The Role of Instructional Practices across the First-Year Experience: a Longitudinal Approach of Students’ Psychological Needs

Introduction Students’ first-year experience is crucial for their engagement and in consequence, their study success (Coertjens et al., 2017; Jenert et al., 2017), particularly for the increasingly diverse student population (De Clercq et al., 2021). Above all, students’ successful transition to Higher Education (HE) is important in the light of students’ failure and drop-out from HE. Several studies consistently identified key individual predictors of academic success and failure such as motivation and engagement (Schneider Van Rooij et al., 2018). Regarding students’ transition as an important predictor for later success, a specific attention is devoted to the first-year experience and to the first semester as crucial period for academic adjustment (Willems et al., 2021). Among the different theoretical perspectives, Self-Determination Theory (Deci Ryan Jang et al., 2016). This theory also postulated that the experience of autonomy, competence and relatedness is mainly related to the characteristics of the context (Ryan Mastrokoukou et al., 2022; Schneider being understanding of students. However, there is still a lack of investigation of the actual role of instructional practices on students’ motivation and engagement. From a methodological point of view, the literature also lacks of longitudinal investigation of the first-year experience and data is rarely collected to secondary school to higher education leaving the dynamic process of the transition to HE out of the picture (Esterhazy Kyndt et al., 2015; Ball et al., 2024). In that perspective, this study aims to provide a longitudinal analysis of the development of students' motivation in the transition from secondary to higher education and to investigate the role of instructional practices on this process. Method A four-stage data collection was conducted in French speaking part of Belgium. Those four moments were selected with regards to the important moments of the transition to HE according to the conceptual model of the achievement process by De Clercq and colleagues (2021, 2020, 2018). Time 1 occurred in June (three months before entering in HE) and refers to the preparation phase of the transition to HE. Time 2 occurred in September (the first week of the entrance of HE), and refers to the encounter phase of the transition to HE. Time 3 occurred in December (at the end of the first semester) and refers to the adjustment phase of the transition to HE. At Time 4 occurred in February (1 year after T1) and refers to the early achievement phase of the transition after the first exam session. We measured motivational self-perceptions (autonomy, competence and relatedness) at each time and socio-demographic variables at time 1. Perceived instructional practices (i.e., classroom management, socio-emotional support, instructional support and cognitive activation) were measured from time 2 to time 4. Academic performance at the January exam session was also retrieved at time 4. 979 students completed the self-reported questionnaire in time 1. 788 of them completed time 2 and registered in a variety of HE institutions in French speaking part of Belgium. Completion rate significantly dropped for time 3 and 4 with respectively 249 and 223 students. Motivational Self-Perceptions were assessed through an adapted version of the Basic psychological need satisfaction and frustration scale (BPNSFS, Chevrier Gilbert et al., 2021). This scale is subdivided into three scales, each of which refers to the support or frustration of psychological needs. Items were answered on a six-point scale from 1 = ‘totally disagree’ to 6 = ‘totally agree’. Three scales were computed showing satisfactory reliability from 0.71 to 0.80. The analyses were conducted with M-plus 8.0 using latent growth analysis. Results The analyses are still under progress. Yet, preliminary results showed a steady decreased of student’s autonomy (F(298.2)=39.7; p<.001) and competence satisfaction (F(298.2)=16.4; p<.001) over time while the relatedness satisfaction increase (F(298.2)=21.5; p<.001). The results also showed a main significant effect of teacher competence-support on subsequent students’ perception of competence (β=.344; p<.001), autonomy (β=.358; p<.001) and relatedness (β=.156; p<.001). Perception of competence was also the main predictor of student’s academic performance at the January exam session (β=.404; p<.001). The impact of teachers’ need-supportive practices also showed a stronger effect at the beginning of the year. Final and full results will be available for the presentation at the conference. Discussion The discussion of the presentation will come back on the dynamic evolution of motivation across the transition to HE and the role of the teachers in order to prevent decrease of students’ motivation during the transition. A discussion will also be hold on practical implications, future perspectives and limitations of our study.