Charting the Murky Waters of Motivational Climate Measurement: Past Approaches and Future Directions

Abstract

Research on classroom motivational climates and microclimates—students’ shared and idiosyncratic perceptions of motivational classroom features—demonstrates their importance for fostering adaptive motivational and achievement-related outcomes. However, a lack of coherent theoretical guidance about the nature of students’ classroom climate perceptions has yielded numerous conceptualizations and measurement approaches for these processes. Further, although existing theories and conceptualizations vary in the specific motivational climate features they propose, considerable conceptual overlap exists among them. Working toward conceptual clarity, theoretical integration, and guidance for measurement, we performed a systematic review to identify prominent measurement trends in motivational climate research. Results revealed teacher autonomy support and classroom goal structures as the most frequently measured classroom climate qualities. We observed a wide variety of validity evidence for the measures; in particular, a low incidence of studies assessed the factor structure and considered the multilevel nature of climate data, with most treating climate perceptions as student-level phenomena. In addition to providing a much-needed guide of existing measurement practices, this systematic review lays a foundation for the continued theoretical advancement of motivational climate. We call for more rigorous reporting of validity evidence, rationales for measure selection, and the underlying assumptions guiding measure selection when conducting classroom climate research, as well as focused development of instruments targeting less-frequently measured climate constructs.