What motivates early adolescents for school? A longitudinal analysis of associations between observed teaching and motivation

Abstract

For many early adolescent students, motivation for school declines after their transition to secondary education. Increasingly, the decisive importance of teachers in shaping early adolescents' motivation is stressed; thus far, however, both longitudinal and observational studies on this topic have been scarce. The present study investigated how early adolescents' interactions with their maths teachers were associated with the development of their motivation for maths. In line with self-determination theory, videotaped teacher-student interactions were coded in terms of their being supportive or thwarting of the three fundamental human needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, i.e. in terms of their providing autonomy support, structure, and involvement. To assess need-supportive teaching, at four measurement time-points equally spread over the first year of secondary education, video analysis was conducted of, in total, 137 complete maths lessons in 20 maths classes (40% female teachers). To assess developments in motivation at each of the four measurement time-points, questionnaires were distributed to the 489 students (aged 12-13; 49.9% girls) in the 20 maths classes. Multilevel analysis did not indicate associations of autonomy-supportive teaching with any of the four motivational constructs incorporated in the study (autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, amotivation, and performance avoidance). For structure, associations in expected directions were found with autonomous motivation (positive) and amotivation (negative), but not with the other two motivational constructs. For teacher involvement, associations in the expected direction were found with all four motivational constructs. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for research and educational practice.

Begin-of-school-year perceived autonomy-support and structure as predictors of end-of-school-year study efforts and procrastination: the mediating role of autonomous and controlled motivation

“…Prior research has shown that both autonomy support and structure are conducive to positive outcomes (Jang et al, 2010;Sierens et al, 2009), but their relation to unwanted processes (such as controlled motivation) and maladaptive outcomes (such as procrastination) is less investigated. For instance, when teachers behaviours had been assessed through external observers (rather than through students' perceptions), Stroet et al (2015) found only structure (and not autonomy support) to covary positively with student-reported autonomous motivation and negatively to amotivation. Future research needs to address this issue.…”

“…In addition, teachers who provide structure help and support their students by adjusting their teaching pace according to their students' progress (Reeve, 2006;Skinner et al, 1998), so that students can gradually develop their skills (Jang, Reeve, & Deci, 2010;Vansteenkiste et al, 2012). Several studies indicated that perceived structure is positively associated with autonomous motivation (Taylor & Ntoumanis, 2007), behavioural engagement (for a review see Stroet et al, 2013), and the use of effective learning strategies (Sierens, Vansteenkiste, Goossens, Soenens, & Dochy, 2009), while a recent four-wave observational study indicated that teacher structure positively related to student-reported autonomous motivation (Stroet, Opdenakker, & Minnaert, 2015).…”

Teaching Quality: Relationships between Students’ Motivation, Effort Regulation, Future Interest, and Connection Frequency

“…Interest affects, among others, students' effective learning (Hulleman et al, 2010), performance (e.g., Harackiewicz et al, 2008;Hulleman et al, 2010;Hulleman & Harackiewicz, 2009), educational choices and decisions (Harackiewicz et al, 2002;Pike & Dunne, 2011), selfefficacy (Lipstein & Renninger, 2007), attention, and engagement (Harackiewicz et al, 2016). Moreover, it is a doubly important outcome to take into account if we consider that students' interest during secondary education significantly decreases, and that their math achievement usually gets worse (Kiemer et al, 2015;Stroet et al, 2015b).…”

Öğrenci Motivasyonunu Artıran ve Azaltan Öğretmen Davranışlarının İncelenmesi

“…Robinson (2017), öğrenci motivasyonunu artırmaya sistem bazlı bakmakta; öğrencilerin motivasyonunu artırmanın en iyi yolunu, öğretimin kalitesini geliştirmek, zengin ve dengeli bir program oluşturmak, destekleyici ve bilgilendirici değerlendirme sistemine sahip olmak olarak görmektedir. Konuya öğrenci açısından bakan yazarlar ise (Opdenakker, Maulana ve den Brok, 2012;Stroet, Opdenakker ve Minnaert, 2015) ev ortamları, akran grupları ve dersliklerde neler olduğunun öğrenci motivasyonunda önemli olduğunu belirtmektedirler. Maulana, Opdenakker ve Bosker (2016) da öğrencilerin motivasyonunu artırmak için, sınıfta öğrenmenin merkezi figürü olan öğretmene odaklanmak gerektiğine vurgu yapmaktadırlar.…”