Li Ming, Jones Brett D, Williams Thomas O, Guo Yingjian
School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai University of Engineering Sciences, Shanghai, China.
School of Education, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, United States.
Front Psychol. 2022 May 23;13:853221. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.853221. eCollection 2022.
Effective teachers create a motivational climate that engages students in course activities in ways that lead to increased learning and achievement. Although researchers have identified motivational climate variables that are associated with students' engagement and achievement, less is known about how these variables are related in different courses and cultures. The purpose of the two studies presented in this paper was to contribute to this research literature by examining these associations within the context of college English courses in two Chinese universities. Specifically, we investigated the relationships between students' perceptions of the motivational climate (i.e., perceptions of empowerment/autonomy, usefulness, success, interest, and caring), cognitive and behavioral engagement, and achievement. This is the first study to examine the connections between all of these variables in one path model in college English courses in China. We administered surveys at two different Chinese universities ( = 332 and 259) and used regression and path analysis to examine the relationships among the variables. We demonstrated that (a) students' perceptions of the motivational climate were related to their cognitive engagement, (b) cognitive engagement was related to their behavioral engagement, and (c) behavioral engagement predicted their achievement. These findings are consistent with and extend the growing body of literature on motivational climate and engagement, and they highlight the importance of some motivational climate perceptions over others as significant predictors of cognitive engagement. We conclude that effective English language teachers in China do the following: help students to believe that they can be successful, trigger and maintain students' interest, and empower students by providing them with choices in activities and assignments.
高效的教师营造一种激励氛围，促使学生以能够提高学习效果和成绩的方式参与课程活动。尽管研究人员已经确定了与学生参与度和成绩相关的激励氛围变量，但对于这些变量在不同课程和文化中的相互关系却知之甚少。本文所呈现的两项研究的目的是，通过在中国两所大学的大学英语课程背景下考察这些关联，为这一研究文献做出贡献。具体而言，我们调查了学生对激励氛围的感知（即对自主/自主权、有用性、成功、兴趣和关怀的感知）、认知和行为参与度与成绩之间的关系。这是第一项在中国大学英语课程的一个路径模型中考察所有这些变量之间联系的研究。我们在两所不同的中国大学（分别为332人和259人）进行了调查，并使用回归和路径分析来考察变量之间的关系。我们证明了：（a）学生对激励氛围的感知与他们的认知参与度相关；（b）认知参与度与他们的行为参与度相关；（c）行为参与度预测了他们的成绩。这些发现与关于激励氛围和参与度的不断增长的文献一致并有所扩展，它们突出了某些激励氛围感知作为认知参与度的重要预测因素比其他因素更重要。我们得出结论，中国高效的英语教师会做以下几点：帮助学生相信他们能够成功，激发并保持学生的兴趣，并通过在活动和作业中为学生提供选择来赋予他们自主权。
