The influence of teacher's classroom management style on pupils' self-regulative behavior

The purpose of the present longitudinal study was to test the influence of the teacher's classroom management style on students' self-regulative behavior in a naturalistic setting and in nonselected population. The focus was on those patterns of the teacher's behavior that refer to the transfer of control from the teacher to students, which includes the facilitation of autonomy, offering choice, considering the process and not just product variables of educational process, etc. Regarding the degree of expression of that dimension the teachers were divided into two groups: behaviorally and cognitive-behaviorally oriented teachers. 54 fourth-grade elementary school classrooms participated in the present study. In the further analysis, 24 of the 54 school classrooms were included. Teacher's approach to classroom management proved to be a significant factor of pupils' intrinsic motivation on some dimensions of intrinsic motivation. The pupils of cognitive-behaviorally oriented teachers reached a higher degree of independent mastery during the school year compared to the pupils of behaviorally oriented teachers. The boys of cognitive-behaviorally oriented teachers reached a higher progress in the degree of internal criteria in the evaluation of their own success and in intrinsic motivation as a sum of all dimensions, compared to the boys of behaviorally-oriented teachers, whereas the same is not true for girls.