Helen M G Watts
Biographic Data
| ID | 2747528 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Helen M G Watts |
| GIVEN NAMES | Helen M G |
| FAMILY NAME | Watts |
| SIGNATURE | WATTS H M G |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Sydney |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2026-0849 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 33 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 191 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 33 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
The ‘problem’ of teacher professional development in Australia: An analysis of Talis 2018
The teaching motivation paradox: A systematic review and content analysis of candidate teachers’ motivations across cultures and time
Finnish teacher students’ career choice motivations: A mixed methods study
This mixed-methods study analysed motivations to teach among Finnish first-year teacher students ( N = 946) from early childhood, primary and special education programs, to discern potential additional motivations in a context where teaching is highly regarded and any differences between programs. Responses to an open-ended question revealed complementary motivational nuances to enrich the FIT-Choice scale in this context, such as ‘perceived soci…
Interest in science and mathematics teaching among non-science/mathematics initial teacher education candidates
Many countries are experiencing teacher shortages, with particularly long-standing issues in attraction and retention in secondary science and mathematics. Policy initiatives often focus on science and mathematics undergraduates, with the aim of encouraging them to consider teaching by offering scholarships into teacher education or fast-tracking into employment permanency. However, those who have already chosen to teach in non-science and mathem…
Mapping the emotional landscape of teaching and learning
Background and AimsTraditionally, research in educational psychology had overlooked teachers' motivations and emotions, focusing on students. This has changed markedly in the last 20 years, when recent studies have made rapid strides to study the motivations and emotions of teachers too, as documented in the contributions to this Special Issue. In this concluding article, I discuss four of the included articles focussed on teacher emotions, indic…
How do occupational goals influence adult women’s and men’s decisions to opt out of aspired mathematics-related careers during adolescence
An explanation for the underrepresentation of women in mathematical fields is the communal goal congruity perspective; that women tend to value communal over agentic goals, perceived to not be afforded by mathematical careers. Less is known about how agentic and communal goals may interact to influence mathematical career trajectories. Analysing a longitudinal dataset, we examined gender differences and combinations of agentic and communal goals,…
Career motivations and interest in teaching of tertiary students taking mathematics and science subjects
Many countries face mathematics and science teacher shortages. There is a need for greater knowledge about eligible individuals’ potential interest to teach and career motivations. We explored career motivations and interest in a teaching career, among 470 tertiary mathematics and science students from four Australian universities. Students with high interest in teaching were distinguished from those with low interest, by high ‘altruistic’ motive…
Quality early childhood education through self, workplace, or regulatory support: Exploring the efficacy of professional registration for early childhood teachers in Australia
Teacher registration is increasingly utilised as a governance mechanism to audit teachers’ work and drive professional practice. There is limited and mixed empirical evidence, however, as to whether registration drives teaching quality. Our study extends this limited empirical base by critically examining the policy trajectory in Australia to bring early childhood teachers into a uniform system of registration with primary and secondary teachers.…
How do perceived teacher beliefs and classroom goal structures relate to motivations and enrollments in secondary school mathematics and English
Our study examined how students’ perceived teacher beliefs and classroom goal structures, gender (of teachers and students) and own perceived talent, controlling for prior achievements, together explained motivational outcomes of students’ achievement goals, intrinsic value and enrollment choices in mathematics and English. Participants were 1086 grades 9–11 students (respective N s = 380, 369, 337) from 3 coeducational middle-class schools in me…
‘Out-of-Field’ Teaching in Mathematics: Australian Evidence from Pisa 2015
Attracting, retaining and sustaining early childhood teachers: An ecological conceptualisation of workforce issues and future research directions
Profiles of teachers’ striving and wellbeing: Evolution and relations with context factors, retention, and professional engagement
Drawing on an existing typology, this study used latent transition profile analysis (LTPA) to examine changes in the striving and wellbeing profiles among teachers from their early until mid-career. Five profiles were identified (Sparing, Good health, Ambitious, Burnout and Wornout) among a longitudinal sample of 414 Australian secondary and primary teachers. LTPA showed that 28% of teachers were movers over time. Most movers from maladaptive typ…
Motivation of higher education faculty: (How) it matters
Person- and variable-centred quantitative analyses in educational research: Insights concerning Australian students’ and teachers’ engagement and wellbeing
Teacher burnout and turnover intent
My Freind who Writes for Me’: Scribes and Scribal Relationships in the Letters of Seamen, 1793–1815
This article examines the use of scribes in letters of one group of men during a specific period: British Royal Navy servicemen below the rank of commissioned officer during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1793–1815. The letters of one such seaman in particular, Richard Greenhalgh, are unusual in that he himself could write, but preferred to have someone to write for him, as is shown by many references to ‘his freind who writes for …
Student‐Perceived Mothers’ and Fathers’ Beliefs, Mathematics and English Motivations, and Career Choices
According to Eccles and Jacobs' (1986) parent socialization model, parents' gendered ability and value beliefs influence girls' and boys' interpretations of those beliefs, and hence students' domain-specific valuing of tasks and competence beliefs and subsequent career plans. Studies have rarely analyzed how both student-perceived mothers' and fathers' beliefs affect girls' and boys' task values, success expectancies, and career plans across doma…
Adolescent-perceived parent and teacher overestimation of mathematics ability: Developmental implications for students’ mathematics task values
This study examines whether and how student-perceived parents' and teachers' overestimation of students' own perceived mathematical ability can explain trajectories for adolescents' mathematical task values (intrinsic and utility) controlling for measured achievement, following expectancy-value and self-determination theories. Longitudinal data come from a 3-cohort (mean ages 13.25, 12.36, and 14.41 years; Grades 7-10), 4-wave data set of 1,271 A…
Mathematics—a Critical Filter for STEM-Related Career Choices? A Longitudinal Examination among Australian and U.S. Adolescents
Teacher Motivation
An introduction to teaching motivations in different countries: Comparisons using the FIT-Choice scale
The FIT-Choice program of research (Factors Influencing Teaching Choice; http://www.fitchoice.org) began in 2001, prompted by two questions that had been forming for Richardson over the course of a...
Motivations for choosing teaching as a career: An international comparison using the FIT-Choice scale
Gendered motivational processes affecting high school mathematics participation, educational aspirations, and career plans: A comparison of samples from Australia, Canada, and the United States
In this international, longitudinal study, we explored gender differences in, and gendered relationships among, math-related motivations emphasized in the Eccles (Parsons) et al. (1983) expectancy-value framework, high school math participation, educational aspirations, and career plans. Participants were from Australia, Canada, and the United States (Ns = 358, 471, 418, respectively) in Grades 9/10 at Time 1 and Grades 11/12 at Time 2. The 3 sam…
The Development of Students' Mathematics Self-Concept in Relation to Gender: Different Countries, Different Trajectories
Gender differences in the development of children's and adolescents' academic self-perceptions have received increasing attention in recent years. This study extends previous research by examining the development of mathematics self-concept across grades 7–12 in three cultural settings: Australia (Sydney; N=1,333), the United States (Michigan; N=2,443), and Germany (four federal states; N=4,688). Results of latent growth curve models document ver…
Development of Mathematics Interest in Adolescence: Influences of Gender, Family, and School Context
This study investigated adolescents' developmental trajectories of mathematics interest and explored related effects of gender, family, and school context. Latent growth curve modeling was used to analyze longitudinal data of N=3,193 students (51% female) from grades 5 to 9 from all 3 ability tracks of the German state school system. Annual assessments involved student questionnaires on interest in mathematics, perceptions of classroom characteri…
Motivations for choosing teaching as a career: An international comparison using the FIT-Choice scale
Gendered motivational processes affecting high school mathematics participation, educational aspirations, and career plans: A comparison of samples from Australia, Canada, and the United States
In this international, longitudinal study, we explored gender differences in, and gendered relationships among, math-related motivations emphasized in the Eccles (Parsons) et al. (1983) expectancy-value framework, high school math participation, educational aspirations, and career plans. Participants were from Australia, Canada, and the United States (Ns = 358, 471, 418, respectively) in Grades 9/10 at Time 1 and Grades 11/12 at Time 2. The 3 sam…
Mathematics—a Critical Filter for STEM-Related Career Choices? A Longitudinal Examination among Australian and U.S. Adolescents
I’ve decided to become a teacher’: Influences on career change
Development of Mathematics Interest in Adolescence: Influences of Gender, Family, and School Context
This study investigated adolescents' developmental trajectories of mathematics interest and explored related effects of gender, family, and school context. Latent growth curve modeling was used to analyze longitudinal data of N=3,193 students (51% female) from grades 5 to 9 from all 3 ability tracks of the German state school system. Annual assessments involved student questionnaires on interest in mathematics, perceptions of classroom characteri…
The Development of Students' Mathematics Self-Concept in Relation to Gender: Different Countries, Different Trajectories
Gender differences in the development of children's and adolescents' academic self-perceptions have received increasing attention in recent years. This study extends previous research by examining the development of mathematics self-concept across grades 7–12 in three cultural settings: Australia (Sydney; N=1,333), the United States (Michigan; N=2,443), and Germany (four federal states; N=4,688). Results of latent growth curve models document ver…
Adolescent-perceived parent and teacher overestimation of mathematics ability: Developmental implications for students’ mathematics task values
This study examines whether and how student-perceived parents' and teachers' overestimation of students' own perceived mathematical ability can explain trajectories for adolescents' mathematical task values (intrinsic and utility) controlling for measured achievement, following expectancy-value and self-determination theories. Longitudinal data come from a 3-cohort (mean ages 13.25, 12.36, and 14.41 years; Grades 7-10), 4-wave data set of 1,271 A…
Career motivations and interest in teaching of tertiary students taking mathematics and science subjects
Many countries face mathematics and science teacher shortages. There is a need for greater knowledge about eligible individuals’ potential interest to teach and career motivations. We explored career motivations and interest in a teaching career, among 470 tertiary mathematics and science students from four Australian universities. Students with high interest in teaching were distinguished from those with low interest, by high ‘altruistic’ motive…
Mapping the emotional landscape of teaching and learning
Background and AimsTraditionally, research in educational psychology had overlooked teachers' motivations and emotions, focusing on students. This has changed markedly in the last 20 years, when recent studies have made rapid strides to study the motivations and emotions of teachers too, as documented in the contributions to this Special Issue. In this concluding article, I discuss four of the included articles focussed on teacher emotions, indic…
Student‐Perceived Mothers’ and Fathers’ Beliefs, Mathematics and English Motivations, and Career Choices
According to Eccles and Jacobs' (1986) parent socialization model, parents' gendered ability and value beliefs influence girls' and boys' interpretations of those beliefs, and hence students' domain-specific valuing of tasks and competence beliefs and subsequent career plans. Studies have rarely analyzed how both student-perceived mothers' and fathers' beliefs affect girls' and boys' task values, success expectancies, and career plans across doma…
Development of Adolescents' Self-Perceptions, Values, and Task Perceptions According to Gender and Domain in 7th- through 11th-Grade Australian Students
Latent growth models estimated developmental trajectories for adolescents' math and English self-perceptions (perceived talent, success expectancies), values (intrinsic, utility) and task perceptions (task difficulty, effort required). A longitudinal cohort-sequential study included 1,323 participants spanning Grades 7 to 11, with Occasion 1 mean ages 13.19, 12.36, and 14.41, respectively, for Cohorts 1, 2, and 3. Self-perceptions and values decl…
Explaining gendered math enrollments for NSW Australian secondary school students
This study examined why female adolescents choose to opt out of the math pipeline during high school more often than males, which has implications for their long-term careers
I’ve decided to become a teacher’: Influences on career change
Who Chooses Teaching and Why? Profiling Characteristics and Motivations Across Three Australian Universities
In this large‐scale Australian study, we profile the background characteristics and teaching motivations for individuals entering teacher education across three major established urban teacher provider universities in the Australian States of New South Wales and Victoria. Our recently developed and validated “FIT‐Choice” (Factors Influencing Teaching Choice) Scale determines the strength of influence for a range of motivations from individuals ch…
Psychometric Properties of the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale With Australian Adolescent Girls: Clarification of Multidimensionality and Perfectionist Typology
The psychometric properties of the Frost, Marten, Lahart, and Rosenblate Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (1990) are investigated to determine its usefulness as a measurement of perfectionism with Australian secondary school girls and to find empirical support for the existence of both healthy and unhealthy types of perfectionist students. Participants were 409 female mixed-ability students from Years 7 and 10 in two private secondary schools…
Motivational Factors Influencing Teaching as a Career Choice: Development and Validation of the FIT-Choice Scale
The authors apply current influential models from the motivational literature to develop the comprehensive factors influencing teaching choice (FIT-Choice) scale, to measure factors influencing the choice to teach for beginning preservice teacher education candidates. They validate the scale using 2 large cohorts (N = 488; 652) and describe the factors that teacher education candidates identified as most important in their decision to teach. Furt…
Ow Is Our Time, the Ship Is Our Own, Huzza for the Red Flag’: Mutiny on the Inspector , 1797
Motivations, perceptions, and aspirations concerning teaching as a career for different types of beginning teachers
The Development of Students' Mathematics Self-Concept in Relation to Gender: Different Countries, Different Trajectories
Gender differences in the development of children's and adolescents' academic self-perceptions have received increasing attention in recent years. This study extends previous research by examining the development of mathematics self-concept across grades 7–12 in three cultural settings: Australia (Sydney; N=1,333), the United States (Michigan; N=2,443), and Germany (four federal states; N=4,688). Results of latent growth curve models document ver…
Development of Mathematics Interest in Adolescence: Influences of Gender, Family, and School Context
This study investigated adolescents' developmental trajectories of mathematics interest and explored related effects of gender, family, and school context. Latent growth curve modeling was used to analyze longitudinal data of N=3,193 students (51% female) from grades 5 to 9 from all 3 ability tracks of the German state school system. Annual assessments involved student questionnaires on interest in mathematics, perceptions of classroom characteri…
An introduction to teaching motivations in different countries: Comparisons using the FIT-Choice scale
The FIT-Choice program of research (Factors Influencing Teaching Choice; http://www.fitchoice.org) began in 2001, prompted by two questions that had been forming for Richardson over the course of a...
Motivations for choosing teaching as a career: An international comparison using the FIT-Choice scale
Gendered motivational processes affecting high school mathematics participation, educational aspirations, and career plans: A comparison of samples from Australia, Canada, and the United States
In this international, longitudinal study, we explored gender differences in, and gendered relationships among, math-related motivations emphasized in the Eccles (Parsons) et al. (1983) expectancy-value framework, high school math participation, educational aspirations, and career plans. Participants were from Australia, Canada, and the United States (Ns = 358, 471, 418, respectively) in Grades 9/10 at Time 1 and Grades 11/12 at Time 2. The 3 sam…
Teacher Motivation
Mathematics—a Critical Filter for STEM-Related Career Choices? A Longitudinal Examination among Australian and U.S. Adolescents
Student‐Perceived Mothers’ and Fathers’ Beliefs, Mathematics and English Motivations, and Career Choices
According to Eccles and Jacobs' (1986) parent socialization model, parents' gendered ability and value beliefs influence girls' and boys' interpretations of those beliefs, and hence students' domain-specific valuing of tasks and competence beliefs and subsequent career plans. Studies have rarely analyzed how both student-perceived mothers' and fathers' beliefs affect girls' and boys' task values, success expectancies, and career plans across doma…
Adolescent-perceived parent and teacher overestimation of mathematics ability: Developmental implications for students’ mathematics task values
This study examines whether and how student-perceived parents' and teachers' overestimation of students' own perceived mathematical ability can explain trajectories for adolescents' mathematical task values (intrinsic and utility) controlling for measured achievement, following expectancy-value and self-determination theories. Longitudinal data come from a 3-cohort (mean ages 13.25, 12.36, and 14.41 years; Grades 7-10), 4-wave data set of 1,271 A…
My Freind who Writes for Me’: Scribes and Scribal Relationships in the Letters of Seamen, 1793–1815
This article examines the use of scribes in letters of one group of men during a specific period: British Royal Navy servicemen below the rank of commissioned officer during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1793–1815. The letters of one such seaman in particular, Richard Greenhalgh, are unusual in that he himself could write, but preferred to have someone to write for him, as is shown by many references to ‘his freind who writes for …
Motivation of higher education faculty: (How) it matters
Person- and variable-centred quantitative analyses in educational research: Insights concerning Australian students’ and teachers’ engagement and wellbeing
Teacher burnout and turnover intent
‘Out-of-Field’ Teaching in Mathematics: Australian Evidence from Pisa 2015
Attracting, retaining and sustaining early childhood teachers: An ecological conceptualisation of workforce issues and future research directions
Profiles of teachers’ striving and wellbeing: Evolution and relations with context factors, retention, and professional engagement
Drawing on an existing typology, this study used latent transition profile analysis (LTPA) to examine changes in the striving and wellbeing profiles among teachers from their early until mid-career. Five profiles were identified (Sparing, Good health, Ambitious, Burnout and Wornout) among a longitudinal sample of 414 Australian secondary and primary teachers. LTPA showed that 28% of teachers were movers over time. Most movers from maladaptive typ…
Quality early childhood education through self, workplace, or regulatory support: Exploring the efficacy of professional registration for early childhood teachers in Australia
Teacher registration is increasingly utilised as a governance mechanism to audit teachers’ work and drive professional practice. There is limited and mixed empirical evidence, however, as to whether registration drives teaching quality. Our study extends this limited empirical base by critically examining the policy trajectory in Australia to bring early childhood teachers into a uniform system of registration with primary and secondary teachers.…
Psychology (29 works) · Education, Achievement, and Giftedness (19 works) · Social Psychology (17 works) · Mathematics education (16 works) · Pedagogy (15 works) · Developmental psychology (14 works) · Motivation and Self-Concept in Sports (13 works) · Teacher Professional Development and Motivation (12 works) · Mathematics (9 works) · Social Psychology (9 works)