One of the major problems of current concern of educational research in the field of higher education is the analysis of the characteristics of learning environments that
facilitate motivation, self-regulation and academic performance. This issue is currently being studied from three perspectives. Researchers are trying to identify, first, the motivational value of each of the teachers' educational patterns that shape the classroom motivational
climate; second, the effect on performance of the different "motivational climates" or classroom goal structures- formed by different sets of teaching patterns; and, third, the effect that modifying some of the teaching patterns that shape such climates has on performance.
This paper focuses on the first perspective. We ran a comparative study between Spanish and British engineering students in an attempt to identify whether there are differences in the motivational value attributed to the different teaching patterns and whether this perception is
modulated by the motivational characteristics of students. The study methodology involved in-depth surveys, with Spanish students and students from Imperial College London.
According to the results of this study, it seems clear that the quality and effectiveness of motivational teaching performance guidelines are not absolute; they can be influenced by cultural values and motivational orientations of students
