Classroom climate strengthens how teacher leadership drives student self-determination

When it comes to motivating students in higher education, the atmosphere inside the classroom appears to matter far more than the institution behind it. That is the central finding of a new study grounded in Self-Determination Theory, which examined how transformational teacher leadership behaviours relate to students’ perceived self-determination, and how classroom climate and institutional support shape that relationship. The researchers report that transformational teacher leadership is significantly associated with students’ perceived self-determination, that classroom climate acts as both a strong direct predictor and a significant moderator of the link, and that institutional support shows no significant direct or moderating effect at all.

Student self-determination is widely recognised as a critical factor in enhancing learning outcomes in higher education, yet the authors note that limited attention has been given to how teachers demonstrating transformational leadership behaviours interact with classroom- and institutional-level dynamics to shape students’ motivational learning processes. To address that gap, the team employed a sequential explanatory mixed-methods research design involving 436 undergraduate students. Quantitative data were collected from 420 participants using self-reported structured questionnaires and analysed through structural equation modelling, a statistical technique suited to testing how multiple variables relate within a single theoretical model. Qualitative insight was then added through semi-structured interviews with 16 participants, examined using thematic analysis. This sequencing allowed the researchers to first test a statistical model of motivation and then probe what students themselves said drove it.

The quantitative results were clear on two fronts. Transformational teacher leadership emerged as significantly associated with students’ perceived self-determination. Classroom climate, however, did more than simply predict motivation alongside teacher leadership: it also significantly moderated the relationship, enhancing the positive link between transformational teacher leadership and student self-determination. In practical terms, the same leadership behaviours appeared to translate more powerfully into self-determined learning motivation when the surrounding classroom climate was supportive, suggesting that the classroom environment and the teacher’s behaviour work together rather than independently.

Institutional support told a strikingly different story. It demonstrated neither a significant direct effect on student self-determination nor a significant moderating effect on the relationship between teacher leadership and motivation. The interview data helped explain why. Students described their motivation as primarily shaped by immediate classroom interactions, while institutional factors were perceived as more distant and less impactful on their day-to-day drive to learn. In other words, the motivational levers that students actually feel operate at the level of the room they sit in, not the organisation that houses it.

The authors argue that these findings contribute to the literature by proposing a contextually grounded model of student self-determination, one in which proximal classroom dynamics outweigh distal institutional conditions. The study was published open access in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. For researchers, the results highlight the value of testing multi-level motivational models rather than treating teacher behaviour, classroom environment and institutional context as separate influences. For higher education institutions, the findings point to the classroom as the decisive arena for fostering self-determined learning motivation, with the interplay between transformational teacher leadership and a supportive classroom climate standing out as the combination most strongly associated with students’ perceived self-determination in this study.

Subject of Research: The influence of transformational teacher leadership behaviours on student self-determination moderated by institutional support and classroom climate: a self-determination theory perspective

Article Title: The influence of transformational teacher leadership behaviours on student self-determination moderated by institutional support and classroom climate: a self-determination theory perspective

Article References: Zhang, P., Assefa, Y., Tilwani, S. A., Spahiu, I., Alhur, A. A., Majeed, H., & Ejupi, S. (2026). The influence of transformational teacher leadership behaviours on student self-determination moderated by institutional support and classroom climate: a self-determination theory perspective. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-026-09481-1

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1057/s41599-026-09481-1

Keywords: influence, transformational, teacher, leadership, behaviours, student, self-determination, moderated, institutional, support, classroom, climate