UC Davis

Motivational self-views, such as growth mindset—the belief that abilities are malleable—and mastery goal orientation—the drive to focus on learning—predict positive academic achievement. Interventions to promote these self-views lead to greater achievement, but only when students have a supportive learning environment that can cultivate the growth of these self-views. Therefore, a better understanding of which aspects of the learning environment help shape motivational self-views is needed. The current study extends previous research by examining both observed teacher practices and students’ self-reported perceptions of the teacher and classroom environment to identify which aspects of the learning environment foster positive self-views. Multilevel Bayesian analyses of 495 6th and 7th graders nested within 17 teachers indicated that it is the students’ perceptions of their learning environment, not the objective learning-oriented practices, that foster positive self-views. This suggests that more work is needed to understand what influences students’ perceptions and how teachers can more effectively create a learning environment that fosters positive self-views in students.