Math achievement and engagement declines in secondary education; therefore, educators are faced with the challenge of engaging students to avoid school failure. Within self-determination theory, we address the need to assess comprehensively student perceptions of teaching quality that predict engagement and achievement. In study one we tested, in a sample of 548 high school students, a preliminary version of a scale to assess nine factors: teaching for relevance, acknowledge negative feelings, participation encouragement, controlling language, optimal challenge, focus on the process, class structure, positive feedback, and caring. In the second study, we analyzed the scale’s reliability and validity in a sample of 1555 high school students. The scale showed evidence of reliability, and with regard to criterion validity, at the classroom level, teaching quality was a predictor of behavioral engagement, and higher grades were observed in classes where students, as a whole, displayed more behavioral engagement. At the within level, behavioral engagement was associated with achievement. We not only provide a reliable and valid method to assess teaching quality, but also a method to design interventions, these could be designed based on the scale items to encourage students to persist and display more engagement on school duties, which in turn bolsters student achievement.

Introduction. Holding a fix or an incremental mindset influence academic performance, we

Método. El programa se diseñó siguiendo los principios de las intervenciones breves, y se llevó a cabo con alumnos de 1º de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria. Para analizar su eficacia se realizó un estudio con grupo cuasi-experimental y de cuasi-control, con una evaluación previa y dos posteriores a la intervención.Resultados. Mediante un modelo multinivel se observó que la trayectoria del grupo experimental fue diferente a la del grupo control, obteniendo evidencias de que los alumnos del grupo experimental disminuyeron sus creencias acerca de la inteligencia como algo estable e inmodificable. Discusión y conclusiones.Este trabajo puede servir como punto de partida para que futuros trabajos mejoren el rendimiento académico de una forma sencilla, replicable y fácilmente escalable.Palabras Clave: ideas implícitas sobre la inteligencia; desmotivación; intervención; estudio experimental; educación secundaria.