The kinds of achievement-related behaviours children show at school influence their academic achievement and performance (e.g., Lau & Nie, 2008; Onatsu-Arvilommi & Nurmi, 2000). Achievement beliefs and behaviors refer to a variety of expectations, beliefs, and behaviours that individuals display in various learning situations (for a review, see Wigfield et al., 2006). There are several studies suggesting that teachers may play an important role in children’s achievement-related self-beliefs and behaviours (e.g., Anderman et al., 2001; for a review see, Wigfield et al., 2006). While it is known that teacher practices influence children’s motivational and academic outcomes (Birch & Ladd, 1997; Skinner & Belmont, 1993), there are also some studies suggesting that students and their different characteristics influence teachers and their teaching practices (Dobbs & Arnold, 2009; Ladd, Birch, & Buhs, 1999).

The CLASS framework conceptualizes classroom quality in terms of emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support (Pianta, La Paro, & Hamre, 2008). These three broad domains have shown to be influential to child outcomes. For example, emotional support promotes children’s engagement and academic achievement (Pianta et al., 2008). Classroom organization is associated with children’s achieve­ment behavioural engagement, and on-task behaviour (Pianta et al., 2008). Finally, instructional quality contributes to students’ academic out­comes (Hamre & Pianta, 2001) and engagement in academic activities (Pianta et al., 2008). It might be assumed that classroom quality provides an important context for the development of children’s achievement-related behaviours. For example, teachers may either encourage children’s engagement and enthusiasm in learning activities or, alternatively, discourage their efforts and inadvertently augment their anxiety and task-avoidant behaviour.

Observed classroom quality and its influences on child outcomes have been studied mainly in the US. However, there is an evident need for studies on teacher-child interactions and classroom quality in different educational systems, namely, in the European context. Thus, the present study examined the cross-lagged relations between observed teacher-child interactions, that is, classroom quality, and Finnish children’s achievement behaviours during the 1^st and 2^nd Grades. It might be assumed that classroom quality influences children’s achievement-related behaviours. On the other hand, children’s characteristics might be assumed to influence the way in which teachers interact with them.

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