Can being autonomy-supportive in teaching improve students' self-regulation and performance?

Studies have well-documented that autonomy-supportive environment supports individuals’ psychological needs by promoting a sense of volition. With the increasing concerns of students’ well-being and lifelong learning, autonomy-supportive environment has been of increasing importance. Promoting teachers to be autonomy-supportive will facilitate students’ psychological needs and autonomous learning behaviours. Grounded in self-determination theory, the aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of autonomy-supportive intervention in students’ perceived autonomy support, psychological needs, learning strategies and achievement. After the training programme, teachers implemented the 5-week autonomy-supportive intervention in their classes. Questionnaires were used to assess students’ perceptions of autonomy support, basic psychological needs, motivation orientation and use of learning strategies between autonomy-supportive teaching and control groups. Students’ academic achievement was assessed in terms of their grades in mathematics, science as well as design and technology. Results revealed that from pre- to post-intervention, students taught by autonomy-supportive teachers had significant positive changes in perceived autonomy support, needs, self-efficacy, self-regulated learning and grades. Students in the autonomy-supportive condition were also more self-efficacious and autonomous in learning than those in the control condition, as shown by increased achievement. Implications and limitations are discussed.