Daily Autonomy Supporting or Thwarting and Students' Motivation and Engagement in the High School Science Classroom

This diary study provided the first classroom-based empirical test of the relations between student perceptions of high school science teachers' various autonomy supporting and thwarting practices and students' motivation and engagement on a daily basis over the course of an instructional unit. Perceived autonomy supporting practices were hypothesized to predict autonomous motivation and engagement outcomes, while perceived autonomy thwarting practices were hypothesized to predict controlled motivation and disaffection outcomes. In line with this prediction, multilevel modeling results based on regular reports of 208 high school students in 41 science classes across 6 weeks suggested that 4 perceived daily supports (choice provision, consideration for student preferences and interests, rationales for importance, and question opportunities) and 1 daily thwart (use of uninteresting activities) predicted changes in daily autonomous motivation and engagement. In contrast, changes in students' daily controlled motivation and disaffection were predicted primarily by 3 perceived daily thwarts (controlling messages, suppression of student perspectives, and use of uninteresting activities). Results also suggested that practices interacted such that the perception of thwarts generally bolstered desirable daily relationships between perceived supports and students' motivation and the perception of supports generally mitigated undesirable daily relationships between thwarts and motivation. Supplemental exploratory results suggested that the effects of choice and suppression of student perspectives may be heterogeneous and depend on the outcome and/or the presence of other practices. Implications of the findings are discussed. Educational Impact and Implications Statement The results of a 6-week classroom-based diary study with 208 high school students in 41 science classes suggested that students' autonomous motivation and engagement increased (since the prior class day) on days when students perceived their teachers to support their autonomy by providing choices, considering their preferences and interests in course activities, communicating rationales for the importance of activities, providing opportunities to ask questions, or avoiding uninteresting activities. In contrast, controlled motivation and disaffection increased on days when students' perceived their teachers to thwart their autonomy by using controlling messages, suppressing student perspectives, or using uninteresting activities. Students' perceptions that teachers' used thwarting practices simultaneously with supportive practices bolstered the desirable relationship between perceived supports and motivation, and mitigated the undesirable relationship between thwarts and motivation. Results suggest the importance of focusing motivation interventions on training high school teachers to implement specific daily practices geared at supporting students' experience of autonomy and minimizing the use of specific thwarting practices to both promote autonomous motivation and engagement and reduce controlled motivation and disaffection. Results highlight the importance of targeting a profile of autonomy-relevant practices that teachers use each day when attempting to maximize student motivation and engagement.