The importance of peers for academic motivation is a crucial issue in educational psychology. According to the General Motivation Model (Heckhausen & Rheinberg, 1980), motivation affects concentration, enjoyment, and subjective experience during learning. The model emphasizes that motivation is influenced by personal characteristics, such as general motivation and interests, but also by situational and variable factors, such as the level of demands or the learning environment with its social norms. This leads to the conclusion that academic motivation is, on the one hand, highly variable and context-dependent (e.g., Pekrun & Marsh, 2022) and, on the other hand, highly sensitive to the social context (e.g., Deci & Ryan, 2012), which is strongly determined by peers. Peer relationships provide children with companionship and entertainment, help with problem solving, personal and emotional support, and a foundation for identity development throughout childhood and adolescence.

Self-determination theory also highlights the importance of a sense of belonging as a basic psychological need, alongside the need for autonomy and the experience of competence (Ryan & Deci, 2000). According to this theory, students perceive themselves as more self-determined and motivated in their actions when they feel that they belong to, and are accepted and supported by, their peer group. Empirical evidence supports the importance of peers for emotional experiences, that are closely related to students’ motivational and behavioural outcomes: Students are more motivated and engaged when working with peers (high positive activation), but also less stressed or nervous (low negative activation) than in individual situations (e.g., Knickenberg et al., 2020; Zurbriggen & Venetz, 2016). Although the relevance of peers for academic motivation is well established, individuals’ perceptions of peer support, e.g. in terms of social classroom climate, have (still) received little attention in current research. Social classroom climate can be characterized by mutual respect or a willingness to cooperate. Such a climate makes it easier for young people to establish and maintain positive contacts with each other. There is little evidence of a differentiated relationship between a more prosocial classroom climate and an increase in individual students’ social skills (Hoglund & Leadbeater, 2004). Another study showed that the social and emotional behavioural norms within a classroom community can serve as a reference norm for emotional experience and behaviour at the individual level, to which students can orient themselves (Barth et al., 2004). Specifically in relation to academic motivation, research suggests that student motivation can be enhanced by a positive social classroom climate (e.g., Wang et al., 2020), particularly the perception of supportive peers and teachers (e.g., Raufelder et al., 2013). 

Against this theoretical and empirical background, we aim to examine the relationships between aspects of current motivation and peer-related predictors at both the situational (L1) and person levels (L2), in order to gain a deeper understanding of the impact of peer dynamics.

To account for the variability of current motivation, a pilot study was conducted using the Experience Sampling Method (ESM; e.g., Hektner et al., 2007), which allows motivation to be assessed close to the situation. Other advantages of ESM are that it captures people’s subjective experiences in real situations with as little measurement bias as possible. The real-time and in-situ measurement reduces retrospective effects (Zurbriggen et al., 2021), while simultaneously capturing characteristics of the situation and the person (Bolger & Laurenceau, 2013). The study involved NL2=145 fifth graders (M=10.97 years, SD=.09; 56.7% male) from six classes in two secondary schools in North-Rhine Westphalia in Germany. They were asked to report on their current social context (i.e., social interaction with peers) four to five times a day during class over a school week (Monday to Friday). As aspects of current motivation, positive activation (PA; e.g. “exited vs. bored”; Schallberger, 2005), enjoyment of learning (e.g., “It gives me great pleasure.”) and concentration (e.g., “I am completely absorbed in the matter.”; Zurbriggen & Venetz, 2016) were measured simultaneously on a 7-point Likert-scale. In this way, NL1=3099 ‘snapshots’ were collected in the classroom. One short questionnaire took approximately 2 to 3 minutes to fill out. Data were collected offline with the help of tablet computers referring to the movisens application. Participants also completed a conventional questionnaire on social classroom climate (e.g., “We all stick together in class.”; Rauer & Schuck, 2003) and their perceptions of their peers and teachers as motivators (PPM: e.g., “My classmates and I motivate each other at school.”; TPM: e.g., “I will try harder if I think the teacher believes in me.”; Raufelder et al., 2013) measured with six items each on a 4-point Likert-scale. Multilevel structural equation models (MSEM) were specified in Mplus to examine the effects of social interactions (L1), social classroom climate, PPM, and TPM (L2) on students’ current motivation.

First descriptive results show that the students worked alone in more than half of the measurement times (55.9%), in pairs in 13.3% of the measurement times and in a group or with the class in 20.6% of the measurement times (in the other cases they listened to their teacher or classmates). The intra-class coefficients (ICCs) in a null model indicate that between 26.9% and 41.0% of the total variance in the dependent variables (PA, enjoyment of learning, and concentration) can be attributed to differences between the students. This means that there is sufficient variance at L2 to justify a multilevel analytical approach. The results of a first random-intercept model, which initially considered only L1 predictors, suggest that both students’ PA (b=.17, p<.05) and enjoyment of learning (b=.16, p<.05) are higher when they interact with peers. This indicates that students enjoy learning more and are more motivated when working with a peer or in groups. There is no significant effect of social interaction on students’ concentration. When L2 predictors (PPM, TPM and social classroom climate) were added in a second random-intercept model, the previously significant effects of the L1 predictor (social interaction) decreased. However, person-level (L2) predictors can explain additional variance in the dependent variables: Students report higher PA when they rate the classroom social climate higher (b=.28, p<.05). Furthermore, they enjoy learning when they perceive their peers as motivators (b=.48, p<.05). In contrast, TPM has no significant predictive value. The variance in students’ concentration could not be explained significantly by the predictors on L1 and L2. Based on our findings, the relevance of peers for students’ current academic motivation in the classroom will be discussed, along with the challenges and limitations of assessing social interaction in during lessons using ESM.

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