Application d’un modèle motivationnel à l’école primaire en milieu défavorisé : effets différentiels selon les caractéristiques des élèves

Students from disadvantaged backgrounds are more at risk of academic failure and dropping out of school. As a result, school workers are now searching for effective ways to enhance these students’ engagement in school in order to favor their academic success. The motivational model of Connell and Wellborn (1991) identifies specific teaching practices and self-perceptions that lead to higher student engagement. However, no studies have determined whether the theoretical links proposed in this model also apply to students from disadvantaged backgrounds. In addition, some student characteristics, such as their anxiety, academic performance, and immigration status, have been identified as influencing their academic success. Yet, few of them have been studied as factors influencing the associations proposed in Connell and Wellborn’s model. Consequently, this thesis aims to test the associations proposed in the Connell and Wellborn model in a sample of disadvantaged elementary school students and to examine whether these links differ as a function of student anxiety, academic achievement, or immigration status. In order to meet these objectives, we used different samples taken from a large longitudinal study in five elementary schools where grades 1 to 6 students and their teachers were surveyed. The first study of this thesis concerns 424 pupils from 3rd to 5th grade and their 45 teachers. The second study is based on a sample of 256 students from grades 3 to 5. All students and teachers answered questionnaires at the beginning and end of two consecutive school years. The first study examined the associations between teachers’ structure, autonomy support, and involvement, and elementary school pupils’ perceptions of competence, autonomy, and affiliation. This study also investigated whether the links between these teaching practices and student self-perceptions varied according to students’ anxiety and academic achievement. The results of this study first demonstrated that most students from disadvantaged backgrounds felt competent and affiliated with their teachers when the latter structured students’ behaviors and maintained warm relationships with the whole class. Moreover, results showed that low- achieving anxious students benefited the most from their teacher’s structuring practices. iii The second article of this thesis examined the links between student self-perceptions and their behavioral, cognitive and affective engagement. This study also examined how students’ anxiety and immigration status changed these associations. The results of this article highlighted the importance of perceiving oneself as autonomous and affiliated in class for the majority of students. They also identified specific self-perceptions as more important for the engagement of immigrant anxious students. In fact, these students benefited more than other students from perceiving themselves as autonomous and competent in the classroom. In conclusion, the two studies of this thesis lend partial support to the model of Connell and Wellborn. In addition, they have identified the most important teaching practices and self- perceptions for engaging students with varying levels of anxiety, academic achievement, and different migratory status. The improvement of these practices and perceptions could be targeted in interventions in order to promote the engagement and academic success of these students, especially the most vulnerable ones.

Keyphrases: Self-determination theory, Self-perceptions, Teaching practices, School engagement, Anxiety, Deprivation, School achievement, Immigration status, Elementary school