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Prediction Versus Explanation in Educational Psychology : a Cross-Theoretical Approach to Using Teacher Behaviour to Predict Student Engagement in Physical Education
Noetel, Michael Parker, Philip David Dicke, Theresa Beauchamp, Mark Ntoumanis, Nikolaos Hulteen, Ryan Diezmann, Carmel Mary Yeung, See Shing Ahmadi, Asghar Cunha Vasconcellos, Diego Itibere
Noetel, Michael
Parker, Philip David
Dicke, Theresa
Beauchamp, Mark
Ntoumanis, Nikolaos
Hulteen, Ryan
Diezmann, Carmel Mary
Yeung, See Shing
Ahmadi, Asghar
Cunha Vasconcellos, Diego Itibere
Abstract
Educational psychology usually focuses on explaining phenomena. As a result, researchers seldom explore how well their models predict the outcomes they care about using best-practice approaches to predictive statistics. In this paper, we focus less on explanation and more on prediction, showing how both are important for advancing the field. We apply predictive models to the role of teachers on student engagement, i.e. the thoughts, attitudes, and behaviours, that translate motivation into progress. We integrate the suggestions from four prominent motivational theories (self-determination theory, achievement goal theory, growth mindset theory, and transformational leadership theory), and aim to identify those most critical behaviours for predicting changes in students’ engagement in physical education. Students (N = 1324 all from year 7, 52% girls) from 17 low socio-economic status schools rated their teacher’s demonstration of 71 behaviours in the middle of the school year. We also assessed students’ engagement at the beginning and end of the year. We trained elastic-net regression models on 70% of the data and then assessed their predictive validity on the held-out data (30%). The models showed that teacher behaviours predicted 4.39% of the variance in students’ change in engagement. Some behaviours that were most consistently associated with a positive change in engagement were being good role models (β = 0.046), taking interest in students’ lives outside of class (β = 0.033), and allowing students to make choices (β = 0.029). The influential behaviours did not neatly fit within any single motivational theory. These findings support arguments for integrating different theoretical approaches, and suggest practitioners may want to consider multiple theories when designing interventions. More generally, we argue that researchers in educational psychology should more frequently test how well their models not just explain, but predict the outcomes they care about
Keywords
Engagement, Motivation, Teacher, Student, Physical education, Theory
Date
2023
Type
Journal article
Journal
Book
Volume
35
Issue
3
Page Range
1-40
Article Number
ACU Department
School of Behavioural and Health Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
Faculty of Education and Arts
Institute for Positive Psychology and Education
La Salle Academy
Faculty of Theology and Philosophy
Centre for Education and Innovation
Non-faculty
Faculty of Health Sciences
Faculty of Education and Arts
Institute for Positive Psychology and Education
La Salle Academy
Faculty of Theology and Philosophy
Centre for Education and Innovation
Non-faculty
Relation URI
Event URL
Open Access Status
License
All rights reserved
File Access
Controlled
Notes
© Crown 2023