Interlinking teachers’ beliefs and motivational practices: a cross-country examination of the relationship with students’ motivation in mathematics
Open Access
- 18 February 2026
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Nature in ZDM – Mathematics Education
- Vol. 58 (4) , 785-798
Abstract
Building on previous research into teachers’ beliefs and practices in mathematics and their effects on students’ motivation, grounded in the situated-expectancy value framework, we combine person- and variable-centred approaches to examine changes in students’ motivation for mathematics as they transition to middle school. Using longitudinal data from 6656 students across six countries, we examined the slope of change in students’ motivation for mathematics and whether this trajectory is associated with specific constellations of mathematics teachers’ beliefs and practices. Four distinct teacher profiles emerged, with teachers belonging to all profiles in five out of six examined countries. Our findings indicate that each profile is uniquely associated with patterns that support or undermine different facets of students’ motivation for mathematics, suggesting a more complex relationship between teachers’ beliefs and practices and students’ motivation for mathematics. Moreover, this relationship varied across the education systems studied, highlighting the importance of considering cultural patterns when discussing teachers’ roles in fostering students’ motivation for mathematics.Keywords
Funding Information
- Norges Forskningsråd (301033)
- Universität Hamburg
This publication has 49 references indexed in Scilit:
- The Development, Testing, and Refinement of Eccles, Wigfield, and Colleagues’ Situated Expectancy-Value Model of Achievement Performance and ChoiceEducational Psychology Review, 2024
- Do teachers’ beliefs about the nature and learning of mathematics affect students’ motivation and enjoyment of mathematics? Examining differences between boys and girls across six countriesEuropean Journal of Psychology of Education, 2024
- Students’ socioeconomic status and teacher beliefs about learning as predictors of students’ mathematical competenceEuropean Journal of Psychology of Education, 2024
- Opportunities to develop student’s math-related agency in primary education: the role of teacher beliefsEuropean Journal of Psychology of Education, 2023
- Teaching methods for modelling problems and students’ task-specific enjoyment, value, interest and self-efficacy expectationsEducational Studies in Mathematics, 2011
- The beliefs/practice connection in broadly defined contextsMathematics Education Research Journal, 2005
- Unterrichtsqualität aus Schülerperspektive: Kulturspezifische Profile, regionale Unterschiede und Zusammenhänge mit Effekten von Unterricht2003
- Mathematical Beliefs — A Search for a Common Ground: Some Theoretical Considerations on Structuring Beliefs, Some Research Questions, and Some Phenomenological Observations2002
- Rethinking Characterizations of Beliefs2002
- Expectancy–Value Theory of Achievement MotivationContemporary Educational Psychology, 2000