The relationship between student motivation and interpersonal teacher behaviour

In this study the relationship between student motivation and interpersonal teacher behaviour is investigated based on a sample of 6029 students and 144 teachers from secondary education in the Netherlands. The research question is: ‘To what extent does the type of motivation of the students predict the students’ perceptions of the interpersonal teacher behaviour?’ Motivation is studied based on two motivation theories: the Self Determination Theory (SDT) and the Goal Achievement Theory (AGT). Teacher interpersonal behaviour will be measured by means of the students’ perceptions of this behaviour, collected with the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI). Some factors that might influence the relationship between motivation and interpersonal teacher behaviour, the experience of the teacher and the school level of the student, were also taken into account. The results showed that most of the motivation categories have a significant influence on the student’s perception, although the effect sizes are small to medium. The experience of the teacher was a significant moderator in this relationship, school level of the students only for the subscales of the SDT. For the AGT, the results were not significant in predicting the perceptions on the dimension proximity