Predicting students’ engagement through (de)motivating teaching styles: A multi-perspective pilot approach

Students’ behavioral engagement in Physical Education (PE) has been suggested to be an important predictor of students’ performance and learning achievement at school, which can be also influenced by teachers’ way of interacting with their students. The aims of this study were to explore potential differences in the perceptions of motivating teaching styles by teachers, students, and observers; and to analyze the predictive role of the different perceptions on students’ behavioral engagement. A total of 7 PE teachers and 181 students taught by them participated. Validated questionnaires were administered to both students’ and teachers’, and two external observers analyzed a total of 52 5 min intervals taken from video recordings of PE classes. Findings suggested that teaching styles’ perceptions vary between teachers, students, and external observers, and they are students’ views which are more likely to predict students’ behavioral engagement. This study has relevant implication for future educational research aiming to explore teachers’ interactions.This study increases the understanding of the interplay between perceptions of teachers and students toward teaching behaviors among Physical Education teachers.Students’ perceptions of motivating teaching styles seem to act as a better predictor of students’ behavioral engagement.Perceptions of teachers and students differ from observers’ reports when analyzing teaching styles from circumplex approach.