Teacher Motivation, Student-Perceived Teacher-Student Relationship, and Students' Motivation in Mathematics

• In Event: 18.057 - Mom, Dad, Teacher, Peer: Who Influences Students' STEM Motivation? An Expectancy Value Perspective

Abstract

Objectives
This paper focuses on the relations between teacher beliefs (e.g., teacher enthusiasm, teacher self-efficacy), student-perceived instructional practice (mastery goal structure, teacher support), students’ task values, career plans and leisure time activities in math. The multi-level study aims to examine how classroom learning environments relate to students’ mathematics motivation and activity choices at both the individual student and the classroom level.

Framework
The Eccles et al.’s Expectancy-Value theory (Eccles et al., 1983) describes that socializers transmit their beliefs to children through their behaviors, which are perceived by the children and thus affect children’s own beliefs and behaviors. Research showed that teachers’ enthusiasm positively relates to students’ own enjoyment of learning during secondary school (Frenzel, Goetz, Lüdtke, Pekrun, & Sutton, 2009; Keller, Hoy, Goetz, & Frenzel, 2015). Teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs are related to students’ success expectancies (Midgley, Feldlaufer, & Eccles, 1989). It is however unclear which role teachers’ classroom behaviors play in these interrelations.

Methods
Multi-level structural equation modelling was conducted to examine the hypothesized relations at both the individual and the classroom level. Multiple perspectives on teachers’ beliefs were addressed by including teacher and student reports about teachers’ enthusiasm in mathematics classrooms.

Data
This study is based on a German longitudinal study (MOVE – Motivation in Learning study). In this study, 803 ninth to tenth graders (53.3% girls; age: M = 14.59 years, SD = 0.91) from 42 classrooms in 13 secondary schools in Berlin, Germany were included. All students participated in the first measurement point, but only student data from students whose mathematics teachers participated in the corresponding teacher survey were included in the study. Mathematics teachers (N = 41; 58.5% male) were also asked to fill out a short questionnaire.

Results
At the individual level, student-perceived teacher enthusiasm was reflected in classroom mastery goal structure and teacher support. Girls perceived lower mathematics teacher enthusiasm than boys. At the classroom level, teachers’ self-reported self-efficacy was related to student-perceived mastery goal structure. At both levels, mastery structure was related to students’ attainment and utility values. Attainment value was related to mathematics-related activities. At the individual level, students’ utility value was related to mathematics-related career plans.

Significance
In line with the theoretical assumptions of the Eccles et al.’s Expectancy-Value theory (Eccles et al., 1983), the findings indicate that teachers’ motivational beliefs are related to students’ motivational beliefs and activity choices through their effects on teaching behaviours. If students perceive their mathematics teachers as being enthusiastic in class, they perceive a focus in their classrooms on the gain of knowledge, which is related to students’ higher valuing of mathematics and likelihood of engaging in mathematics-related activities and careers. Regarding teachers’ actual beliefs, self-efficacy beliefs play an important role for student-perceived instruction and motivation. The implications of these findings for classroom research and teacher education will be discussed.

Authors

• Rebecca Christine Lazarides, University of Potsdam

• Charlott Rubach, University of Potsdam

• Janine Buchholz, German Institute for International Educational Research (DIPF)