What teachers say and do to support students' autonomy during a learning activity.

TLDR

Teachers with an autonomy‑supportive style use different instructional behaviors than controlling teachers to motivate students. The study examined which instructional behaviors correlate positively or negatively with students’ autonomy and discussed classroom implications. Using Deci et al.’s (1982) teacher‑student laboratory paradigm, 72 preservice teacher pairs were randomly assigned to teacher or student roles, and 10‑minute instructional episodes were videotaped and coded for 11 autonomy‑supportive and 10 controlling behaviors. Correlational analyses revealed that students perceived eight behaviors as autonomy supports and six as autonomy thwarts.

Abstract

Teachers with an autonomy-supportive style rely on different instructional behaviors to motivate their students than do teachers with a controlling style. In the present investigation, the authors tested which of these instructional behaviors actually correlated positively or negatively with students' autonomy. The authors used Deci, Spiegel, Ryan, Koestner, & Kauffman's (1982) teacher-student laboratory paradigm to randomly assign 72 pairs of same-sex preservice teachers into the role of either teacher or student. From videotapes of the 10-min instructional episode, raters scored 11 hypothesized autonomy-supportive behaviors and 10 hypothesized controlling behaviors. Correlational analyses confirmed that students perceived the functional significance of 8 instructional behaviors as autonomy supports and 6 instructional behaviors as autonomy thwarts. The discussion focuses on the interpretation and classroom implications of these data.