Recent calls in motivation research emphasize understanding motivation as a situative phenomenon that emerges through dynamic teacher-student interactions (Turner & Nolen, 2015). Competence-related beliefs are especially important for supporting students' effort, persistence, and learning in challenging subject areas like science. This mixed methods study examined whether and how competence-supportive instruction relates to students’ competence beliefs during a science unit. The quantitative strand drew on survey data from 17 middle school science teachers and their students (n = 346) to identify potential sources of change in students’ competence beliefs. Teachers’ competence-supportive instruction positively predicted gains in students’ competence beliefs over time, even after accounting for initial science interest and prior achievement, both of which were also significant predictors. Analyses also revealed distinct classroom-level patterns of change in students’ competence beliefs, with some classrooms characterized by relatively uniform increases, others demonstrating relatively uniform decreases, and still others showing substantial individual variation. To further explore these classroom-specific patterns, the qualitative strand examined three classroom cases that focused on how teachers enacted competence-supportive strategies and how students’ daily competence perceptions unfolded across multiple lessons. State-space grids (SSGs) embedded in each case provided a lens into daily teacher-student interactions. While all teachers implemented competence-supportive strategies in some form, they differed in how these strategies were framed, enacted, and experienced by students. This study highlights the nuanced ways in which competence-supportive instruction and student characteristics intersect to shape students’ competence beliefs and underscores the value of using mixed methods approaches for capturing both broad patterns and situated, daily classroom processes in the study of motivation.
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