Toward an Integrative and Fine-Grained Insight in Motivating and Demotivating Teaching Styles: The Merits of a Circumplex Approach

By Nathalie Aelterman, Maarten Vansteenkiste, L. Haerens, Bart Soenens, Johnny Fontaine, J. Reeve. Journal of Educational Psychology, 2019

526 citations recorded by the source corpus.

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 = 1332; Mage = 40.9 years) and their students (N = 1735, Mage = 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.

Subfields: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Safety Research, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/5953009cfd732ebc91bea0573720b6051761024e

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Citations in the corpus

When teachers learn how to provide classroom structure in an autonomy-supportive way: Benefits to teachers and their students (2020, methodology): “Teachers second learn how to provide structure, and they do this by learning how to communicate clear expectations, offer step-by-step guidance, and provide progress-enabling feedback (Aelterman et al., 2019).”
Brick by Brick: The Origins, Development, and Future of Self-Determination Theory (2019, background): “For example, Aelterman et al. (2018) introduced a circumplex model of motivating styles used by teachers with independent dimensions for structure versus chaos and autonomy versus control.”
How teachers can support students’ agentic engagement (2020, background): “A teacher’s motivating style refers to the “interpersonal tone” (Reeve, 2016), “orientation toward students” (Deci, Schwartz, Sheinman, & Ryan, 1981), or “basic attitude” (Aelterman et al., 2019) he or she relies on when trying to engage students in learning activities.”
Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions (2020, unknown): “For example, Aelterman et al. (2019) collected self-reports from over 1000 Belgian secondary school teachers and students using the vignette-based Situations-in-School Questionnaire , to which they applied multidimensional scaling analyses.”
COVID-19 and Teachers’ Somatic Burden, Stress, and Emotional Exhaustion: Examining the Role of Principal Leadership and Workplace Buoyancy (2021, methodology): “New items were developed for this study and were based on theoretical understanding and guidance from selfdetermination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2017), including recent conceptualizing (e.g., Aelterman et al., 2019).”
Perceived teachers’ behavior and students’ engagement in physical education: the mediating role of basic psychological needs and self-determined motivation (2020, result): “This approach is directly linked to recent research that has concomitantly considered in the sport and educational domain teaching behaviors that correspond to the support and thwart of the three needs (Aelterman et al. 2019; Delrue et al. 2019).”
The role of teachers’ motivation and mindsets in predicting a (de)motivating teaching style in higher education: a circumplex approach (2020, unknown): “, engagement, need satisfaction), as demonstrated in secondary education (Aelterman et al. 2019).”
Basic psychological need theory: Advancements, critical themes, and future directions (2020, unknown): “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.”
Emotion regulation and need satisfaction shape a motivating teaching style (2020, methodology): “It was assessed with the Situations-in-School (SIS) questionnaire (Aelterman et al., 2019), translated into Italian and back-translated to English by two fluent speakers of both languages.”
Motivating voluntary compliance to behavioural restrictions: Self-determination theory–based checklist of principles for COVID-19 and other emergency communications (2021, background): “However, careful consideration is needed with respect to the specific themes over which choice is conveyed as to avoid that a laisserfaire perception arises (see Aelterman et al., 2019).”