The Classroom Social Environment and Changes in Adolescents’ Motivation and Engagement During Middle School

Abstract

The authors investigated how students’ (N = 233) perceptions of the social environment of their eighth-grade classroom related to changes in motivation and engagement when they moved from seventh to eighth grade. In general, prior motivation and engagement were strong predictors of subsequent motivation and engagement, whereas gender, race, and prior achievement were not related to changes in motivation or engagement. A higher-order classroom social environment factor accounted for significant changes in all motivation and engagement outcomes. Four distinct dimensions of the social environment were differentially important in explaining changes in various indices of motivation and engagement. In general, however, students’ perceptions of teacher support, and the teacher as promoting interaction and mutual respect were related to positive changes in their motivation and engagement. Students’ perceptions of the teacher as promoting performance goals were related to negative changes in student motivation and engagement. Implications for recent educational reform initiatives were also discussed.

Teacher ratings of student engagement with educational software: An exploratory study

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MMORPG gaming and hostility predict Internet Addiction symptoms in adolescents: An empirical multilevel longitudinal study

“…Given the importance of classroom context for the development of adolescents, and Greek adolescents in particular (because their classmates remain the same throughout their school education), and their Internet use behaviors (Ryan & Patrick, 2001;Festl, Scharkow & Quandt, 2013;Stavropoulos, Kuss, Griffiths & Motti-Stefanidi, 2015), assessing the influence of peer involvement in MMORPGs in relation to IA severity appears important.…”

Learning by doing: An empirical study of active teaching techniques

“…However, it also leads to deeper levels of learning because in order to build on each other's ideas, the students must first listen and understand the contributions of others students in order to respond or add to it (Hadjioannou, 2007). Additionally, past studies have shown that during discussion students are attentive, active, more engaged, and motivated (see Bligh 2000 for a review; Ryan & Patrick, 2001). …”