Effects of an Autonomy-Supportive Intervention on Tutor Behaviors in a Higher Education Context

From Section:
Mentoring & Supervision
Published:
Jul. 25, 2010

This article was published in Teaching and Teacher Education, Vol 26, Issue 5, Author(s): Sarah McLachlan and Martin S. Hagger, “Effects of an Autonomy-Supportive Intervention on Tutor Behaviors in a Higher Education Context“, Pages 1204-1210, Copyright Elsevier (July 2010).

Empirical evidence has attested to the benefits of autonomy support in a classroom context, in facilitating students' autonomous motivation, well-being, creativity, engagement, and persistence.
However, most interventional research aiming to increase teachers' autonomy-supportive behaviors has been conducted in school and college contexts, with few studies aimed at university tutors.

This study implemented a brief theory-driven autonomy-supportive intervention in university seminars and developed an observational checklist instrument to assess behavior change.

Tutors who received brief training in autonomy-supportive teaching techniques showed significant increases from baseline in two important autonomy-supportive behaviors in their classes.

Potential implications and suggestions for further development of the intervention are discussed.


Updated: Jun. 16, 2021
Keywords:
Behavior change | Instruction effectiveness | Intervention | Personal autonomy | Teaching methods | Tutors