Between-teacher differences in homework assignments and the development of students' homework effort, homework emotions, and achievement.

The study examines whether teachers' homework objectives, implementation practices, and attitudes toward parental involvement are associated with the development of students' homework effort, homework emotions, and achievement during Grade 8. A total of 63 teachers (40 male, 23 female; mean teaching experience: M = 17.5 years) of French as a 2nd language and their 1,299 Grade 8 students (51.2% female; mean age at first measurement point: M = 13.84, SD = 0.56) participated in the study. In multilevel models, teachers' homework attitudes and behaviors were specified to predict outcomes at the end of Grade 8, controlling for covariates at the beginning of Grade 8. A low emphasis on drill and practice tasks and a high emphasis on motivation were associated with favorable developments in homework effort and achievement. Controlling homework assignments were associated with less homework effort and more negative homework emotions; the opposite pattern was found for students whose teacher supported student homework autonomy rather than parental homework involvement. The authors call for a systematic integration of findings from homework research in teacher training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The teacher and student as Pygmalions: Joint effects of teacher and student expectations.

Examined the effects of teachers' expectations about students and students' expectations about teachers on the performance and attitudes of both participants. 60 female undergraduates were designated as teachers and were led to expect a high- or low-ability student, and a further 60 Ss acting as students were independently led to expect a teacher of low or high competence. Teachers and students were then randomly paired in a teaching session. Results show that student performance was a function of the teacher's expectations. In addition, teachers' attitudes and rated competence were affected by their expectation regarding the student, and students' attitudes were affected by their expectation about the teacher. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teachers' achievement goal orientations and associations with teachers' help seeking: Examination of a novel approach to teacher motivation.

It was proposed that achievement goal theory can be applied to conceptualizing motivation not only for learning but also for teaching. As predicted, responses of 320 teachers to a new self-report measure of goal orientations for teaching yielded 4 factors reflecting distinct mastery, ability-approach, ability-avoidance, and work-avoidance goals. Data from 212 teachers who also completed measures of help seeking confirmed that mastery goals predicted positive perceptions of help seeking, preferences for receiving autonomous help, and frequency of help seeking; ability avoidance predicted negative perceptions and help avoidance; and work avoidance predicted expedient help seeking. Results validate the proposed structure and measure of teacher goal orientations and open new directions for research on teacher cognitions and behaviors, teachers' influences on students, and school influences on teachers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Engaging students in learning activities: It is not autonomy support or structure but autonomy support and structure.

We investigated 2 engagement-fostering aspects of teachers' instructional styles—autonomy support and structure—and hypothesized that students' engagement would be highest when teachers provided high levels of both. Trained observers rated teachers' instructional styles and students' behavioral engagement in 133 public high school classrooms in the Midwest, and 1,584 students in Grades 9–11 reported their subjective engagement. Correlational and hierarchical linear modeling analyses showed 3 results: (a) Autonomy support and structure were positively correlated, (b) autonomy support and structure both predicted students' behavioral engagement, and (c) only autonomy support was a unique predictor of students' self-reported engagement. We discuss, first, how these findings help illuminate the relations between autonomy support and structure as 2 complementary, rather than antagonistic or curvilinear, engagement-fostering aspects of teachers' instructional styles and, second, the somewhat different results obtained for the behavioral versus self-report measures of students' classroom engagement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teachers' knowledge of students' knowledge in mathematics problem solving: Correlational and case analyses.

This study examined the relationship of teachers' knowledge of students' knowledge to teachers' mathematics instruction and to students' mathematics problem solving. First-grade teachers (N?=?20) participated in a 4-week workshop in which they were given access to research-based knowledge on children's mathematics learning. Teachers were observed for 16 days throughout the school year. In May, teachers completed interviews and questionnaires about their knowledge and beliefs; their students completed achievement tests. Correlational analyses showed significant positive relationships between teachers' knowledge of students' knowledge and students' mathematics problem-solving achievement. Teachers with more knowledge of their students questioned students about problem-solving processes and listened to their responses. Teachers with less knowledge of their students explained problem-solving processes to students or observed students' solutions. Case analyses of knowledge and behavior of the most effective teacher and the least effective teacher supported these conclusions and showed important differences in how these teachers thought about and used students' knowledge. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teachers' attitudes toward change and subsequent improvements in classroom teaching.

The relation between teachers' attitudes toward teaching practices presented in inservice training and the subsequent use of these practices was investigated. Three groups of junior high teachers (N?=?19) attended five workshops on effective teaching and received different between-workshop activities. Pre- to posttraining observations, questionnaires, and interviews were used to assess behavior changes and attitudes. Correlational analyses indicated that teachers' posttraining ratings of the importance of using the practices (philosophical acceptance) was predictive of their use by teachers. Qualitative data analyses revealed that improving teachers differed from nonimproving teachers in their willingness to experiment in their classrooms and in their growth in self-efficacy. Nonimproving teachers tended to defend their natural style of teaching, to attempt few changes, and to have low expectations for themselves and for their students. Staff developers need to attend to philosophical acceptance, self-efficacy, and the importance of the suggested practices during inservice training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of performance standards on teaching styles: Behavior of controlling teachers.

Previous research has shown that when teachers are oriented toward controlling rather than supporting autonomy in their students, the students display lowered intrinsic motivation and self-esteem. The present study explored conditions that lead teachers (40 undergraduates) to be more controlling- vs more autonomy-oriented with students. Findings indicate that impressing upon teachers that they are responsible for their students' performing up to standards leads them to be more controlling than teachers who were told that there were no performance standards for their students' learning. Teachers in the former condition talked more, were more critical of the students, gave more commands, and allowed less choice and autonomy. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adolescents' motivation toward the environment: Age-related trends and correlates.

From a self-determination perspective, we attempted to replicate previous findings suggesting that higher autonomous environmental motivation (i.e., acting out of choice and pleasure) is associated with the frequency of environmental behaviours such as recycling, paper reuse, and energy conservation. We also compared students' level of autonomous environmental motivation with their level of autonomous academic motivation. We then examined age effects on autonomous environmental motivation and compared them to age effects on autonomous academic motivation. A total of 200 high school students grouped into 5 age cohorts filled out a questionnaire. Results showed that (1) adolescents' autonomous environmental motivation was associated with more frequent environmental behaviours, (2) autonomous motivation was higher in the environmental than the school domain, and (3) autonomous environmental motivation was higher in older than younger students, whereas autonomous motivation toward school was equivalent across age groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teachers' differential behavior toward higher and lower achieving students and its relation to selected teacher characteristics.

Examined individual differences in the differential behavior of 12 3rd-grade teachers toward higher- and lower-achieving students for consistent patterns and their relation to the perceptual and attitudinal characteristics of teachers and their quality of teaching. Teachers had an average of 14.3 yrs of teaching experience. Interactions between teachers and students were coded by observers who also rated teachers on the quality of their instruction. Measures of teachers' perceptions and attitudes were gathered from questionnaires. Correlations showed that teachers were moderately consistent in their individual patterns of differential behavior. Favored students (higher or lower achievers) received a combination of both rewarding and demanding teacher behavior. Correlations of an index of teachers' overall differential behavior with the teacher questionnaire responses, although not statistically significant, suggested that teachers who showed more concern for lower achieving students tended to have more flexible and accurate perceptions of students. These same teachers were rated significantly lower on their quality of teaching, which suggests that these 2 sets of skills may be difficult to combine. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teachers' judgments of students' academic functioning: A comparison of actual and predicted performances.

The relationship between teachers' judgments of students' academic achievement and students' performances on an achievement test was investigated. The study included 12 teachers and 47 1st–4th graders students randomly selected from Wisconsin public schools. Teachers filled out the Academic Competence Scale from the Social Skills Rating System—Teacher version and 1 questionnaire for each student, which required teachers to predict how students would do on each item of the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement, Brief form (K-TEA). Students were then administered the K-TEA by a qualified examiner. Teachers' judgments of students' academic achievement on the Academic Competence Scale were correlated moderately highly with students' actual K-TEA scores. Furthermore, mean percent agreement between teachers' item predictions and students' actual performances on the K-TEA was moderately high. Lastly, there was partial support for the prediction that teachers were better predictors of higher achieving than lower achieving students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teachers' occupational well-being and quality of instruction: The important role of self-regulatory patterns.

Teachers' occupational well-being (level of emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction) and quality of instruction are two key aspects of research on teaching that have rarely been studied together. The role of occupational engagement and resilience as two important work-related self-regulatory dimensions that predict occupational well-being and teachers' instructional performance in the classroom was investigated. In Part 1 of the study, self-regulatory data from 1,789 German mathematics teachers were subjected to a latent profile analysis, yielding four self-regulatory types (healthy-ambitious, unambitious, excessively ambitious, and resigned) that differed significantly on emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction. In Part 2, the association between teachers' self-regulatory type and instructional performance was examined in a subsample of 318 teachers. Results showed that teachers' self-regulatory type predicted the quality of instruction in three of the four aspects of instructional performance examined. Moreover, teachers' self-regulatory type was systematically linked to differences in students' motivation. No association was found between teacher self-regulation and student achievement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teachers' brief nonverbal behaviors in defined instructional situations can predict students' evaluations.

Can a few seconds of high school teachers' nonverbal (NV) behavior predict students' ratings of these teachers (SRT)? Yes, but NV-SRT relations varied among various instructional situations. NV behaviors while administering the class and using the board were unrelated to SRT. Positive judgments of NV behavior while disciplining the class and interacting with students were positively related to SRT. NV behaviors in frontal teaching were negatively related to SRT. The most negative NV-SRT relations were found for teachers' differential NV behavior toward high- versus low-achieving students. Teacher differentiality and SRT have rarely been investigated in high school. The structure of SRT seems to differ between high school and college, and students' anger about teachers' differentiality strongly predicted their evaluations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The "teacher's pet" phenomenon, students' perceptions of teachers' differential behavior, and students' morale.

The relationships among the teacher's pet phenomenon, students' perceptions of teachers' differential behavior, and students' morale were investigated in 80 upper elementary Israeli classrooms. The intensity of the teacher's pet phenomenon (rate of students' consensus in identifying teachers' pets in each classroom) was related to perceived teachers' differential behavior, particularly to teachers' differential (also preferential) affect. In turn, teachers' perceived differential affect was negatively related to students' morale and satisfaction. In classrooms of teachers who had pets who were not popular, students demonstrated lower morale, whereas students in "popular-pet" classrooms did not demonstrate lower morale. Previous findings on the teacher's pet phenomenon and on students' and teachers' perceptions of teachers' differential behavior were replicated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Controlling teaching strategies: Undermining children's self-determination and performance.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 59(6) of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (see record 2008-10627-001). In the article, Figure 1 on page 922 is labeled incorrectly. The entries have been corrected and are included in the erratum.] Examined the hypothesis that students would show performance impairment when they were exposed to teachers who were pressured to maximize student performance level and who used controlling strategies. For this purpose, 4th-grade teachers and their students participated in a field experiment in which teachers either were pressured to maximize student performance or were told simply to help their students learn. In addition, the teaching sessions were videotaped to assess teachers' use of controlling strategies, as rated by blind coders. Following the teaching sessions, student performance on tasks initially taught by teachers as well as on a generalization task was assessed by blind experimenters. As predicted, the data indicated that students evidenced performance impairment during the subsequent testing session only when they were exposed to pressured teachers using controlling strategies. Results are discussed within the context of self-determination theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attributions of ability and motivation in a natural setting.

Examined the effects of different patterns of student performance on teachers' attributions of ability and motivation in a school setting. 415 6–8th graders and 17 teachers served as Ss. Lorge-Thorndike Intelligence Test scores and grades affected attributions of ability and motivation in an additive fashion. In contrast to F. Heider's (see PA, Vol 33:971) proposition, attributions of ability and motivation had a positive relationship when performance was controlled. Teachers had greater confidence in their attributions when performances were extreme, particularly in a positive direction. Although consistency in performance between test scores and grades did not affect their confidence, teachers were more confident when students' grades were consistent with the teachers' perceptions of the children's ability. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Students' motivational profiles and achievement outcomes in physical education: A self-determination perspective.

Previous studies in education have inspected the relations between students' autonomous versus controlled motivation and relevant outcomes. In most of those studies a global index of self-determined motivation was created. The purpose of this article was to examine (a) how the different types of motivation proposed by Self-Determination Theory combine into distinct profiles as identified by cluster analysis and (b) the links between those profiles and objective criteria of achievement. In Study 1, motivation toward physical education was assessed at the beginning of a 10-week gymnastics teaching cycle, and performance was assessed at the end of the cycle among a sample of high school students (N=210). Study 2 (N=215) extended Study 1 by controlling students' initial performance, measuring the effort they exerted and recording their grades. Cluster analyses revealed three motivational profiles: self-determined, non-self-determined, and moderate levels of both types of motivation. Path analysis showed that the self-determined profile was related to the highest achievement. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the assessment of students' motivation and the consequences of motivational profiles for educational outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teacher motivational strategies and student self-determination in physical education.

Physical education teachers can influence students' self-determination through the motivational strategies they use. In this study, the authors examined the relationship between teachers' perceptions of class average self-determination, the teachers' self-determination, and their reported use of 3 motivational strategies: autonomy support, structure, and involvement. They examined the relationship between the 3 motivational strategies, students' perceptions of psychological need satisfaction, and students' self-determination. They also investigated the relationship between teachers' and students' self-determination. Multilevel and standard regression analyses revealed that teachers' perceptions of class average self-determination predicted their reported use of the motivational strategies, and this relationship was mediated by their own self-determination. Student perceptions of the three strategies had a positive effect on their own self-determination, and this relationship was mediated by their reported satisfaction of autonomy and competence. Finally, teachers' self-determination did not predict students' self-determination. The importance of promoting an adaptive motivational climate for both teachers and students is discussed with reference to self-determination theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's autonomy and perceived control in learning: A model of motivation and achievement in Taiwan.

A model of motivation and achievement was tested with data from 50 teachers and 806 Grade 4-6 students in Taiwan. Autonomy as a construct was shown to have ecological validity in Chinese children. The proposed model fit the data well, showing that maternal involvement and autonomy support, as well as teachers' autonomy support, are important for children's autonomy and perceived control. Without the mediation of perceived control, autonomy had a small negative effect on performance; controlling for perceived control, external motivation orientation was a positive predictor for Chinese children's effort and performance. The teachers' reported motivating style, as construed in Western research, does not correspond with Chinese children's perceptions of their teachers nor does it have any relationship with their motivation measures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effectiveness and relative importance of choice in the classroom.

This investigation examined the effects of providing choices among homework assignments on motivation and subsequent academic performance. Students were randomly assigned within classrooms either to receive a choice of homework options or to be assigned an option for all homework in one instructional unit. Conditions were reversed for a second instructional unit. Results revealed that when students received a choice of homework they reported higher intrinsic motivation to do homework, felt more competent regarding the homework, and performed better on the unit test compared with when they did not have a choice. In addition, a trend suggested that having choices enhanced homework completion rates compared with when no choices were given. In a second analysis involving the same students, the importance of perceived provision of choice was examined in the context of student perceptions of their teachers' support for autonomy more broadly defined. Survey data showed that the relationship between perceptions of receiving autonomy support from teachers and intrinsic motivation for schoolwork could be fully accounted for by students' perceptions of receiving choices from their teachers. The limitations and implications of the study for research and practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship between college teachers' use of humor in the classroom and students' evaluations of their teachers.

In a field study, 70 college students unobtrusively tape-recorded 1 class presentation and evaluated the teacher as to appeal, competence, delivery, and teaching effectiveness. The presentations were content analyzed to identify key features relating to humor usage. Following a factor analysis of aspects of evaluation, correlation coefficients were computed between the teachers' frequency of use of the various types of humor and students' evaluations of their professors. Results indicate that for male teachers, usage of humor was generally positively related to appeal, delivery, and teaching effectiveness. For female teachers, only the use of hostile humor was associated with enhanced appeal. In contrast, female teachers' usage of some nonhostile forms of humor was associated with loss of appeal. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)