Primary School Teachers’ Motivational Beliefs for Teacher–Student Relationships

Examining teachers’ motivation beliefs about teacher–student relationships can offer valuable insights for teacher education and professional development. Based on the Motivating Teacher–Student Relationships Framework, the aim of the pilot study was to empirically examine primary school teachers’ motivational beliefs in association with their relationship-building behaviours. Three hundred ten teachers in Germany completed an online questionnaire to assess their role, value, and self-efficacy beliefs, as well as utilised proactive relationship-building behaviours. All motivational beliefs, except student value, revealed a significant direct association with relationship-building behaviours. This underscores previous theoretical yet empirically under-explored suggestions that targeting teachers’ motivational beliefs may offer a novel strategy for fostering positive teacher–student relationships.