Background Previous research has shown that pre‐service teachers have low responsibility for student motivation and feel underprepared to deal with motivational issues. As an extension, researchers have designed interventions to shift teachers’ beliefs about motivation or equip them with approaches to instruction, but never both. Aims: Following best practices for motivation interventions, we created a one‐session online intervention and tested its efficacy to shift pre‐service teachers’ self‐reported beliefs and approaches to instruction to be more supportive of student motivation. The intervention included priming, materials designed for mindsets and/or for approaches to instruction, a consolidation activity, and take‐home materials. Sample A convenience sample of 384 pre‐service teachers from one Canadian university participated. Methods We embedded an experimental design into multiple sections of a required assessment course. After completing a pre‐test, participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: beliefs‐only, approaches‐only, combined beliefs and approaches, or control. After completing the online module, students received a lecture on assessment practices and motivation. Results The results from our MANCOVA showed that pre‐service teachers who participated in the beliefs‐only condition reported increased levels of responsibility for student motivation, more growth mindset beliefs, and less fixed mindset beliefs than participants in the other conditions. The approaches‐only condition did not influence self‐reported mastery or performance approaches to instruction and the combined condition had no effect on beliefs or approaches. Conclusions We discuss the implications for educating pre‐service teachers about student motivation and suggest that beliefs and approaches to instruction need to be addressed separately.

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A theoretically grounded understanding of achievement motivation appears to be largely overlooked in both initial education programs and ongoing professional development of school psychologists. This is unfortunate because motivation constructs such as perceived control, value, and self-beliefs predict students’ academic performance in a way that complements the variance explained by intelligence tests. This empirical evidence is rooted in long-standing theorizing that motivation constructs hold an important role alongside cognitive constructs in understanding student learning. Moreover, because motivation constructs are viewed as malleable, they provide an untapped source of intervention for school psychologists in supporting students. For these reasons, this special issue presents five review articles that integrate discrete theories of achievement motivation to the practice of school psychology. Largely representing Canadian expertise, the articles describe the potential for the control-value theory of emotions, achievement goal theory, mindset theory, self-determination theory, and self-regulated learning in the work of school psychologists. The final commentary article explicates a whole-child framework to highlight the role motivation can hold alongside cognition and guide school psychologists to partner these constructs for the betterment of children.

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