How do perceived teacher beliefs and classroom goal structures relate to motivations and enrollments in secondary school mathematics and English?

Our study examined how students’ perceived teacher beliefs and classroom goal structures, gender (of teachers and students) and own perceived talent, controlling for prior achievements, together explained motivational outcomes of students’ achievement goals, intrinsic value and enrollment choices in mathematics and English. Participants were 1086 grades 9–11 students (respective Ns = 380, 369, 337) from 3 coeducational middle-class schools in metropolitan Sydney, Australia. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed student-perceived teacher beliefs as the most consistent predictor of motivational outcomes in mathematics and English, over and above the effects of other measured influences. Perceived teacher beliefs moderated the effects of classroom goal structures, as well as relationships of gender with motivational outcomes in English. Grade-level effects were more positive among older students which coincided with the grade 11 transition.