Are Autonomously Motivated University Instructors More Autonomy-Supportive Teachers?

Authors

Maï Yasué 8988034, Quest University CanadaFollow
Lucas M. Jeno, University of BergenFollow
Jody L. Langdon, Georgia Southern University, School of Health and Kinesiology, GeorgiaFollow

Abstract

We extended the research on autonomy-supportive teaching to universities and examined the relationships between autonomous motivation to teach and autonomy-supportive teaching. Autonomously motivated university instructors were more autonomy-supportive instructors. The freedom to make pedagogical decisions was negatively correlated with external motivation towards teaching. Participants indicated that large class sizes, high teaching loads, publication pressures, and a culture that undervalues effective undergraduate teaching undermined both student learning and their feelings of autonomy. Together these results presents a picture of a subset of university instructors who remained autonomously motivated to teach, irrespective of barriers they experienced from university administrators or policies.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Yasué, Maï 8988034; Jeno, Lucas M.; and Langdon, Jody L. (2019) "Are Autonomously Motivated University Instructors More Autonomy-Supportive Teachers?," International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Vol. 13: No. 2, Article 5.
Available at: https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2019.130205