The Moderating Effect of Using Compulsory Disciplinary Actions on Students’ Personal Responsibility and Agentic Engagement

To determine the mediating effect of teachers’ disciplinary approaches, as a classroom management tool, on students’ personal responsibility and agentic engagement, a sample of 334 students of 7th-9th grades in 15 classrooms of 5 schools in Tehran was given questionnaires on the above-mentioned three constructs. The research instruments included Reeve & Tseng Agentic Engagement Scale (2011) and Lewis Student Responsibility Questionnaire (2001). The used instruments were assumed to be valid and reliable. Data analysis through regression while confirming the effect of responsibility on engagement, clearly showed that teachers’ compulsory strategies of discipline reduce the impact of responsibility on engagement. The compulsory strategies of discipline utilize techniques that increase environmental control and decrease autonomy. Given such conditions, despite students’ responsibility, their engagement tend to diminish.