Teacher and Students' Motivational Beliefs and Perceptions of the Instructional Climate: Two Multilevel Structural Equation Models

• In Event: 72.017 - Studies in Student Motivation: Goals, Efficacy, and Belonging

Abstract

This investigation combined science education and educational psychology literatures to examine how proximal processes (Hamre & Pianta, 2010) operate within the context of the high school science classroom. A national data set and multilevel structural equation modeling was used to explore (a) the degree to which teachers’ efficacy beliefs, teacher and student perceptions of the instructional environment, and students’ efficacy for science learning are related and (b) whether or not student and teacher perceptions of mastery-focused instruction partially mediate the relation between teachers’ efficacy beliefs and students’ efficacy for science learning. Findings highlight the importance of individual differences in student perceptions of classroom instructional environments and the motivational beliefs of science teachers in contributing to students’ motivation for science learning.

Authors

• Belle Bryant Booker-Zorigian, Ph.D., Winston Salem/Forsyth County School System

• Judith L. Meece, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

• Adam Lloyd Holland, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill