Secondary School Student Perceptions of Beginning Teachers’ Teaching Behaviours and Their Academic Engagement: Multilevel Modelling

Past research has shown engagement during lessons to be pivotal for secondary education students to develop learning skills and to master curriculum objectives. Knowing which teaching behaviours matter most in creating sustainable student engagement is of the utmost importance for schools and school managers to be able to decide on the nature of the support beginning teachers need during their induction period to become competent teachers. Which dimensions of beginning teachers' teaching behaviours are most in need of monitoring and support to guarantee active student engagement are still unclear. To provide some light on this issue, this study used data from a large database containing data of Dutch students' perceptions of their teachers' teaching behaviours during lessons, measured with the My Teacher Questionnaire, and data about self-reports of their own emotional and behavioural engagement during lessons. Our findings, based on multilevel analyses, indicate that differences between teachers' classroom management skills and activating learning practices are the most salient components of teaching behaviour that impact the level of student engagement, regardless of student gender and family background. These findings suggest that, in general, students in Dutch secondary education seem to benefit in terms of academic engagement from efficient classroom management and more intensive and activating instruction practices of their beginning teachers.