Interpreting Motivationally Supportive Instruction: What Counts and Why?

This study investigates how observers, despite similar training, differently interpret motivationally supportive instructional practices in undergraduate STEM classrooms. We apply multi-methods to explore patterns of agreement/disagreement between observers as they coded for instructor-made relevance statements across six courses. Chi square was employed to detect non-random differences between observers and qualitative content analysis was used to generate potential explanations for sources of variance in rater judgment. We present findings with implications for theory, research, and practice.