Despite the growing emphasis on place-based education in K-12 settings, research into the motivational mechanisms that drive teachers’ implementation of these pedagogies remains scarce. This study aims to develop and validate a conceptual model of K-12 teachers’ motivation for place-based education, based on the Cognitive-Affective-Behavioral framework. Data were collected from 255 K-12 teachers across 99 schools and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results indicate that teachers’ place cognition significantly enhances their place identity ( β = 0.753, p 0.001) and place emotions ( β = 0.446, p 0.001), which in turn positively influence their willingness to implement place-based education ( β = 0.749, p 0.001). Notably, place identity alone does not have a direct significant effect on implementation willingness. These findings confirm the cognitive-affective pathway in education and enhance motivation theory by identifying key motivational factors in place-based education. The study recommends that educational policymakers incorporate local cultural content into teacher training and organize immersive experiences to strengthen teachers’ place cognition and emotional engagement.
Li et al. (Tue,) studied this question.
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