“Goals, Goals, Goals”: Analyzing Teacher Goals on Three Conceptual Levels to Explain Motivational Effects on Instructional Practice

Background: Achievement goals and self-efficacy are key components of teacher motivation and crucial for teaching quality and student outcomes, yet the processes explaining why they lead to specific teaching behaviors remain unclear. This study disentangles teacher goals on three levels (personal goals, student-oriented goals, intended classroom goal structures) to under-stand these processes better. Aims: We aim to uncover the associations of teachers’ personal goals and self-efficacy beliefs with specific teaching behaviors, mediated by student-oriented goals and intended classroom goal structures. Sample: 70 secondary school teachers from German general-education secondary schools, teaching Mathematics in grades 7-9 in lower track secondary education (42 women, 28 men; mean age 43.7 years, SD = 10.6) filled out a total of 345 lesson diaries over five weeks. Methods: After reporting personal goals, self-efficacy and student-oriented goals, teachers filled out standardized lesson diaries on intended classroom goal structures and specific teaching behaviors encompassing both mastery-based (interestingness, cognitive stimulation, individualization, autonomy support, structuring, collaboration, heterogeneous grouping) as well as performance-based aspects (public negative feedback, homogeneous grouping, competition). Results: Two-level path modeling indicated that personal performance goals are positively related to student-oriented performance goals, with student-oriented mastery goals being predict-ed by teachers’ self-efficacy. Intended mastery goal structures in the classroom were predicted by both student-oriented mastery goals and teachers’ personal goals and efficacy. Different linkages were observed for different teaching behaviors. Conclusions: The findings highlight the relevance of considering both student-oriented goals and intended goal structures in better understanding the relationship between teacher motivation and instructional practices.