Elsevier

Learning and Instruction

Volume 76, December 2021, 101489
Learning and Instruction

The relative strength of relations between different facets of teacher motivation and core dimensions of teaching quality in mathematics - A multilevel analysis

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2021.101489Get rights and content

Highlights

  • We used multilevel modeling with student and teacher data.

  • Teacher self-efficacy related to teacher-reported teaching quality.

  • Teacher educational interest related to teacher- and student-reported support.

  • Teacher knowledge did not relate to teacher- or student-rated teaching quality.

Abstract

Teacher self-efficacy and teacher interest are two key facets of teacher motivation that are important for high-quality teaching. Little is known about the relative strength of the effects of teacher self-efficacy and interest on teaching quality when compared with one another. We extend previous research on teacher motivation by examining the relations linking mathematics teacher self-efficacy and interest with several relevant dimensions of teaching quality as perceived by teachers and students. Participants were 84 mathematics teachers (61.2% female) and their students (1718 students; 48.5% girls). Based on doubly latent multilevel models, we found that teacher-reported self-efficacy in instruction was positively related to teacher-reported cognitive activation, classroom management, and emotional support in mathematics classrooms. Teacher-reported educational interest showed positive associations with both student- and teacher-perceived emotional support. Future research is advised to focus more strongly on the unique relations between different teachers’ motivational characteristics and relevant dimensions of teaching quality.

Introduction

Teacher motivation is a central aspect of teachers' professional competence, with high relevance for teaching quality and students' academic development (Fives & Buehl, 2016; Watt & Richardson, 2008). In accordance with theories of student achievement motivation (Eccles et al., 1983), theoretical models of teacher motivation focus on teachers' expectancy and value beliefs. In the present paper, we refer to two important motivational beliefs that represent the expectancy dimension (teacher self-efficacy) and the value dimension (teacher interest). These two key facets of teacher motivation have been shown to be significantly related to teaching quality (for an overview see Lazarides & Schiefele, 2021, Zee and Koomen, 2016). There is a scarcity of knowledge, however, regarding the general question of whether different facets of teacher motivation are of different importance for various dimensions of teaching quality. As a first step, the present study aims to address this question and examines the relations between teachers’ self-efficacy and interest and their teaching quality in mathematics classrooms. Teaching quality is defined in terms of three core dimensions – cognitive activation, classroom management, and a supportive climate in class (Klieme, Pauli, & Reusser, 2009; Praetorius, Klieme, Herbert, & Pinger, 2018). The effects of teacher self-efficacy and interest on all three dimensions were examined by relying on both teacher- and student-perceived teaching quality.

We focused on teaching quality in the domain of mathematics because students’ interest in mathematics declines throughout adolescence, whereas their interest in other domains, such as language arts, also declines but then plateaus at the end of high school (Jacobs, Lanza, Osgood, Eccles, & Wigfield, 2002; Watt, 2004). At the same time, teaching in the domain of mathematics is highly demanding, as central concepts need to be presented in a highly structured manner, connections between different concepts need to be outlined, and learners need to be enabled to make use of their mathematical knowledge in different contexts (Klieme, 2020; Rakoczy et al., 2007), thus calling for research on factors that potentially contribute to high teaching quality in mathematics.

In their theoretical framework describing generic dimensions of teaching quality, Klieme and colleagues (Klieme et al., 2009; Praetorius et al., 2018) propose three generic dimensions of teaching quality as important for students’ cognitive, motivational, and affective development: cognitive activation, classroom management, and a supportive climate.

Cognitive activation supports metacognition and co-constructive learning and is implemented, for example, through challenging tasks and questions, the exploration and activation of prior knowledge (Praetorius et al., 2018), and teaching strategies that encourage students to participate in instructional discourse (Baumert et al., 2013). Cognitive activation shows positive relations with students’ achievement (Baumert et al., 2010; Kunter et al., 2013) and their interest and enjoyment ((Lazarides and Buchholz, 2019); Fauth, Decristan, Rieser, Klieme, & Büttner, 2014).

Classroom management is characterized by teachers' establishment of clear rules and routines, attentive monitoring of students' learning processes, management of disciplinary problems, and provision of smooth transitions between lessons and topics (Klieme et al., 2009; Kounin, 1970). An effective classroom management increases time for learning in class (Brophy, 2000) and has been shown to enhance students’ interest (Kunter, Baumert, & Köller, 2007) and achievement (Fauth et al., 2014).

Supportive climate entails emotionally supportive teacher-student relationships, a respectful and appreciative atmosphere in class, and individual learning support (e.g., adaptive tasks, constructive feedback, positive approach to errors) (Klieme et al., 2009; Praetorius et al., 2018). Empirical findings suggest that a supportive climate in class is particularly important for students’ domain-specific enjoyment (Lazarides and Buchholz, 2019) and interest (Schiepe-Tiska, Heine, Lüdtke, Seidel, & Prenzel, 2016).

Research on the measurement of teaching quality has shown that student and teacher ratings of teaching quality are often weakly correlated. This finding has been explained by the relatively low observability of some teaching behaviors and by perspective-specific validities indicating that teachers' and students’ perceptions refer to different aspects of teaching behaviors rather than the same underlying construct (Kunter & Baumert, 2006). Item reference has also been pointed out as an explanation for low interrater agreement (Fauth, Göllner, Lenske, Praetorius, & Wagner, 2020). As a result of such considerations, research that examines student- and teacher-rated teaching quality needs to discuss the implications of interrater agreement for rater-specific relations. For example, if teacher motivation is related to teacher- and student-rated teaching quality dimensions, it needs to be considered that the evaluated teaching quality dimension might not represent the same construct for both teachers and students.

Teacher motivation research that refers to expectancy-value theory (in the following: EVT; Eccles & Wigfield, 2002) proposes that both expectancy and value components of teacher motivation are assumed to be relevant antecedents of high-quality teaching (Dresel & Lämmle, 2017). In relation to student motivation, EVT proposes that the subjective task-related values and success expectancies predict students' future activities and choice behaviors. Task values are differentiated into four components: the expected enjoyment of a specific task (interest value), the personal importance of a task and its relationship to one's identity (attainment value), the importance of a task for one's short- and long-term goals (utility value), and the perceived psychological cost of engaging in a task (Eccles, 2005). Success expectancies are defined as the beliefs of an individual about how well he or she will do on an upcoming task (Wigfield & Eccles, 2002). It is assumed that expectancy-value facets directly predict and interact in influencing achievement and achievement-related choice behaviors. It is thereby proposed that individuals who do not expect to succeed on a task will not pursue that task even if the task is of high personal value – and, in turn, it is assumed that high expectancy beliefs do not compensate for low subjective task value (Atkinson, 1957). Previous studies that focused on students showed that such interactions show small but substantial predictive validity in predicting achievement (e.g., Nagengast et al., 2011; Trautwein et al., 2012). Theoretical models of teacher motivation that refer to EVT describe expectancy and value components of teacher motivation as predicting teachers' instructional behaviors in class (Daumiller, 2019; Dresel & Lämmle, 2017). Success expectancies of teachers have thereby often been investigated in terms of self-efficacy beliefs, and prior work has highlighted the theoretical and empirical relevance of teachers' self-efficacy beliefs for their instruction (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2007; Zee & Koomen, 2016). Value components in teacher motivation research have been investigated in terms of intrinsic value (or intrinsic orientations; see Kunter & Holzberger, 2014), and research has confirmed the particular importance of teachers' interest (Schiefele, 2017, Schiefele et al., 2013) and enthusiasm (e.g., Kunter et al., 2013) for teachers' instructional behaviors in class. Whereas many studies have investigated the role of either expectancy or value beliefs in teachers' instruction, the relative strength of these beliefs and their interaction in predicting teachers' instructional behavior have rarely been investigated. Against this backdrop, our study focuses on the role of teacher self-efficacy and teacher interest concerning teaching behaviors in class. We also consider interaction effects between the expectancy and value facets of teacher motivation.

Teacher self-efficacy is defined as teachers’ conviction that they will be able to successfully execute teaching behaviors that bring about desired outcomes of student engagement and learning, even among students who are difficult or unmotivated (Bandura, 1977; Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001), and thus covers the expectancy facet of teacher motivation.

In general, teacher self-efficacy is related to effective instruction with moderate effect sizes (Zee & Koomen, 2016). On a theoretical level, it might be assumed that teacher self-efficacy is particularly relevant for teaching behaviors related to goal-directed and planned teaching strategies, such as behavioral regulation of the class or the implementation of cognitively activating teaching strategies, because teacher self-efficacy is assumed to guide teaching-related goal setting (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001). However, it is important to distinguish between teacher- and student-reported quality of teaching. Prior (and mostly cross-sectional) research on the relation between teacher self-efficacy and student-reported teaching quality indicates significant associations with classroom management, cognitive activation, and a supportive climate (Authors, 2018; Burić & Kim, 2020; Fauth et al., 2019). Longitudinal studies, however, have not replicated these findings (Holzberger, Philipp, & Kunter, 2013; Praetorius, Lauermann, et al., 2017). One explanation might be that prior research has often used rather global measures of self-efficacy that refer to a broad array of school-related tasks (Schwarzer, Schmitz, & Daytner, 1999), which makes it difficult to detect relations with teaching-specific outcomes. Socio-cognitive theory (Bandura, 1977), however, suggests that self-efficacy measures are most predictive of behavioral outcomes when tailored to the domain of functioning under investigation. In this study, we therefore focused on teachers’ self-efficacy in instruction when examining relations between teacher self-efficacy and teaching behaviors in class (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001).

Although the specificity of self-efficacy measures may play a role, it also seems conceivable that teachers' self-efficacy would be more relevant for evaluating their own teaching behaviors than for students' evaluations of the teaching. Theoretical models (Tschannen-Moran, Hoy, & Hoy, 1998) propose that teachers' self-efficacy most strongly affects their own teaching goals, their efforts to reach these goals, and their persistence when facing difficulties. Reaching their goals (or not reaching their goals) results in positive (or negative) self-evaluations of teaching skills. Successful teaching experiences, for example, serve as experiences of teachers’ mastery, are related to verbal persuasion (e.g. by receiving positive feedback from students), vicarious experiences (e.g., by reflecting successful teaching situations), and positive affective states (e.g., enjoyment during teaching), which again foster their self-efficacy beliefs (Bandura, 1977; Morris, Usher, & Chen, 2017).

In general, individual interests are defined as more or less stable value dispositions referring to certain domains (e.g., school subjects). These dispositions are characterized by value-related valence beliefs, indicating the personal significance of a domain (e.g., its relevance for one's personal self-fulfillment), and feeling-related valence beliefs, indicating the emotional value of the domain (e.g., its relation to the experience of enjoyment or excitement) (Schiefele, 2009). Recent theoretical conceptualizations of teacher interest identify three dimensions (Schiefele, Streblow & Retelsdorf, 2013): subject interest, didactic interest, and educational interest. Teachers' educational interest pertains to interest in the pedagogical aspects of the teaching profession, such as the appropriate pedagogical handling of students in general and problem students in particular (e.g., relationship building, handling of discipline problems, provision of learning support). On the other hand, teachers' didactic interest refers to interest in teaching and didactic issues (e.g., implementation of new teaching methods), and teacher subject interest refers to interest in the subject matter (e.g., involvement with the subject taught) (Schiefele, 2017, Schiefele et al., 2013). Teacher interest is a construct that has not often been addressed in previous research but that is highly suitable to cover the value facet of teacher motivation as it refers to a teacher's value dispositions including both affective and cognitive valences (Schiefele, Streblow & Retelsdorf, 2013). On a theoretical level, teacher interest has been defined as an intrinsic orientation of teachers that, similar to teacher enthusiasm or flow, enhances teachers' concentration and attention during teaching and, through this mechanism, has positive effects on their teaching behaviors in class (Kunter & Holzberger, 2014).

Cross-sectional findings show that teachers' educational interest (but not their subject interest or didactic interest), positively relates to student-perceived class-level mastery-oriented instruction and classroom management, but not to cognitive activation (Schiefele and Schaffner, 2015, Schiefele et al., 2013). Because teachers’ educational interest has proven to be particularly relevant for student perceptions of teaching quality, we focus only on this interest dimension in the present study. The relations between teacher educational interest and teacher-reported teaching quality seem to be less strong. Although there is empirical evidence suggesting positive relations between teacher educational interest and teacher-reported mastery instruction (Schiefele, Streblow & Retelsdorf, 2013), other findings suggest only marginal or non-significant effects on teacher-reported teaching quality (Schiefele and Schaffner, 2015). Thus, it can be concluded that teacher educational interest is related in particular to teaching quality as perceived by students. However, more research on teacher interest is needed to validate the extant findings and compare the effects of educational interest with the effects of other relevant facets of teacher motivation, such as self-efficacy.

In our own theoretical work, we assume a relative importance of different components of teacher motivation for different dimensions of teaching quality (Lazarides & Schiefele, 2021). This assumption is based on the potentially different underlying mechanisms through which teacher self-efficacy and teacher interest relate to teachers' behaviors in class. Teacher self-efficacy is assumed to guide teaching-related goal setting, as well as the persistence in reaching one's own goals even in problematic classroom situations (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001). Thus, self-efficacy beliefs are assumed to influence teachers' goal-directed lesson preparation, their behavioral regulation of the class, or the cognitive activation in the class. Intrinsic orientations such as teacher interest, in turn, are assumed to enhance teachers' attention during teaching (Kunter & Holzberger, 2014), and thus might enable teachers to effectively support students and react promptly to interferences in class.

Previous research that includes both facets of teacher motivation, however, is scarce. Fauth et al. (2019) showed in their cross-sectional study that teacher enthusiasm and teacher self-efficacy were both positively associated with a student-perceived supportive climate, but that only teacher self-efficacy related to student-reported classroom management. Chatzistamatiou, Dermitzaki, and Bagiatis (2014) found in their cross-sectional study that both teachers’ valuing of teaching and their self-efficacy were related to teacher-reported classroom management. Schiefele and Schaffner (2015) focused on teacher educational interest and teacher self-efficacy, and showed positive associations between teacher interest and student-rated mastery instruction – which is conceptually close to support in class (Patrick, Kaplan, & Ryan, 2011). Lazarides, Fauth, Gaspard & Göllner (2021) focused on longitudinal relations between teacher self-efficacy, teacher enthusiasm, and student-perceived teaching behaviors and found that teacher enthusiasm was significantly related to changes in student-perceived classroom management during the first year of middle school.

Taken together, empirical findings suggest that teacher interest, and in some studies also teacher self-efficacy, seem to be related to classroom management as perceived by teachers and students, whereas teacher interest is often associated with student-rated support in class. However, findings are not consistent and might depend on the constructs under investigation as well as on perspective-specific ratings. To date, there are only a few studies that consider multiple facets of teacher motivation and their relations to teaching quality, emphasizing a need for further studies.

Many studies have investigated relations between single facets of teacher motivation, such as teacher self-efficacy (e.g., Burić & Kim, 2020; Fauth et al., 2019) or teacher interest (Schiefele, 2017, Schiefele and Schaffner, 2015), and student-perceived teaching quality. Little is known, however, about how different facets of teacher motivation are of different importance for teaching quality as perceived by teachers and students. Our cross-sectional study addresses this research gap and extends the current research on teacher motivation by comparing the effects of teacher self-efficacy and teacher interest on different characteristics of teaching quality and by focusing on teacher and student perspectives on teaching quality.

The following hypotheses were examined:

  • 1)

    In line with previous work (Burić & Kim, 2020; Fauth et al., 2019) and theoretical assumptions about the positive effect of self-efficacy on teachers' goal setting and persistence (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001), we expected self-efficacy in instruction to be positively related to student-perceived (Hypothesis 1a) and teacher-reported cognitive activation, classroom management, and emotional support (Hypothesis 1b).

  • 2)

    Referring to theoretical assumptions about teacher interest, we anticipated significant positive relations of teachers' educational interest with student-reported class-level emotional support and classroom management (Schiefele, 2017, Schiefele and Schaffner, 2015), but not cognitive activation (Schiefele, Streblow & Retelsdorf, 2013) (Hypothesis 2a). Moreover, weak or non-significant relations were expected between teacher educational interest and all three teacher-reported dimensions of teaching quality (Schiefele and Schaffner, 2015, Schiefele et al., 2013) (Hypothesis 2b).

In the present analysis, teachers' educational knowledge, work experience, and gender, as well as class-average mathematics competence, were used as covariates at the class level), whereas students' gender, age, and mathematics competence were included as covariates at the individual level. Previous studies revealed substantial relations between teachers’ educational knowledge1 (i.e., knowledge about domain-unspecific educational principles; e.g., König, Blömeke, Paine, Schmidt, & Hsieh, 2011) and teaching quality, such as for student-perceived learning support in the domain of mathematics (Baumert et al., 2013; Kunter et al., 2013).

Teachers' years of work experience (Lazarides, Watt & Richardson, 2020) and students' competence (Wagner et al., 2016) have also been shown to be positively related to student-or teacher-perceived teaching quality. Furthermore, empirical evidence suggests biases in students' evaluations of teaching quality depending on students' gender (Lazarides & Watt, 2015), as well as depending on teachers’ gender (Boring, 2017). Students also might perceive the support from their teachers differently depending on their age (Maulana, Opdenakker, Stroet, & Bosker, 2013). The tested relations are depicted in a schematic model in Fig. 1.

Section snippets

Participants and procedure

Participants were secondary school teachers (N = 84; 61.20% female; Mage = 44.73, SD = 11.50; 95.3% born in Germany) and their 1718 students (48.5% girls, Mage = 14.20, SD = 0.61; range: 13–17 years; 87.6% born in Germany) from 89 classrooms (five teachers were teaching two classes) in 45 public schools in Germany. Teachers had on average 15.64 years of teaching experience (SD = 13.79; Range: 0–40 years) and taught the participating classes between 1 and 4 years (M = 2.28, SD = 0.93). One third

Descriptive analyses

Descriptive statistics for all constructs are reported in Table 1. Wald Chi Square Tests (Asparouhouv & Muthén, 2007) indicated that teachers reported significantly higher teaching quality than their students on all three dimensions (all ps < .001; see Table 1).

Manifest-latent correlations were calculated for both levels of analysis among all study variables. Correlation coefficients are reported in Table 2 at the individual level (L1) and in Table 3 at the class level (L2). At the class level,

Discussion

The aim of this study was to disentangle the predictive contributions of teacher self-efficacy in instruction and teacher educational interest for student- and teacher-reported dimensions of teaching quality in mathematics classrooms. There were two key findings. First, teacher self-efficacy showed unique contributions to all three dimensions of teacher-reported teaching quality (cognitive activation, classroom management, emotional support) when based on teacher reports but not student

Author statement

Rebecca Lazarides: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing - Original Draft, Visualization, Writing - review & editing.

Ulrich Schiefele: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing - Original Draft, Writing - review & editing.

Funding

Teach project is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), project numbers LA 3522/5–1 and SCHI 283/17–1.

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank Marthe Frommelt and Katharina Hettinger for their decisive contribution to the project management and data assessment in the Teach research project.

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