Effects of a Web-Based Autonomy-Supportive Intervention on Physical Education Teacher Outcomes

Abstract

The current study tested the efficacy of a web-based autonomy-supportive intervention program on changes in physical education (PE) teachers’ self-reports of autonomy support, psychological need satisfaction, intrinsic motivation, and teaching efficacy for students’ engagement. In this study, 101 secondary school PE teachers and their 652 students were randomized either to a web-based autonomy-supportive experimental group or to the control group. Manipulation checks indicated that the intervention was effective as students perceived the experimental group PE teachers as more autonomy-supportive and less controlling compared to the control group at the one-month follow-up. In the main analysis, results of the path analysis demonstrated direct effects of the intervention on changes in teachers’ self-reported autonomy-supportive behaviour, and on teaching efficacy for students’ engagement. There were also significant direct effects from changes in autonomy-supportive behaviour on changes in psychological need satisfactions, from psychological need satisfaction on intrinsic motivation, and from intrinsic motivation on teaching efficacy for students’ engagement. Finally, the intervention had an indirect effect on changes in teaching efficacy for students’ engagement via changes in teachers’ autonomy-supportive behaviour, psychological need satisfaction, and intrinsic motivation. These findings provided insight on the effects of a web-based autonomy-supportive intervention for PE teachers on several teachers’ outcomes in the context of PE.

Perceived Autonomy Support from Peers, Parents, and Physical Education Teachers as Predictors of Physical Activity and Health-Related Quality of Life among Adolescents—A One-Year Longitudinal Study

“…This is important information for practitioners and researchers designing future interventions with the aim of increasing adolescents' PA and HRQoL. Specifically, previous research has highlighted that, when PE teachers become more supportive of autonomy in their students, both students [7,[49][50][51][52] and the teachers themselves [53,54] will gain various benefits. Based on this, future research should also test the intervention effects if parents and peers become more supportive of adolescents' autonomy.…”

Perceived Physical Education Teachers’ Controlling Behaviour and Students’ Physical Activity during Leisure Time—The Dark Side of the Trans-Contextual Model of Motivation

“…Based on students’ perceptions, several intervention studies have demonstrated that physical education teachers can effectively learn how to become autonomy-supportive [ 12 , 13 ]. Studies have also found that autonomy-supportive teaching is beneficial not only to students’ outcomes but to teachers themselves, who benefit from adopting an autonomy-supportive style [ 14 ]. Controlling teaching, on the other hand, limits students’ basic psychological needs and leads to the frustration of basic psychological needs and an inability to adapt [ 15 ].…”

Increased perceived autonomy-supportive teaching in physical education classes changes students’ positive emotional perception compared to controlling teaching

“…Future research should focus on investigating the effects of different autonomy-supportive teaching styles (i.e., organizational compared to procedural compared to cognitive autonomy support) on students’ adaptive outcomes. Lastly, PE teachers might learn to be more autonomy-supportive in vocational education; here, future research could also investigate the psychological effects on educators when teaching PE classes in an autonomy-supportive manner ( Tilga et al, 2021 ).…”