Fostering a Need-Supportive Teaching Style: Intervention Effects on Physical Education Teachers’ Beliefs and Teaching Behaviors

2014 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 595-609 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathalie Aelterman ◽  
Maarten Vansteenkiste ◽  
Lynn Van den Berghe ◽  
Jotie De Meyer ◽  
Leen Haerens

The present intervention study examined whether physical education (PE) teachers can learn to make use of autonomy-supportive and structuring teaching strategies. In a sample of 39 teachers (31 men, M = 38.51 ± 10.44 years) and 669 students (424 boys, M = 14.58 ± 1.92 years), we investigated whether a professional development training grounded in self-determination theory led to changes in (a) teachers’ beliefs about the effectiveness and feasibility of autonomy-supportive and structuring strategies and (b) teachers’ in-class reliance on these strategies, as rated by teachers, external observers, and students. The intervention led to positive changes in teachers’ beliefs regarding both autonomy support and structure. As for teachers’ actual teaching behavior, the intervention was successful in increasing autonomy support according to students and external observers, while resulting in positive changes in teacher-reported structure. Implications for professional development and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Author(s):  
Géraldine Escriva-Boulley ◽  
Emma Guillet-Descas ◽  
Nathalie Aelterman ◽  
Maarten Vansteenkiste ◽  
Nele Van Doren ◽  
...  

Grounded in SDT, several studies have highlighted the role of teachers’ motivating and demotivating styles for students’ motivation, learning, and physical activity in physical education (PE). However, most of these studies focused on a restricted number of motivating strategies (e.g., offering choice) or dimensions (e.g., autonomy support). Recently, researchers have developed the Situations-in-School (i.e., SIS-Education) questionnaire, which allows one to gain a more integrative and fine-grained insight into teachers’ engagement in autonomy-support, structure, control, and chaos through a circular structure (i.e., a circumplex). Although teaching in PE resembles teaching in academic courses in many ways, some of the items of the original situation-based questionnaire (e.g., regarding homework) are irrelevant to the PE context. In the present study, we therefore sought to develop a modified, PE-friendly version of this earlier validated SIS-questionnaire—the SIS-PE. Findings in a sample of Belgian (N = 136) and French (N = 259) PE teachers, examined together and as independent samples, showed that the variation in PE teachers’ motivating styles in this adapted version is also best captured by a circumplex structure, with four overarching styles and eight subareas differing in their level of need support and directiveness. The SIS-PE possesses excellent convergent and concurrent validity. With the adaptations being successful, great opportunities for future research on PE teachers (de-)motivating styles are created.


2013 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leen Haerens ◽  
Nathalie Aelterman ◽  
Lynn Van den Berghe ◽  
Jotie De Meyer ◽  
Bart Soenens ◽  
...  

According to self-determination theory, teachers can motivate students by supporting their psychological needs for relatedness, competence, and autonomy. The present study complements extant research (most of which relied on self-report measures) by relying on observations of need-supportive teaching in the domain of physical education (PE), which allows for the identification of concrete, real-life examples of how teacher need support manifests in the classroom. Seventy-four different PE lessons were coded for 5-min intervals to assess the occurrence of 21 need-supportive teaching behaviors. Factor analyses provided evidence for four interpretable factors, namely, relatedness support, autonomy support, and two components of structure (structure before and during the activity). Reasonable evidence was obtained for convergence between observed and student perceived need support. Yet, the low interrater reliability for two of the four scales indicates that these scales need further improvement.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Géraldine Escriva-Boulley ◽  
Emma Guillet Descas ◽  
Nathalie Aelterman ◽  
Maarten Vansteenkiste ◽  
Nele Van Doren ◽  
...  

Grounded in SDT, several studies have highlighted the role of teachers’ motivating and demoti-vating styles for students’ motivation, learning, and physical activity in physical education (PE). However, most of these studies focused on a restricted number of motivating strategies (e.g., of-fering choice) or dimensions (e.g., autonomy support). Recently, researchers have developed the Situation In School (i.e. SIS) questionnaire which allows to gain a more integrative and fine-grained insight in teachers’ engagement in autonomy-support, structure, control and chaos through a circular structure (i.e., a circumplex). Although teaching in PE resembles teaching in academic courses in many ways, some of the items of the original situation-based questionnaire (e.g. regarding homework) are irrelevant to the PE context. In the present study, we therefore sought to develop a modified, PE-friendly version of this earlier validated SIS-questionnaire, the SIS-PE. Findings in a sample of Belgian (N=136) and French (N=259) PE teachers, examined to-gether and as independent samples, showed that the variation in PE teachers’ motivating styles in this adapted version is also best captured by a circumplex structure, with four overarching styles and eight subareas differing in their level of need support and directiveness. The SIS-PE possesses excellent convergent and concurrent validity. With the adaptations being successful, great opportunities for future research on PE teachers (de-)motivating styles are created.


Author(s):  
Carlos Montero-Carretero ◽  
Eduardo Cervelló

The main objective of this study was to analyze student-perceived teaching styles’ power to predict students’ resilience and the emergence of bullying behaviors in physical education class. A total of 537 students of both sexes, between 11 and 15 years of age, from primary and secondary schools in the province of Alicante (Spain), participated in the study. The design of the study was cross-sectional. The results showed that bullying was positively predicted by students’ perceptions of a more controlling style and negatively by a greater perception of an autonomy-supportive style in physical education classes. Victimization was negatively predicted by greater resilience and positively by students’ perception of a teacher’s more controlling style. Finally, the mediation analysis showed that the perception of autonomy support indirectly and negatively predicted victimization, with resilience acting as a mediator. These findings provide useful information for physical education teachers interested in preventing bullying, and have important practical implications about the teaching style recommended for this purpose.


2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 353-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn Van den Berghe ◽  
Isabel B. Tallir ◽  
Greet Cardon ◽  
Nathalie Aelterman ◽  
Leen Haerens

Starting from self-determination theory, we explored whether student engagement/disengagement relates to teachers’ need support and whether this relationship is moderated by teachers’ causality orientations. A sample of 2004 students situated in 127 classes taught by 33 physical education teachers participated in the study. Both teachers and students reported on students’ (dis)engagement, allowing investigation of the proposed relationships both at the student and teacher level. Most of the variance in need support was at the student level, but there was also between-teacher and between-class variance in need support. Engagement related to more need support, but only at the student level. In total, few moderation effects were found. Teachers with a relatively low controlled orientation were more need supportive when perceiving their students as emotionally and behaviorally engaged. By making teachers aware of these dynamics, automatic responses to student engagement can be better thought out. Recommendations for future research are discussed.


Author(s):  
Ángel Abós ◽  
Rafael Burgueño ◽  
Luis García-González ◽  
Javier Sevil-Serrano

Purpose: Grounded in self-determination theory, this study examined gender latent mean differences in students’ perceptions of externally and internally controlling teaching behaviors, basic psychological need frustration, controlled motivation, amotivation, and oppositional defiance in the physical education context. Moreover, it analyzed the differentiated role that internal and external controlling behaviors play on these self-determination theory-related variables among girls and boys. Method: A sample of 1,118 students (Mage = 14.11 ± 1.50; 50.9% girls) participated in this research. A multigroup structural equation modeling approach was used to respond to the research questions. Results: Analyses revealed that girls reported more maladaptive outcomes in most self-determination theory-related variables than boys. Although externally and internally controlling behaviors of physical education teachers were positively related to maladaptive outcomes, the behaviors correlate differently between boys and girls. Conclusion: Findings highlight the importance of reducing externally controlling behaviors in boys and internally controlling behaviors in both genders, but particularly in girls.


Author(s):  
Nicolas Burel ◽  
Damien Tessier ◽  
Jody Langdon

AbstractThis article examines the relations between the teachers’ subjective feeling and their motivating teaching style during physical education lessons. Doing so, it aimed at better understanding the emotional antecedents of the teaching behaviors. Twelve volunteer physical education teachers were filmed with their respective classes to assess the motivating style they used during their intervention. Immediately after, the subjective feelings they felt during the lesson were assessed using the affective slider in a video-based session. Cross-lagged multilevel modeling was then performed, controlling for emotional exhaustion level and demographic factors. Results showed that, at the within level, subjective pleasant feelings predicted positively the relatedness-supportive dimension of the motivating style, and negatively the controlling dimension. At the between level, the controlling dimension of the motivating style was positively related to the pleasant subjective feelings while the relatedness-thwarting dimension was negatively related to them. While literature has mainly examined the cognitive antecedents of teachers’ motivating styles, this study emphasizes the emotional processes occurring during the lesson. Based on the conceptual framework of teachers’ emotions model proposed by Frenzel (2014), results indicate that teachers react to their subjective feelings, modifying the way they interact with students accordingly. In parallel with cognitive determinants of teaching, the emotional dimension thus deserves to be more deeply considered in future teaching training programs.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 225-230
Author(s):  
Megan Adkins ◽  
Matthew R. Bice ◽  
Vicki Worrell ◽  
Nita Unruh

Schools continue to integrate the use of technology, and gymnasiums are not an exception.  The purpose of the study was to determine the comfort level of Physical Education teachers integrating technology in the gymnasium, determine types of professional development provided for technology use, and potential barriers associated with technology usage. A survey of 179 practicing Physical Education teachers located in the Midwest completed an online questionnaire. Results indicated Physical Education teachers were comfortable integrating technology but reported inadequate professional develop on technology device implementation.  These findings suggest Physical Educators are willing to integrate technology but the professional development and resources available to accomplish this is lacking. Future research should examine PETE program offerings, and additional PD opportunities offered by SHAPE America within the area of technology and Physical Education.


2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin A Haegele ◽  
Samuel Hodge ◽  
Paulo José Barbosa Gutierres Filho ◽  
Alexandre Luiz Gonçalves de Rezende

The purpose of this study was to analyze the attitudes of physical education teachers about inclusion and teaching students with disabilities in Brazil before and after they participated in a professional development workshop focused on inclusive ideology and strategies. The participants were Brazilian physical education teachers (pretest sample, n = 90, and posttest sample, n = 90, respectively) sampled randomly from a two-day workshop held in Brasília, Brazil. The research method was pretest–posttest group design. The primary data source was the Physical Educators’ Judgments about Inclusion survey, a three-dimensional attitude survey scale with an accompanying demographic questionnaire. Data were analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics. Results indicate the Brazilian physical education teachers: (a) were undecided about inclusion; (b) were accepting of students with disabilities in their classes; and (c) perceived a need for additional professional development training to effectively teach children with disabilities.


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