Whereas developing meaningful connections with students has long been documented as critical for promoting classroom engagement, teachers’ differing motives for building relationships with students remain underexplored. This study examined teachers’ social achievement goals from a multidimensional perspective in relation to teachers’ self-efficacy, teacher–student relationships, and perceived classroom engagement. Results from practicing K–12 teachers (N = 154) from across Canada showed three distinct goal orientations including social mastery-approach, social mastery-avoidance, and social ability goals (combining social ability-approach and social ability-avoidance goals). Teachers who aimed to develop better social skills with students (social mastery-approach goals) reported higher self-efficacy, better relationships with students, and greater classroom engagement. In contrast, social goal orientations focused on not losing connections with students (social mastery-avoidance goals) or being well-liked (social ability goals) did not correspond with self-efficacy or classroom outcomes. Implications concerning integrative pedagogies and growth mind-sets pertaining to relationship building were discussed.

长期以来，与学生建立有意义的联系对于促进课堂参与至关重要，但教师与学生建立关系的不同动机仍未得到充分探索。本研究从与教师自我效能、师生关系和感知课堂参与度相关的多维视角考察了教师的社会成就目标。来自加拿大各地的 K-12 教师 (N = 154) 的结果显示了三个不同的目标取向，包括社交掌握方法、社交掌握回避和社交能力目标（结合社交能力方法和社交能力回避目标）。旨在与学生发展更好的社交技能（社会掌握方法目标）的教师报告了更高的自我效能感，与学生更好的关系，和更大的课堂参与度。相比之下，专注于不与学生失去联系（社交掌握-回避目标）或受欢迎（社交能力目标）的社会目标取向与自我效能或课堂成果并不对应。讨论了与建立关系有关的综合教学法和成长心态的影响。