Teaching Practices and the Management of Student Motivation, Effort and Achievement

Gunnes, Trude and Donze, Jocelyn (2016): Teaching Practices and the Management of Student Motivation, Effort and Achievement.

Abstract

Student motivation is primordial for educational success. We develop a theoretical model in which a teacher manages student motivation through the choice of teaching practices. We show that only high-ability students can be motivated by extrinsically-oriented teaching practices. For low-ability or myopic students, intrinsically-oriented teaching practices are more effective in fostering student achievement. Furthermore, the choice of teaching practices depends on their relative costs, the teacher's objective function (utilitarian or Rawlsian), and the teacher's time preferences. We draw important policy implications regarding teacher effectiveness, the harmfulness of not tailoring teaching practices to student types, and how to limit student dropouts.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Teaching practices; cognitive and non-cognitive skills; student achievement; utilitarian and Rawlsian maximizers; achievement goal theory
• Subjects: A - General Economics and Teaching > A1 - General Economics > A12 - Relation of Economics to Other Disciplines; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C7 - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory > C70 - General; D - Microeconomics > D0 - General > D03 - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I2 - Education and Research Institutions > I24 - Education and Inequality

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