Toward an integrative and fine-grained insight in motivating and demotivating teaching styles: The merits of a circumplex approach.

Abstract

Guided by Self-Determination Theory, we offer an integrative and fine-grained analysis of teachers' classroom motivating style (i.e., autonomy support, structure, control, and chaos) to resolve existing controversies in the literature, such as how these dimensions relate to each other and to educationally important student and teacher outcomes. Six independent samples of secondary school teachers (N ϭ 1332, M age ϭ 40.9 years) and their students (N ϭ 1735, M age ϭ 14.6 years) read 12 ecologically valid vignettes to rate four dimensions of teachers' motivating styles, using the Situations-in-School (SIS) questionnaire. Multidimensional scaling analyses of both the teacher and the student data indicated that motivating and demotivating teaching could best be graphically represented by a two-dimensional configuration that differed in terms of need support and directiveness. In addition, eight subareas (two subareas per motivating style) were identified along a circumplex model: participative and attuning, guiding and clarifying, demanding and domineering, and abandoning and awaiting. Correlations between these eight subareas and a variety of construct validation and outcome variables (e.g., student motivation, teacher burnout) followed an ordered sinusoid pattern. The discussion focuses on the conceptual implications and practical advantages of adopting a circumplex approach and sketches a number of important future research directions. Educational Impact and Implications StatementThe present study suggests that rather than categorizing secondary school teachers as either motivating or demotivating, this approach reveals that an attuning and guiding approach relate to the most adaptive pattern of teacher and student outcomes, whereas an opposite pattern is found for a domineering and abandoning approach. This greater clarity allows teachers to gain a more precise insight into their own teaching style so that they adopt a more need-supportive style that benefits their students and themselves.

Basic psychological need theory: Advancements, critical themes, and future directions

“…In contrast, parental perspective taking, a central element of autonomy support and the attuning approach in particular, was related to higher adjustment irrespective of participants' cultural background. Such findings are fully congruent with the circumplex model, which suggests that the attuning approach may be more directly need-nurturing, while the participative approach is merely need-enabling (Aelterman et al 2019).…”

“…Such research reveals that socializing agents capable of nurturing one need often simultaneously support other needs (e.g., Baard et al 2004), while the thwarting of all three needs also happens simultaneously in many instances (Costa et al 2019). Further, using multi-dimensional scaling analyses, greater insights were produced in the way that different need-supportive and need-thwarting practices among teachers (Aelterman et al 2019) and youth sport coaches (Delrue et al 2019a) can best be situated vis-à-vis each other. This research has resulted in a model with a circumplex structure (see Fig.…”

“…Further, longitudinal designs will help uncovering whether socializing agents slip from more structuring to more controlling and from more autonomy-supportive to chaotic styles as a function of encountered threats to their needs, personality characteristics, and the broader Fig. 2 Graphical representation of the circumplex model (Aelterman et al 2019) motivating climate, or whether they shift in more desirable directions as they get trained to adopt a more need-supportive socialization style.…”

Capacidad predictiva del apoyo a la autonomía en clases de educación física sobre el ejercicio físico

“…Este hallazgo corrobora los beneficios de fomentar el apoyo a la autonomía en EF para generar diversión y disfrute en el alumnado y disminuir el aburrimiento (Barkoukis y Hagger, 2013;. Efectivamente, cuando el docente como modelo social adopta una actitud abierta y receptiva a través de un estilo de apoyo a la autonomía, le resulta más fácil empatizar con sus estudiantes y nutrir sus intereses y preferencias (Aelterman et al, 2018). De esta forma, la existencia de un ambiente de expansión y disfrute en las clases de EF puede ser una variable importante para acercarnos a la meta de que los adolescentes sigan practicando deporte fuera del horario escolar.…”

Do goal clarification and process feedback positively affect students’ need-based experiences? A quasi-experimental study grounded in Self-Determination Theory

“…From a motivational perspective (Ryan and Deci 2017), clarifying goals and providing process feedback are argued to contribute to a structured learning environment (Aelterman et al 2019). Such structure is positively related to students' most volitional forms of motivation, as students get the opportunity to feel effective (i.e.…”