Chicken or Egg? Analyzing the Longitudinal Relationships Between Teachers' Self-Efficacy, Enthusiasm, and Instructional Quality

• In Event: 31.073 - Teacher Motivation and Emotions in Context: Implications for Assessment, Instruction, and Intervention

Abstract

Objectives. Teacher motivation is assumed to be an important aspect of teachers’ professional competence. The relevance of teacher motivation is first and foremost seen in its effects on outcome characteristics (e.g., personal well-being, instructional quality, or student achievement). It is thus assumed that teacher motivation influences how teachers think and act. Concurrently, teacher motivation is influenced by personal and contextual characteristics (see e.g., the cyclical model of teachers’ self-efficacy of Tschannen-Moran, Woolfolk Hoy, & Hoy, 1998). Instructional quality – as the core business of teachers – can thus be seen as both, outcome characteristic and antecedent of teacher motivation (see also Holzberger, Philipp, & Kunter, 2013). Accordingly, the question arises whether aspects of teacher motivation are rather the cause or the effect of instructional quality. Few prior studies specifically allowed for conclusions regarding this question. In the present study we investigated whether two aspects of teacher motivation – self-efficacy and enthusiasm – influence instructional quality, whether it is the other way around or whether reciprocal effects exist.

Method. To answer this research question, we analyzed longitudinal data from 90 mathematics teachers and their 1537 6th grade students who were assessed twice over a single school year (retest interval: 6 months). Teachers were asked about their self-efficacy (9 items; Schwarzer & Schmitz, 1999) as well as their enthusiasm to teach (6 items; Baumert et al., 2008). The students were asked to assess their teachers’ instructional quality with respect to three basic dimensions, namely classroom management (3 items; Ramm et al., 2006), individual learning support (5 items; Wild, 1999), and cognitive activation (6 items; Ramm et al., 2006). The data were analyzed using two-level cross-lagged panel models. These models were applied to each possible pair between the two motivation characteristics and the three aspects of instructional quality (i.e., 6 models in total). An additional model analyzed the longitudinal relationships between self-efficacy and enthusiasm.

Results. In addition to auto-regression coefficients, one-way effects of aspects of instructional quality on teachers’ motivational characteristics were found in two cases (individual learning support on enthusiasm: β = .23, p = .01; individual learning support on self-efficacy: β = .24, p = .02). No one-way effects of motivation characteristics on aspects of instructional quality were found. Reciprocal effects existed in one case (cognitive activation on self-efficacy: β = .25, p = .04; self-efficacy on cognitive activation: β = .16, p = .05). Regarding the relationship between self-efficacy and enthusiasm, reciprocal effects were found (β = .21, p < .001, and β = .22, p < .001, respectively).

Discussion. In sum, the results revealed that the mechanisms associated with teacher motivation are more complex than originally assumed. According to the analyses, effects of teacher motivation on instructional quality are less evident than the reverse effects. These results are in line with the few existing empirical studies on this topic (see e.g., Holzberger et al., 2013). The study at hand underlines the importance of further investigating the sources of teachers’ self-efficacy (see also Klassen, Tze, Betts, & Gordon, 2011) and enthusiasm.

Authors

• Anna-Katharina Praetorius, German Institute for International Educational Research

• Rob Klassen, University of York

• Katharina Drexler, University of Augsburg

• Sebastian Nitsche, University of Mannheim

• Stefan Janke, University of Mannheim

• Oliver Dickhäuser, University of Mannheim

• Markus Dresel