"Can I Teach This Student?" A Multilevel Analysis Linking Teachers' Perceived Competence With Student Motivation

• In Event: Teachers' Motivation to Teach: What Matters?

Abstract

Theoretical Framework
Teachers’ perceived teaching competence is an important motivational factor that can shape their instructional practices, engagement in teaching, and occupational wellbeing (Zee & Koomen, 2016). Socio-cognitive theories further suggest that teachers’ perceived teaching competence affects students’ educational outcomes through teachers’ instructional practices (Tschannen-Moran et al., 1998). However, evidence linking teachers’ perceived teaching competence with student outcomes, in particular students’ motivation, is scarce and has produced mixed results, with effect sizes ranging from small and negative to large and positive (Zee & Koomen, 2016). Research has mainly focused on associations on the class-level, but there is accumulating evidence on substantial intra-individual variation in teachers’ perceived competence regarding individual students in the same class (Zee et al., 2018).
Purpose
The present study is the first to examine whether student-specific and subject-specific differences in teachers’ perceived competence in the classroom might contribute to understanding the link between perceived teaching competence and student motivation.
Method
We use longitudinal data from a unique dataset (Childhood and Beyond; Eccles et al., 1993), with 48 math and 55 reading teachers and their third-, fourth , or sixth-grade students (Nmath=449/Nreading=568). Sample items and scale properties are shown in Table 1. Separate multi-level path analyses were conducted for math and reading to examine the predictive effects of teachers’ student-specific and subject-specific beliefs about teaching competence (i.e., perceived effectiveness in teaching a particular student in the particular subject) on student-reported instructional quality and interest, controlling for pre-existing differences in student interest, achievement, and family background (Figure 1).
Results
First, the analyses revealed only within-classroom associations of teacher-reported teaching effectiveness with student-reported instructional practices and student interest, but no significant between-classroom effects. The non-significant findings on the between-class level are consistent with prior research on the links between teachers’ competence beliefs and student interest (Schiefele & Schaffner, 2015). Second, stronger effects emerged for the domain of math than reading. Controlling for student ability and family background, prior levels of student interest positively predicted teachers’ perceived teaching effectiveness in math but not reading. Furthermore, teachers’ perceived effectiveness predicted a positive change in students’ math interest. No significant direct relations between perceived teaching competence and student interest emerged in reading, but small indirect effects of teachers’ perceived competence on student interest, mediated via student-reported motivating instruction, were corroborated across both subjects (math: β=.09, p=.003; reading: β=.04, p=.015). The more effective a teacher felt in teaching a particular student, relative to the class-average, the more likely this student perceived the teacher’s instruction as motivating, which then positively predicted this student’s interest in math/reading.
Significance
This study is the first to document a predictive effect of initial student motivation on teachers’ student- and subject-specific perceived teaching effectiveness, which in turn predicted positive change in student motivation at the end of the school year. Furthermore, teachers’ perceived teaching competence appears to shape students’ motivational outcomes through their instruction. Finally, different results across the levels of analysis (between-class/within-class) and the two subjects (math/reading) underscore the importance of examining both student-specific and subject-specific judgments of teaching competence.

Authors

• Inga ten Hagen, TU Dortmund University

• Fani Lauermann, TU Dortmund University

• Jacquelynne S. Eccles, University of California - Irvine