Although there is considerable evidence to support the direct effects of self-efficacy beliefs on academic achievement, very few studies have explored the motivational mechanism that mediates the self-efficacy–achievement relationship, and they are necessary to understand how and why self-efficacy affects students' academic achievement. Based on a socio-cognitive perspective of motivation, this study examines the relationships among academic self-efficacy, students' expectancy-value beliefs, teaching process satisfaction, and academic achievement. Its main aim is to identify some motivational-underlying processes through which students' academic self-efficacy affects student achievement and satisfaction. Student achievement and satisfaction are two of the most important learning outcomes, and are considered key indicators of education quality. The sample comprises 797 Spanish secondary education students from 36 educational settings and three schools. The scales that referred to self-efficacy and expectancy-value beliefs were administered at the beginning of the course, while student satisfaction and achievement were measured at the end of the course. The data analysis was conducted by structural equation modeling (SEM). The results revealed that students' expectancy-value beliefs (Subject value, Process expectancy, Achievement expectancy, Cost expectancy) played a mediator role between academic self-efficacy and the achievement/satisfaction relationship. These results provided empirical evidence to better understand the mechanism that mediates self-efficacy–achievement and efficacy–course satisfaction relationships. The implications of these findings for teaching and learning in secondary education are discussed.
Based on Job Demands-Resources Model (JD-R), this study examines the relationships among teacher support resources, psychological need satisfaction, engagement and burnout in a sample of 282 Spanish secondary school teachers. Nine teacher psychological needs were identified based on the study of Bess and on the Self-Determination Theory (SDT). Self-report questionnaires were used to measure the constructs selected for this study and their interrelationships were examined by structural equation modeling. The results reveal a good model fit to the data (NNFI = .88; CFI = .90; GFI = .90; RMSEA = .061). The analyses indicate a positive and significant effect of latent variable Psychological Need Satisfaction on engagement (β = .74, p < .05), and a negative and significant effect on burnout (β = -.78, p ≤ .05). Furthermore, the results show the mediator role played by Psychological Need Satisfaction in the relationship between teacher support resources and both engagement and burnout (additional paths did not improve the model fit: Δχ2(2) = 2.428, p = .29). Finally, practical implications of these findings are discussed.
Students’ academic achievement is a major concern among countries. Governments spent a lot of money on education to improve students’ competences at all levels of education. Despite the enormous amount of money invested and the reforms made to curricula in many countries in recent years, these measures are not generally producing the desired results according to the data of International Performance Measurement programs for students (e.g., Program for International Student Assessment-PISA by OECD). Given the importance of this issue, this article presents an instructional-motivational model developed in the last decade to explain and improve students’ learning outcomes, e.g., academic achievement and course satisfaction, entitled the “The Educational Situation Quality Model” (MOCSE, acronym in Spanish). Unlike other educational models, MOCSE offers an integrative teaching-learning approach to explain learning outcomes. By taking the educational setting as a unit of analysis, this proposal introduces a new perspective into the existing literature to predict students’ achievement and course satisfaction by combining contributions from relevant psycho-educational theories, such as: “The Job Demands-Resources Model,” “The Expectancy-Value Theory,” and “The Achievement Goal Theory.” Besides being a conceptual framework to guide research, it also provides a methodological way to improve teacher practice and learning outcomes. In this article we first briefly explain the main model’s characteristics and functioning from the student perspective and, second, based on the MOCSE, we offer some keys for teachers to improve academic achievement and students’ course satisfaction for a specific curricular subject. Finally, future proposals and challenges are discussed. Questionnaires are provided in the
Annex
.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.