Linking teachers’ goal orientations to classroom engagement: The mediating role of teaching self-efficacy

In contrast to considerable research examining relations between teachers’ instruction-specific goals and students’ behaviors, links between teachers’ social goals and student engagement is scarce. The present study investigated the direct effects of teachers’ social goals on their perceptions of student engagement and examined the mediational role of teaching self-efficacy. Findings with Canadian practicing teachers (N = 513) showed that whereas teachers’ social goals did predict their perceptions of students’ emotional (dis)engagement, these effects were fully mediated by teaching self-efficacy pertaining to student engagement and, to a lesser extent, classroom management. Teachers who more strongly endorsed social goals tended to report greater confidence in their ability to motivate students that, in turn, predicted both emotional and behavioral student (dis)engagement. Copyright © 2019 18th annual EGSS Conference.