Teacher Leadership and Intellectual Stimulation: Improving Students’ Approaches to Studying through Intrinsic Motivation

Teachers provide leadership in college classrooms, and the behaviors they exhibit as leaders impact a variety of student outcomes (Bolkan & Goodboy, 2009, 2010; Pounder, 2008). Specifically, transformational leadership (Bass, 1985) has been shown to be an important predictor of student learning (Bolkan & Goodboy, 2009). This study examined a specific component of transformational leadership to investigate how communicating intellectual stimulation transforms the nature of the classroom by encouraging student motivation and, subsequently, students’ approaches to their studying. Results suggest that when teachers influence students’ intrinsic motivation through the use of intellectually stimulating behaviors, students approach their learning in deep and strategic ways, and are less likely to adopt a surface-level approach to their studies.