Linking teachers’ and students’ motivation for self-regulated learning: is there a signal and how is it transmitted?

Teachers’ motivation is a core professional competence that influences their choices in their decision-making, such as promoting self-regulated learning (SRL). Promoting SRL supports students’ SRL development and might affect students’ motivation to apply strategies. However, the link between teachers’ motivation to promote SRL and students’ motivation to apply strategies has yet to be empirically investigated. In a multilevel analysis that included 167 lower secondary teachers and their 2,785 students, we analysed the direct and indirect relationships between teachers’ self-efficacy and attainment value, the teacher- and student-reported SRL promotion and students’ self-efficacy, utility value, attainment value and cost at the class and individual level. Additionally, we investigated the contribution of teacher- and student-reported SRL promotion to find indirect relations. Teachers’ self-efficacy was related to teacher-reported SRL promotion, and student-reported SRL promotion was associated with all motivational outcomes at the class and student level except for cost. Further, we found indirect effects between teachers’ self-efficacy for SRL promotion and students’ values and self-efficacy for SRL via teachers- and students-perceived SRL promotion. No direct effects between teacher and student motivation could be found, and no significant indirect relationships were found for the cost aspect. Regarding how the signal is transmitted, the results show that including student reports of SRL promotion is especially crucial to finding indirect links. However, future studies should employ longitudinal designs and incorporate more nuanced teacher and student motivation measures in SRL to better understand the motivational links between teachers and students.