The role of (de)motivating teachers’ behaviour in predicting students’ engagement and well-being in Lithuanian school context

LT-08303 Renata Garckija¹, Dr Ingrida Gabrialavičiūtė², Dr Saulė Raižienė^3
1Mykolas Romeris University, Ateities g., 20, Vilnius, Lithuania
²Mykolas Romeris University, Ateities g., 20, LT-08303, Vilnius, Lithuania
³Vilnius University, Universiteto tr. 9, LT-01513, Vilnius, Lithuania

 

Number

177

Assigned to session

SW.02.05, 10-07-2022, 11:00 - 12:00

Keywords

Teacher-child and peer relationships
Academic emotions and motivation

Abstract

Rather than categorizing teachers’ behavior as either motivating or demotivating, Aelterman et al. (2019) proposed circumplex model in which different needs-satisfying and blocking practices are examined together based on their similarities and differences. It distinguishes four main ways of teachers' (de)motivating behavior – autonomy supporting, controlling, structuring and chaotic. Each of them is divided into two sub-categories of behavior, showing their interrelationships in terms of needs satisfaction/frustration and low-high directiveness.

We aimed to examine how the categories of circumplex model can predict the engagement and well-being of students in Lithuanian educational context.

Participants were 715 Lithuanian students (51% females; Mage = 13.43 years; SD = 0.63; range = 12–14 years).

The Situations at School Questionnaire was as measure of (de)motivating teachers’ behavior; behavior and cognitive engagement was measured, well-being was measured by students’ satisfaction, positive and negative emotions.

The results revealed that broader areas of autonomy support and structure predicted higher levels of positive outcomes (e.g., cognitive and behavioral engagement, students’ satisfaction and positive emotions) and lower levels of negative emotions. The areas of teachers’ controlling behavior and chaos predicted lower levels of students’ satisfaction and positive emotions and higher levels of negative emotions. The similar pattern was observed with eight finer subareas predicting students’ outcomes providing a more refined picture. The results indicate that using circumplex approach allows teachers to gain a more precise insight into their teaching style and to adopt a more need-supportive strategies to benefit their students.

Authors