Abstract Background Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools such as ChatGPT are increasingly integrated into classroom practice, yet their motivational–emotional implications remain insufficiently understood. Situated expectancy–value theory (SEVT) conceptualizes motivation and emotion as embedded in contextual affordances, raising the question of how AI‐supported learning environments reorganize motivation. Aims This study examined motivational–emotional learner profiles in rubric‐guided self‐learning (SL) classrooms with and without ChatGPT access and tested whether perceived teacher motivational support and perceived ChatGPT assistance were associated with profile membership. Sample(s) Participants were 1674 German secondary students ( M age = 13.31, SD = 1.01) from non–AI‐assisted SL classrooms ( n = 709) and AI‐assisted SL classrooms ( n = 965). Methods Using a cross‐sectional, person‐oriented design, students reported interest, self‐efficacy, effort, and negative emotions. Latent profile analyses were conducted separately by learning condition, followed by multinomial logistic regression. Results Four motivational profiles—Low Motivation, Medium Motivation, High Motivation, and one mixed profile —emerged in both contexts. Compared with non‐AI‐assisted classrooms, AI‐assisted classrooms showed fewer students in Low Motivation (4% vs. 9%) and High Motivation (16% vs. 28%) profiles and a larger share clustered in intermediate configurations. Across contexts, higher perceived teacher support was associated with adaptive profile membership; perceived ChatGPT assistance provided additional differentiation in AI‐assisted classrooms. Conclusions ChatGPT access was associated with a redistribution rather than an overall increase in motivation, characterized by attenuated motivational extremes. The findings point to a hybrid motivational ecology in which teacher support remains central, while AI functions as a context‐dependent, emotionally stabilizing affordance.
Sabine Schweder (Thu,) studied this question.