Motivating Students to Behave in Socially Competent Ways

A full appreciation of why students display positive classroom behavior requires an understanding of students' personal goals, as well as the degree to which these goals are valued by teachers and peers. A caring classroom environment in which teachers and peers support and promote the expression of positive social behaviors appears to play a critical role in promoting students' adoption and pursuit of positive social goals. In this article, an ecological perspective is introduced as a framework for understanding ways teachers and classmates can create a caring classroom environment and in doing so, contribute to a student's sense of belongingness and motivate engagement in appropriate classroom behavior. The implications of this perspective for understanding how to promote the development of social competencies across diverse student populations are discussed.