Abstract

Background

While it's clear that autonomous motivation significantly boosts academic success, there are conflicting findings regarding the opposite relation. Besides, the reciprocal relations among controlled motivation and achievement present mixed results. Adequately distinguishing between variations among individuals and within individuals results key to acknowledge such relations.

Aim

This longitudinal study examines the reciprocal relations between controlled and autonomous forms of motivation and academic achievement using the RI-CLPM methodology.

Sample

Participants were 1042 high school students (M = 16 years, 52% male adolescents) from 16 different high schools in urban and rural areas.

Methods

A random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) was tested to estimate whether students' autonomous and controlled motivation predicted achievement and/or vice versa. Independent models were estimated for the two types of motivation.

Results

Overall, the RI-CLPM results indicated a unidirectional relationship between autonomous motivation and achievement. As for controlled motivation, the results of RI-CLPM models showed no reciprocal relationship between this type of motivation and achievement.

Conclusions

These results underline the importance of taking within- and between-person processes into account when analysing reciprocal relations and provide crucial insights for enhancing student motivation and achievement in diverse educational contexts.

Abstract

Background

The transition from primary to secondary school presents a challenging developmental milestone which often marks a decline in academic performance. Social–emotional skills are recognized as fundamental to academic success but longitudinal research is needed to determine the extent of their association over this transition period.

Aim

This study sought to determine the association between self-reported social–emotional competencies of students in their final year of primary school (Year 6; age ~11 years) and reading and numeracy performance in their first year of secondary school (Year 7; age ~12 years).

Sample

The study used a large Australian sample (n = 23,865), drawn from the New South Wales Child Development Study population cohort.

Methods

The Middle Childhood Survey–Social–Emotional Learning assessment, administered during Year 6, comprises the five competencies defined by the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL): Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills and Responsible Decision-Making. These data were linked with students' Year 7 reading and numeracy scores from the standardized National Assessment Program–Literacy and Numeracy measure. Associations were examined in multi-level structural equation models which accounted for prior (Year 5) academic achievement and sociodemographic covariates. Multi-group analyses explored invariance across girls and boys.

Results

Self-Awareness and Self-Management demonstrated significant and meaningful positive relationships with reading and numeracy performance. Associations with reading were invariant by sex but boys demonstrated significantly stronger associations than girls on numeracy.

Conclusion

Findings suggest that bolstering primary school students' intrapersonal social–emotional competencies may safeguard their academic achievement over the transition into secondary school.

Abstract

Background

Effective classroom communication is key to shaping the learning environment and inspiring student engagement. And, it's not just what is said, but how it's said, that influences students. Yet, few (current or future) teachers receive education on vocal pedagogy.

Aims

This study examined the impact of raising vocal awareness in teachers on their voice production through delivering a voice training program.

Method

Specifically, we explored how primary school teacher trainees produced motivational (either soft, warm, and encouraging, or harsh, pressuring, and controlling) and neutral communications before and after the delivery of a voice education program that concentrated on raising voice awareness, vocal anatomy, exercise techniques (e.g. breath control, voice modulation), and voice care. Hypotheses: We hypothesised that trainees' voice production would change over the course of the program and lead to more ‘prototypical’ displays of motivational prosody (e.g. softly spoken encouraging intentions vs. harshly spoken controlling intentions).

Results

Results indicated a noticeable difference when communicating motivational intentions between pre- and post-training voice samples: post training, trainees spoke more slowly and with reduced vocal effort irrespective of motivational intention, suggesting that raising vocal awareness can alter classroom communications.

Conclusion

The results underscore the importance of vocal awareness training to create a supportive and autonomy-enhancing learning environment.

Abstract

Background

Much is known about the positive effects of teachers' self-efficacy on instruction and student outcomes, but the processes underlying these relations are unknown.

Aims

We aimed to examine the effects of teacher self-efficacy for student engagement (TSESE) before a lesson on teachers' nonverbal immediacy (NVI) and their enthusiastic teaching. Furthermore, we examined how NVI and enthusiastic teaching affected students' interest after the lesson, controlling for prior interest.

Sample

We used data from the German TALIS video study in the context of the international TALIS study. The study included 50 teachers (46% women) and their 1140 students (53% girls; ageM = 15 years).

Methods

We developed a computational model to assess teachers' NVI on classroom video data. Using a multimodal longitudinal approach, we tested sequential processes with multilevel path models.

Results

TSESE before the lesson (Time 1) was positively and significantly related to teachers' NVI during the lesson (Time 2). Teachers' NVI (Time 2) was positively related to class-level enthusiastic teaching behaviours, reported after the lesson (Time 3). Student-reported enthusiastic teaching behaviours (Time 3) were significantly and positively associated with students' interest (Time 3) when controlling for students' prior interest (Time 1). Students' interest after the lesson (Time 3) was significantly and positively related to students' interest 6 weeks later (Time 4).

Conclusions

Nonverbal behaviours of the teacher are central to classroom instruction by promoting students' perceptions of the teachers' enthusiastic teaching behaviours.