Student reading motivation and teacher aims and actions in literature education in lower secondary school

The promotion of learning motivation is a central task of all school subjects. Literature education is expected to promote reading motivation in particular. To meet this expectation, different concepts in literature learning and teaching have been proposed. However, to date little empirical evidence exists of a direct and maybe causal relationship between reading motivation and teacher action. The TAMoLi study (Texts, Activities, and Motivations in Literature Education) uses a multi-level analysis to examine the connection between reading motivation of Swiss and German students at lower secondary level on the one hand, and the aims and actions of teachers in the literature classroom on the other (N_students = 2.017, N_classes = 116). The results suggest that students’ reading motivation is not directly related to teachers’ self-reported aims and actions. Instead, how motivated the students are to read is influenced much more by students’ perception of teachers’ aims and actions – in particular, by students’ perception of teachers’ student-oriented aims. These findings add to evidence on student motivation in mathematics and second language learning and teaching.