Do Intrinsic and Extrinsic Teacher Motivation Affect Instructional Quality and Student Achievement?

• In Event: The Dynamic Interplay Between Teacher and Student Experiences, Motivational Beliefs, and Achievement

Abstract

We investigate whether intrinsic and extrinsic teacher motivation are related to student achievement and if these relations are mediated by instructional quality. Researchers who have looked into this topic (e.g., Kunter et al., 2013) argue that intrinsically motivated teachers spend more time on occupation-specific tasks and invest higher effort in further development. Both seem to contribute to higher instructional quality. However, the current debate centres on the effects of intrinsic teacher motivation, thereby neglecting the role of extrinsic teacher motivation. Therefore, we focus on the estimation of indirect effects of both, intrinsic and extrinsic teacher motivation on students’ academic achievement. Our results show that instructional quality plays a central mediating role when predicting students’ academic achievement by means of teacher motivation.

Authors

• Denise Demski, Ruhr-University Bochum

• Christoph Helm, Johannes Kepler University of Linz