“Who just pushed my metaphoric button”? An examination of student-related factors influencing teachers’ motivating styles
Teachers’ motivational strategies can be categorised into two types of motivating styles—autonomy-supportive style versus controlling style (Reeve in Educ Psychol 44:159–175, 2009). Several factors can affect the teachers’ use of motivational strategies, and student-related factors are some influential reasons. In this study, we focussed on identifying the student-related reasons that could affect the teachers’ motivating styles through 56 teacher interviews from 17 secondary schools across Singapore. From the teachers’ accounts, we identified “student profiles”, “students’ behaviours”, “students’ engagements”, and “students’ feedback” as the student-related factors that could affect the teachers’ motivating styles. By identifying these factors, we hope to raise awareness amongst the teachers (at the personal level) and their social environments (at the contextual level) on what can facilitate or thwart the expression of autonomy-supportive teaching. We also hope to provide useful information on what the social environments can do to support teachers in autonomy-supportive teaching.
A qualitative study into the personal factors influencing secondary school teachers’ motivating styles
Background: All teachers aspire to create the most motivating classroom climate for their students. This is because students who are motivated demonstrate superior learning outcomes relative to students who are not motivated. According to the Self-Determination Theory (SDT), when teachers establish an autonomy-supportive climate in their classrooms, their students can benefit in numerous developmentally and educationally important ways. Whilst most teachers have an understanding that autonomy-supportive teaching can benefit their students, many of them are unwilling or unable to carry out autonomy-supportive strategies. This can be explained by the implicit and explicit forces (e.g., teaching philosophies and beliefs, personal experiences) imposed on them by their internal (namely, intrapsychic) and external (namely, social) environments. This paper focuses on the personal factors that influence teachers’ adoption and employment of autonomy-supportive instructional behaviours.
Method: Following a 10-week intervention program on implementing six autonomy-supportive instructional behaviours, we interviewed 59 teachers from 17 secondary schools in Singapore on their adoption and employment of the teaching strategies. Their number of years of teaching experience ranged from 1 to 31 years with a mean of 10.8 years of teaching experience, and 62.71% of them were female.
Finding: From the interviews, we identified several teacher-related personal factors which we labelled “teaching philosophies and beliefs,” “personal experiences,” “motivation to teach,” “personality,” “teachers’ mental and emotional states” and “teaching efficacy.” Through identifying the personal factors, we hope to raise awareness amongst the teachers on the inner forces that can foster or frustrate their own expression of autonomy-supportive instructional behaviours. Given the many plausible benefits that can be derived from autonomy-supportive teaching, we hope that the information gained from this qualitative study can path the way for greater willingness and effort in implementing autonomy-supportive teaching in the classrooms.