Abstract
Motivation plays an important role in students’ school behavior, and research has established that students’ learning environment experiences such as teachers’ behavior toward them contribute to their motivation and behavior at school. Self-determination theory (SDT) offers an interesting frame of reference in the study of the relationship between students’ learning experiences at school and their school behavior. Considering three basic psychological needs (the need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness), the SDT points to the importance of nutriments and support in the social environment in order to allow growth in motivation, engagement, and (psychological) well-functioning. In addition, thwarting these needs is supposed to contribute to maladaptive functioning. Teachers can play an important role in the fulfillment of students’ basic psychological needs by delivering support (autonomy support, structure, and involvement); however, controlling instructional behavior, chaos in the classroom, and teacher rejection and neglect are supposed to be a treat to the fulfillment of students’ basic psychological needs. In the current innovative longitudinal study, teachers’ need-supportive behavior as well as teachers’ thwarting of these needs are considered and their relationship with students’ academic engagement (adaptive functioning) and procrastination behavior (maladaptive functioning) is studied. In addition, attention is paid to differential effects of teachers’ behavior with regard to boys and girls. Participants were 566 students belonging to 20 mathematics/English grade 1 secondary education classes in the Netherlands. Multilevel analyses revealed evidence for the importance of both teachers’ need-supportive and need-thwarting behaviors in relation to students’ academic engagement and procrastination behavior. In addition, the findings revealed that teachers’ need-supportive behavior is more important for students’ academic engagement (adaptive functioning), while teachers’ need-thwarting behavior has larger effects on students’ procrastination behavior (maladaptive functioning). Furthermore, evidence was found that boys often seemed to be more sensitive to their teachers’ behavior than girls. The findings highlight the importance of both teachers’ need-supportive and need-thwarting behaviors in daily classrooms and contribute to deepen our insight into and understanding of factors leading to adaptive and maladaptive functioning of boys and girls in relation to learning tasks at school.
Highlights
Research has established that students’ motivation and academic engagement in school is quite important for learning, school success, and a prosperous school career (Fredricks et al, 2004; Klem and Connell, 2004; Appleton et al, 2008; Steinmayr and Spinath, 2009; Wigfield and Cambria, 2010; León et al, 2017), while procrastination behavior, which is often conceived as maladaptive behavior toward learning and school, is detrimental to academic achievements (Steel et al, 2001; van Eerde, 2003; Kim and Seo, 2015) and has negative consequences such as experiencing guild and negative affective well-being
The present study investigates whether need-supportive and need-thwarting teacher behaviors are related to students’ academic engagement and procrastination behavior, which can be respectively conceived as a form of adaptive and maladaptive student behavior
The aim of this study was to investigate whether needsupportive and need-thwarting teacher behaviors were related to students’ academic engagement and procrastination behavior, which can be respectively conceived as Effect of need-supporting teacher behaviora
Summary
Research has established that students’ motivation and academic engagement in school is quite important for learning, school success, and a prosperous school career (Fredricks et al, 2004; Klem and Connell, 2004; Appleton et al, 2008; Steinmayr and Spinath, 2009; Wigfield and Cambria, 2010; León et al, 2017), while procrastination behavior, which is often conceived as maladaptive behavior toward learning and school, is detrimental to academic achievements (Steel et al, 2001; van Eerde, 2003; Kim and Seo, 2015) and has negative (psychological) consequences such as experiencing guild and negative affective well-being (van Eerde, 2003). Considering the three basic psychological needs, SDT-BPNT points to the importance of nutriments and support in the social environment in order to allow growth in motivation, engagement and (psychological) well-functioning (Deci and Ryan, 2002), and flourishing (Vansteenkiste et al, 2020) Thwarting these needs, which leads to need frustration (Vansteenkiste and Ryan, 2013; Vansteenkiste et al, 2020), is supposed to contribute to maladaptive functioning (Ryan and Deci, 2000), such as disengagement, disaffection, and exhibiting problem behavior. There is considerable evidence for the importance and relevance of SDT in a variety of domains, including education, linking the effects of social contexts (autonomy support, structure, and involvement) to basic needs satisfaction and a variety of student/individual outcomes (for reviews, see, e.g., Ryan and Deci, 2000, 2020; Deci and Ryan, 2002; Vansteenkiste et al, 2020). They discovered that high levels of disengagement seemed to lead to a trajectory of rising control and falling autonomy support according to student perceptions. Frenzel et al (2007) discovered relationships between perceived teacher behavior (instructional support and being disrespectful) and students’ emotional experiences related to disaffection (boredom and anxiety)
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