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1 reference
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- Vol 4 RE: Chapter 18
autonomy-supportive teachingteacher interventionsself-determination theorystudent motivationneed satisfactionteacher professional developmentclassroom climateinstructional structureJournal article Evidence summaryAt a glance
Reeve and Cheon review autonomy-supportive teaching as a learnable interpersonal style grounded in self-determination theory.
Key ideas
It begins with a student-focused attitude and an understanding tone and is enacted through behaviours such as taking students’ perspectives, inviting their initiative, offering meaningful choices, acknowledging negative feelings, explaining rationales, using informational language, and displaying patience. These practices support intrinsic motivation and help students internalise externally initiated activities; autonomy support is compatible with clear structure and guidance, not permissiveness or abandoning expectations. Across 51 teacher interventions, including 38 randomised controlled trials, teachers generally learned to become more autonomy supportive, and the resulting changes were associated with benefits for students’ need satisfaction, motivation, engagement, learning, well-being, and classroom climate, as well as some benefits for teachers. Effects and implementation still depend on context, training quality, and sustained practice.
Why it matters
For educators, improvement involves observing controlling habits, rehearsing alternatives, seeking feedback, and redesigning explanations and interactions so that necessary limits preserve students’ agency, voice, and sense of ownership.
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Edition abbreviations
- TE
- Teacher Edition
- PE
- Practice Edition
- RE
- Research Edition
Citation checks
References are checked against publisher records, scholarly indexes, DOI or ISBN metadata, repositories and author records where available. An entry marked [Citation not verified] preserves the wording found in the relevant volume without attributing findings to an unconfirmed work.
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