Autonomy-supportive teachers: How they teach and motivate students

The authors examined motivating style in terms of a teacher's disposition t o control students or support their autonomy. In Study 1, 4 independent sam ples of preservice teachers completed the Problems in Schools (PS) question naire so the authors could critically evaluate the instrument to assess mot ivating style as an individual difference characteristic. In Study 2, prese rvice teachers taught a 10-min instructional episode as raters judged their language and style. In Study 3, elementary and high school teachers self-r eported a recent attempt to teach and motivate one of their students. Compa red with their controlling counterparts, autonomy-supportive teachers showe d a distinctive motivating style as measured by their conversational behavi ors, interpersonal style, and attempts to support students' intrinsic motiv ational and internalization processes.