Abstract:

Given the importance of learning math for adolescents’ academic success and opportunities of future careers in STEM, the interest of researchers on how contextual factors contribute to students’ engagement in mathematics is increasing. Research under self-determination theory has confirmed the effects of certain teaching practices on student engagement. Recently it has been noted that division into motivating and demotivating teaching behavior could be too simplistic as it does not capture that concrete utterances and acts of teachers represent a mix of dimensions. Aelterman et al. (2019) proposed circumplex model of teaching styles in which different needs-satisfying and blocking practices are examined together based on their similarities and differences. However, there is no solid evidence on how the subareas of (de)motivating teaching styles are related to the dimensions of student engagement. The goal of current study was to examine how eight subareas of teaching styles defined by circumplex model predict achievement in math with engagement as a mediator. Participants were 715 students (51% females; Mage = 13.43;SD = 0.63). Eight subareas of teachers’ (de)motivating styles were evaluated using the Situations in School Questionnaire (Aelterman et al., 2019). Behavioral, cognitive and emotional (specifically, positive, negative emotions and satisfaction with math classes) engagement was assessed with three items each. Students provided information about their math achievement. Results of path analyses revealed that behavioral engagement is positively associated with guiding and demanding and negatively with abandoning. Cognitive engagement is positively associated with guiding. Satisfaction with math classes and positive emotions are positively associated with attuning, guiding and negatively associated with domineering and abandoning. Negative emotions are negatively associated with participative and attuning and positively with domineering and abandoning. In turn, only behavioral engagement and satisfaction with math classes positively predict math achievement. The results capture the differentiated effects of subtle teaching behaviors on dimensions of students’ engagement and achievement.

Keywords:

Engagement, achievement, (de)motivating teaching, self-determination theory.