Date of Award

5-2026

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Honors Thesis

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Shelby Terwillegar

Second Advisor

Karina Hamamouche

Abstract

Although Indiana’s graduation rates have improved, many students continue to experience challenges related to academic achievement and motivation post-pandemic. Research suggests that students’ motivation and persistence are shaped in part by how educators frame success, failure, and effort (Weiner, 2010). Teachers also play a central role in fostering students’ psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness, as well as shaping task value beliefs and perceived ability. Despite this, future educators often receive limited explicit training on how to apply these motivation and achievement-based theories within everyday classroom practice. The current study examined whether a targeted, theory-based intervention can strengthen teacher efficacy among preservice educators by enhancing their understanding of educational psychology theories of achievement and motivation and their practical implementation. Guided by Zimmerman’s (2002) cyclical model of self-regulated learning, the intervention emphasizes instructional strategies aligned with the phases of forethought, performance, and self-reflection. Participants learned how to teach goal-setting skills, promote adaptive help-seeking behaviors, and facilitate reflective practices that encourage academic efficacy and internal motivation. Seventy-nine College of Education students enrolled in various education courses at Butler University participated in our within-subjects design. Each session included a pre-intervention questionnaire, a 40-minute interactive lesson, and a post-intervention questionnaire. Measures assessed perceived teacher efficacy in supporting student motivation, academic efficacy, and self-regulated learning. It was hypothesized that participants would demonstrate increased teacher efficacy and ability to facilitate adaptive help-seeking among students following the intervention. Results of paired sample t-tests indicated that both variables showed statistically significant increases from pre- to post-test scores, particularly when controlling for ceiling effects. Additionally, an ANOVA indicated no significant differences in mean outcomes among participants by intended future career, suggesting that the observed benefits of the intervention were consistent across groups.

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