Understanding Variation in How Teacher Motivational Styles Shape Students’ Motivation and Achievement: The Moderating Role of Causality Orientation Profiles

This study addresses a critical gap in Self-Determination Theory (SDT; Ryan & Deci, 2017) by examining how students’ individual differences shape their responses to classroom environments. While SDT has shown the impact of teacher motivational practices, the role of causality orientations, trait-like motivational dispositions, remains underexplored, especially in authentic educational contexts. To deal with key methodological and conceptual issues, the study first develops a novel, non-scenario-based measure (COS2) and uses a person-centred approach to capture multiple orientations within individuals. Using longitudinal data from approximately 1,500 high school students in Japan, it investigates how causality orientation profiles moderate the effects of perceived teacher practices on students’ motivation and achievement. This study advances the measurement of causality orientations and demonstrates how they interact with teacher practices to shape student motivational and academic outcomes.