Teacher Need-Supportive Practices and Student Needs Satisfaction Mediating Teacher and Student Motivation

• In Event: Millennium Hotel Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: Wellness, Burnout, and Teaching: Relations to Motivation in Academic Contexts

Abstract

We examined the process posited by Self-Determination Theory (SDT) whereby teacher motivation affects student achievement indirectly, through teachers’ instructional practices, students’ needs-satisfaction, and students’ motivation. We considered teacher and student autonomous and controlled motivation and amotivation, in addition to teacher provision of autonomy support, structure, and involvement, and student-perceived autonomy, competence, and relatedness. We tested for mediation in addition to considering direct paths. Participants were 697 South Korean 5th and 6th graders and their 35 teachers. Analysis involved a multi-level structural equation model. Our results provide important evidence supporting many of SDT’s propositions that link, directly and indirectly, teachers’ motivation and instruction with students’ motivation and achievement.

Authors

• Inok Ahn, Purdue University

• Helen Patrick, Purdue University

• Ming Ming Chiu, The Education University of Hong Kong