Teachers’ achievement goals and teaching practices: A standardized lesson diary approach

Abstract

That teachers' achievement goals matter for teaching practices is an important premise of teacher motivation research. However, this notion is still little understood, particularly as most studies on this topic use global self-reports of overarching teaching practices. We therefore differentiate between ten teaching practices central to motivating lessons and introduce a diary approach for assessing them. Following a baseline achievement goal questionnaire, 134 German high school teachers completed 670 standardized lesson diaries concerning their subsequent lessons. Multilevel analyses illuminated robust linkages between teachers’ goals and teaching practices and speak to the merits of a diary approach for assessing teaching practices.