationships between distributed leadership, teacher academic optimism and teacher organisational commitment with the contextual influence of gender and teaching experience. Design/methodology/approach This study employed partial least squares structural equation modelling for data analysis. This study has selected 421 teachers from 18 secondary schools in Penang. Findings Distributed leadership has a p…
Exploring Positive School Attributes
The extent to which school stakeholders perceive positive school attributes remains unclear in the literature. This study seeks to provide an understanding of positive school attributes from the school leaders and teachers’ perspectives in the Malaysian school context. This study employed a qualitative case study research design with 14 informants selected from seven Malaysian secondary schools. The thematic analysis informed six emerging themes:…
Psychometric Properties of the 34-Item Short-Form Supportive Care Need Survey (SCNS-SF34) Scale in the Malaysian Cancer Healthcare Context
(1) Background: This study aimed to assess the psychometric properties of the Malay version of SCNS-SF34 among Malaysian cancer patients. (2) Methods: This cross-sectional study involved 171 cancer patients. Data were collected using the structured five-factor survey via telephone call or face-to-face interviews. The internal reliability and the construct validity of SCNS-34M were analysed using principal component analysis with varimax rotation.…
One-size-fits-all? A cross-validation study of distributed leadership and teacher academic optimism
This study aims to validate Western-based distributed leadership and teacher academic optimism scales in the Malaysian primary school context. This study further examined the relationships between distributed leadership and teacher academic optimism as well as each dimension of teacher academic optimism. Data were collected from 442 primary school teachers in Penang, Malaysia. This study used exploratory factor analysis and partial least squares …
Psychometric analysis of a Malay language version of the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale
The extent to which the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale (PIMRS) is sensitive and appropriate to be used in different cultural contexts remains underexplored in the literature. To address this research gap, this study attempts to validate a Malay language version of PIMRS by assessing convergent, discriminant, and criterion validity from a hierarchical perspective. Data were collected from 375 primary school teachers from 30 select…
Is ‘the more the better’? Investigating linear and nonlinear effects of school culture on teacher well-being and commitment to teaching across school size
The effects of school culture dimensions on teacher well-being across under-enrolled and high-enrolment schools
This study aims to examine and compare the school culture dimensions and its effects on teacher well-being across under-enrolled and high-enrolment schools. Data were collected from 452 Malaysian primary school teachers. The results showed that high-enrolment schools scored higher in the dimensions of goal orientation and participative decision-making. Goal orientation, leadership, and formal relationship dimensions have significant effects on te…
Investigating a multiple mediated-effects model of instructional leadership and teacher professional learning in the Malaysian School Context
The poor student performance in the Programme for International Student Assessment has urged the Malaysian authorities to upskill teachers’ professional learning. However, little is known about how instructional leadership contributes to teacher professional learning, especially in the Malaysian context. This study seeks to investigate the direct relationship between principal instructional leadership and teacher professional learning through the…
The elusive Malayan tiger ‘captured’
Substantial progress has been made in the knowledge base of educational leadership and management (EDLM) in societies across the world. However, the evidence base in developing countries such as Malaysia remains limited. Thus, this article reports the results of a systematic review of research on EDLM in Malaysia. The review aimed at describing key features of the Malaysian knowledge base in EDLM with respect to publication volume, journal outlet…
(Re)Investigating the pathways between instructional leadership, collective teacher efficacy, and teacher commitment
Purpose This study aims to investigate the direct and indirect relationships among principal instructional leadership, collective teacher efficacy, and teacher commitment using multilevel analysis. Design/methodology/approach This study employed quantitative cross-sectional research design. Data were collected from 1,328 teachers selected from 71 Malaysian primary schools. Findings The direct relationship between instructional leadership and teac…
The 100 Most-Cited Research Publications on Servant Leadership
This study analyzed the 100 most-cited servant leadership publications in the Scopus database from 1991 to 2021 by using bibliometric analysis. The analysis includes visualization, bibliographic coupling, co-occurrence, and co-authorship analysis. Country contributions were examined, with the United States emerging as the dominant contributor, followed by the Netherlands, Australia, China, and Canada. van Dierendonck and Liden being the most infl…
Satisfaction with School Life
This qualitative study aimed at gaining an in-depth understanding of the aspects that shaped pupils’ satisfaction with school life in a multiethnic Malaysian context. The multiple case study design was employed to understand and elicit pupils’ experiences, feelings, beliefs, thoughts and perceptions of their satisfaction with school life in three different types of Malaysian primary schools, namely national primary school (Malay-dominated), natio…
Linear and nonlinear relationships between instructional leadership and teacher professional learning through teacher self-efficacy as a mediator
Although the investigation of instructional leadership and teacher professional learning is well-documented in the literature, one overlooked question concerns the linear and nonlinear relationships between these two variables. This study aims to examine the linear and nonlinear relationships of principal instructional leadership on teacher professional learning through teacher self-efficacy as a mediator. This study has collected 335 teacher sam…
The relationship between distributed leadership and teacher well-being
Teacher well-being plays an important role in education reform because it marks teachers’ positive evaluation of and healthy functioning in their work environment. However, there has been insufficient research on the relationship between distributed leadership and teacher well-being and on how organisational trust works as a mediator between these two constructs. Based on responses from 587 teachers in primary schools in southwest China, this stu…
Does middle leaders’ learning-centred leadership matter in promoting teacher professional learning? A partial least squares analysis
The ignorance of the role of middle leaders as a ‘key broker’ between school principals and teachers in the literature has motivated this study to investigate the effects of middle leaders’ learning-centred leadership on teacher professional learning through teacher mastery goals and their self-efficacy with the moderating effect of the quality of communication between middle leaders and teachers. A total of 453 data were collected from 24 primar…
Fostering teachers’ readiness for leadership roles
Purpose This study delves into the less-explored domain of teachers’ readiness for leadership roles by investigating the direct and indirect relationships between positive school culture and teachers' readiness for leadership roles through affective-identity motivation to lead, and teacher optimism. Design/methodology/approach This study employed partial least squares structural equation modelling (WPLS-SEM) for data analysis. The data were gathe…
Psychology (28 works) · Pedagogy (20 works) · Social Psychology (18 works) · Mathematics education (15 works) · Structural equation modeling (15 works) · Education and Islamic Studies (13 works) · Educational leadership (9 works) · Political science (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Teacher Education and Leadership Studies (8 works)