Teacher's Autonomy Support and Engagement in Math: Multiple Mediating Roles of Self-efficacy, Intrinsic Value, and Boredom.

Rui Zhen,Yi Ding,Ru-De Liu,Le Xu,Jia Wang,Ying Liu

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01006

Rui Zhen, Yi Ding + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01006

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Abstract

Previous studies have highlighted the impacts of environmental factors (teacher’s autonomy support) and individual factors (self-efficacy, intrinsic value, and boredom) on academic engagement. This study aimed to investigate these variables and examine the relations among them. Three structural equation models tested the multiple mediational roles of self-efficacy, intrinsic value, and boredom in the relation between teacher’s autonomy support and behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement, respectively, in math. A total of 637 Chinese middle school students (313 males, 324 females; mean age = 14.82) voluntarily participated in this study. Results revealed that self-efficacy, intrinsic value, and boredom played important and mediating roles between perceived teacher’s autonomy support and student engagement. Specifically, these three individual variables partly mediated the relations between perceived teacher’s autonomy support and behavioral and cognitive engagement, while fully mediating the relation between perceived teacher’s autonomy support and emotional engagement. These findings complement and extend the understanding of factors affecting students’ engagement in math.

Highlights

Academic engagement has attracted the growing interest of educators and researchers, who have reported that it is a critical factor in ameliorating poor academic achievement, problem behaviors, and dropout (Klem and Connell, 2004; Archambault et al, 2009; Upadyaya and Salmela-Aro, 2013; Zhen et al, 2016)
Each of the measurement models in this study consisted of six latent factors as well as 40, 42, and 40 indicators, respectively
The present study aimed at exploring the systematic relations between academic engagement and its environmental and individual predictors

Summary

Introduction

Academic engagement has attracted the growing interest of educators and researchers, who have reported that it is a critical factor in ameliorating poor academic achievement, problem behaviors, and dropout (Klem and Connell, 2004; Archambault et al, 2009; Upadyaya and Salmela-Aro, 2013; Zhen et al, 2016). In the context of school, engagement usually consists of three aspects: behavioral, emotional, and cognitive, which describe how students behave, feel, and think during learning activities (Fredricks et al, 2004). Engagement is susceptible to environmental and individual factors (Fredricks et al, 2004). Given the important role of engagement in relation to achievement and life outcomes, it is essential to improve our understanding of the effect of these contextual and individual factors on fostering student engagement.

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