Cross‐lagged associations between kindergarten teachers' causal attributions and children's task motivation and performance in reading

Abstract

The present study investigated whether kindergarten teachers' causal attributions would predict children's reading-related task motivation and performance, or whether it is rather children's motivation and performance that contribute to teachers' causal attributions. To investigate this, 69 children (five to six years old at baseline) and their teachers were examined twice during the kindergarten year. Teachers filled in a questionnaire measuring their causal attributions twice during the kindergarten year. Information about the children's reading-related task motivation and performance was gathered at the beginning of and at the end of the kindergarten year. The results showed that the higher the task motivation and performance in reading the children showed, the more the teachers attributed their success to ability and effort, and the less they attributed it to teachers' help. Teachers' ability and effort attributions for success, in turn, predicted a high level of children's subsequent task motivation in reading. Moreover, teachers seldom attributed high-achieving children's failure to lack of ability or effort.

How Do Teachers' Beliefs Predict Children's Interest in Math From Kindergarten to Sixth Grade?

“…Similarly, mastery-focused teachers often create a warm classroom atmosphere, have high confidence in children's abilities, and give children feedback, which promotes understanding rather than performing (Patrick, Anderman, Ryan, Edelin, & Midgley, 2001), which may further promote children's interest in different domains. Previous studies have typically investigated teachers' expectations regarding children's achievement (Jussim, 1989;Jussim & Harber, 2005) or teachers' beliefs about the role of children's abilities, effort, task difficulty, and adults' help in academic success and failure (Georgiou et al, 2002;Natale et al, 2009). While ability and effort often are the most common causes to which teachers refer while explaining children's achievement (Weiner, 1992), teachers' other beliefs, such as those concerning children's potential performance (Kärkkäinen & Räty, 2010) and intrinsic motivation (Gottfried, 1985) have received less attention.…”

“…Teachers often perceive high-achieving children as having high abilities (Holloway & Hess, 1985) and needing less help from their teachers (Natale et al, 2009), and highly motivated children as talented and effortful (Upadyaya et al, 2012). However, according to some studies, teachers' beliefs predict children's motivation more often than children's motivational constructs predict teachers' beliefs (Natale et al, 2009;Upadyaya & Eccles, 2014).…”

“…Through their feedback, emotional responses (Georgiou, Christou, Stavrinides, & Panaoura, 2002;Reyna & Weiner, 2001), and classroom practices (Stipek, Givvin, Salmon, & MacGyvers, 2001), teachers provide information regarding their various beliefs about academic achievement to their students. Variation occurs in how teachers' different beliefs predict children's interests and motivation (Natale, Viljaranta, Lerkkanen, Poikkeus, & Nurmi, 2009;Upadyaya et al, 2012). Yet, to the authors' knowledge, no previous studies have examined these associations over the primary school years.…”

Reading Ability Development from Kindergarten to Junior Secondary: Latent Transition Analyses with Growth Mixture Modeling

“…Teachers' interaction with students is thus playing as a proximal factor influencing the achievement influencing academic achievement more directly, while school entries (family variables) are distal factors . On the other hand, longitudinal studies show that teachers' perception of the students (either ability or effort) can predict subsequent children's self-concept (Natale et al, 2009); teachers are significant socialization agents whose perception greatly impact children's self-concept formation (Madon et al, 2001), and thus have a great impact on students ability. To summarize, we are alerted again of the important role of the teacher-student relationships, since students spend more time in school with their teachers when they progress in schools.…”

“…For example, teachers and parents' perceptions of students' ability and effort are closely related to children's academic achievement (Rytkönen et al, 2007; Natale et al, 2009; Longobardi et al, 2011). Particularly, since highly motivated children are perceived as talented and effortful (Upadyaya et al, 2012), parents and teachers' positive perceptions on children would be conducive to children's development.…”