Learning Environment and Academic Achievement Motivation

A healthy learning environment, such as through high-quality teacher-student interactions is a vital part of an effective educational experience. Additionally, improving the quality of teacher-student interactions within the classroom depends upon a solid understanding of the nature of effective teaching for adolescents. 

Pressley and colleagues (2003) draw from their studies of effective teachers to suggest that effective teaching strategies can be organized into decisions regarding motivational atmosphere, classroom management, and curriculum and instruction. Eccles and Roeser (1999) suggest that schooling is optimally characterized by organizational, social, and instructional processes that help regulate children and adolescent's development across cognitive, social-emotional, and behavioral domains.  

Meanwhile, teacher-student interactions have the potential to affect students on many levels including achievement, motivation, and adjustment to school (den Brok et al, 2005). Research on teacher-student interactions in early childhood, elementary, and secondary settings have shown that some types of classroom interactions can have a positive effect on various outcomes, including student's academic development, achievement. and attitudes toward learning (Burchinal et al, 2002; Pianta, 1999). In addition, these teacher-student indications can be predictive of student achievement and motivation as early as the elementary years and potentially continue into the middle grades.  

Defining the characteristics of high-quality teacher-student interactions is critical to examining their impact on student outcomes. Gardiner & Kosmitzki (2008) defined high-quality teacher-student interactions as consistent, stable, respectful, and fair interactions that facilitate the student's view of their teacher as a secure base. Therefore, students will be more likely to engage in help-seeking behaviors that, in turn, positively correlate with student achievement.

High-quality teacher-student interactions can also be typified by rich communication in instrumental exchanges between the teacher and the student (Pianta et al, 2013) Open communication between the teacher and students can enable students to engage more deeply with content through classroom discourse and seek teacher assistance more confidently.            

Smart (2014) articulates that:

Aspects of the the classroom learning environment are also influential in student's individual goal orientations (Anderman & Patrick, 2012). Teachers who promote competition and place a high value on test grades may foster the development of performance goal orientations in their students. Conversely, teachers who value understanding of concepts and emphasize individual effort over grades are more likely to encourage the development of mastery goal orientations in their students. Evaluation practices are especially influential in goal orientations. As students move into the middle grades and high school, an increased emphasis is placed on normative evaluation, which encourages students to view their performance in comparison to the performance of other students. These normative evaluation practices work to foster performance-orientated goal structures within classes, and ultimately, in students (Ames,1992).    

He conducted a mixed methods study between student perceptions of teacher-student interactions and motivation in middle-school science classrooms. He found that significant positive correlations were identified between student's mastery orientation and their perceptions of their teacher's leadership and friendly/helping behaviors. "Similarly, significant positive correlations were found between student's value for learning science and their teachers' leadership and friendly/helping behaviors."(Smart 2014).

Finally, students who reported high motivation and high perceptions of teacher cooperative interactions described the most instances of teacher helpfulness and understanding."Not only did these students describe their interactions with their teachers more positively than students with low motivation, they also described positive interactions in much greater detail" (Smart 2014).

Overall, these results indicate that student's perceptions of teacher interpersonal behaviors have a significant impact on motivation and that fostering positive classroom interactions aids in attaining a higher quality of education.