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.
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