Teacher performance goal practices and elementary students' behavioral engagement: A developmental perspective

Jan N. Hughes, Wei Wu, Stephen West

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

22 Scopus citations

Abstract

We investigated growth trajectories for classroom performance goal practices and for student behavioral engagement across grades 2 to 5 for 497 academically at-risk elementary students. This study is the first longitudinal investigation of performance goal practices in the early elementary years. On average, teacher use of performance goal practices increased and students' behavioral engagement declined across the four years. Using autoregressive latent trajectory (ALT) models, we examined the synchronous relations between teacher-reported performance goal practices and teacher-reported student behavioral engagement. As expected, as students move into classrooms with a new teacher with less emphasis on performance goal practices, they become more behaviorally engaged in school. Gender did not moderate these results. Implications for teacher professional development are discussed.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1-23
Number of pages23
JournalJournal of School Psychology
Volume49
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2011

Keywords

  • Classroom context
  • Elementary students
  • Engagement
  • Goal structures
  • Teacher practices

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education
  • Developmental and Educational Psychology

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Teacher performance goal practices and elementary students' behavioral engagement: A developmental perspective'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this