Effects of an Autonomy Support Intervention on the Involvement of Higher Education Students

Abstract

Intervention studies based on Self-Determination Theory (SDT) in educational contexts prove the importance of the teacher’s motivating interpersonal style, promoting positive results in students’ motivation. However, college practices and processes have new challenges. This study examines the repercussions of an intervention program with autonomy support on students’ involvement. The sample was randomly divided into two groups, an intervention group composed of 12 teachers, aged between 25 and 56 years (M = 35.38; SD = 7.71) and 113 students, aged between 18 and 28 years (M = 20.53; SD = 2.42); and a control group consisting of 12 teachers, aged between 25 and 44 years (M = 35.11; SD = 5.79), 107 students, aged between 18 and 39 years (M = 21; SD = 3.68). Quantitative and qualitative data were collected on the motivating interpersonal style, satisfaction of basic psychological needs, academic motivation and student involvement. The results demonstrate in general the effectiveness of the intervention on the perception of autonomy support to improve student involvement; this relationship is mediated by the improvement of psychological needs and academic motivation. The results are discussed around the recommendation of motivational strategies that the higher education teacher should implement to promote students’ involvement.

The Influence of Autonomy-Supportive Teaching on EFL Students’ Classroom Autonomy: An Experimental Intervention

“…This has resulted in significant differences between learners in the two groups, which could be due to the lack of intervention in the control group where no significant changes in learner autonomy were observed. The improvements in student autonomy variables due to intervention in EFL classes in this study replicate those revealed by interventions in other disciplines (e.g., Lozano-Jiménez et al, 2021).…”

“…These results empirically validate the theoretical assumptions about the practicality of autonomysupportive teaching in promoting EFL learner autonomy (e.g., Reeve, 2005Reeve, , 2009Benson, 2011;Dam, 2011;Ikonen, 2013;Sella, 2014;Pichugova et al, 2016;Hu and Zhang, 2017;Suharmoko, 2017;Gurbanov and Mirzayeva, 2018;Reeve et al, 2019;Yu, 2020;Saeed, 2021). They also verify the fact that pedagogical autonomy interventions in foreign language classroom setting are not only possible as theoretically hypothesized but also actually effective as is in other fields (e.g., Cheon et al, 2012;Lozano-Jiménez et al, 2021). Further, the study findings experimentally support the theoretical claims about the feasibility, desirability, and teachability of autonomy in classroom setting (see, e.g., Ellis and Sinclair, 1989;Ikonen, 2013;Raya et al, 2020;Reeve, 1998), and the applicability of this concept to be incorporated in L2 instruction across different EFL contexts even if it has not been a part of the educational background in that context like in Saudi Arabia.…”

“…Despite the valuable theoretical assumptions provided by such studies (e.g., Reeve, 2005Reeve, , 2009Benson, 2011;Dam, 2011;Ikonen, 2013;Sella, 2014;Pichugova et al, 2016;Hu and Zhang, 2017;Suharmoko, 2017;Gurbanov and Mirzayeva, 2018;Yu, 2020;Saeed, 2021) about possible approaches for promoting learner autonomy in foreign language classes, the empirical practicality of such strategies is yet to be established as none of these studies has experimentally tested their effectiveness in promoting learner autonomy in such settings. While there have been some teacher autonomy-supportive interventions in other fields of study like the ones by Cheon et al (2012) in physical education and Lozano-Jiménez et al (2021) in programmes other than EFL, experimental autonomy-promotion interventions in EFL/ESL classes are very rare to date. Even with the appearance of some recent attempts to utilize autonomysupportive strategies in language classes (see, e.g., Hu and Zhang, 2017;Ramírez, 2017;Chinpakdee, 2020;Pham, 2021), these studies appeared more concerned with the general practice of teachers rather than utilizing specific strategies to promote learner autonomy.…”

“…Further, the study findings experimentally support the theoretical claims about the feasibility, desirability, and teachability of autonomy in classroom setting (see, e.g., Ellis and Sinclair, 1989;Ikonen, 2013;Raya et al, 2020;Reeve, 1998), and the applicability of this concept to be incorporated in L2 instruction across different EFL contexts even if it has not been a part of the educational background in that context like in Saudi Arabia. Further, the study empirically acknowledged the significant role of the teacher as a facilitator in providing psychosocial and technical support to promote student autonomy (see Voller, 1997;Benson, 2011;Murase, 2015;Lozano-Jiménez et al, 2021;Pham, 2021).…”

Cooperative Approaches and Academic Motivation towards Enhancing Pre-Service Teachers’ Achievement

“…Therefore, our findings support the fact that during the implementation of the CPCCs, PST motivation can be related to the teaching process of teachers providing basic psychological needs. As reported by Lozano-Jiménez et al [50], the effectiveness in the application of an educational approach not only depends on the perception of PST autonomy support to improve PST involvement but also by the improvement of the synergistic effects between the PST psychological needs and academic motivation. Indeed, in our experiments, there was a synergistic effect between the academic motivation by the PSTs during the implementation of the CPCCs in the schools.…”