Teachers’ goal orientations as predictors of their self-reported classroom behaviours: an achievement goal theoretical perspective

Achievement Goal Theory has been adapted as a useful framework for studying teacher motivation in terms of their different goal orientations. This paper reports findings from an Australian study with 257 teachers, that explored their mastery, work-avoidance, and relational goal orientations and four dimensions of self-reported classroom behaviours: expectation, structure, autonomy support, and relatedness. Structural equation modelling underscored the importance of mastery and relational goal orientations as adaptive goal orientations that positively predicted teachers’ perceptions about their expectation, structure, and relatedness with students. Interestingly neither of these adaptive goal orientations predicted teachers’ self-reported behavior of autonomy support. The only significant predictor was work-avoidance goal orientations, which negatively predicted teachers’ discernments of supporting student autonomy.