Testing the effect of agreement and discrepancy between teachers’ and students’ reported interpersonal behaviors on students’ motivation: a response surface analysis
Résumé
Perceptions of teachers’ interpersonal behaviors are known to influence students’ motivation and perceived competence, yet it remains unclear how agreement or discrepancy between students’ and teachers’ perceptions affects these outcomes. This study involved 30 teachers (24 females; Mage = 47.25, SDage = 8.90) and 1,062 6th-grade students (529 females; Mage = 11.15, SDage = 0.49) from 47 classes, us- ing a multilevel design. Drawing on self-determination theory, polynomial regres- sion and response surface analysis were conducted to assess how congruence and discrepancy in perceived need-supportive behaviors related to students’ motivation and competence in mathematics. Results showed that when teachers and students agreed on interpersonal behaviors, boys’ autonomous motivation and girls’ per- ceived competence increased, while amotivation decreased for both groups, with a non-linear effect observed for girls’ amotivation. In cases where teachers over- estimated their supportive behaviors relative to students’ reports, both boys’ and girls’ autonomous motivation and perceived competence declined, and boys’ exter- nal motivation increased. These findings underscore the importance of perceptual agreement in teacher-student interactions and suggest that interventions grounded in self-determination theory may help improve motivation and educational outcomes.