1. Investigating the Characteristics of Autonomy-Supportive and Controlling Physical Educators
Nicholas S. Washburn, K. Andrew R. Richards, Oleg A. Sinelnikov
Background
Viewed through self-determination theory, satisfaction of the innate psychological need for autonomy (i.e., personal volition) breeds more intrinsic forms of motivation (Deci & Ryan, 2013). Teachers of physical education can satisfy their students’ autonomy by providing autonomy-supportive instruction (Taylor & Ntoumanis, 2007). Research has begun to unearth factors that influence teachers’ provision of autonomy support. These include, for example, student and administrative influence (Pelletier et al., 2002) and personal disposition (Van den Berghe et al., 2013). Though students (De Meyer et al., 2016) and their teachers (Cheon et al., 2014) benefit from an autonomy-supportive style of instruction, many physical education teachers continue to rely on controlling pedagogies (De Meyer et al., 2014). Additional factors leading physical education teachers to be more controlling or autonomy-supportive should be investigated.
Tables and Figures
Table 1
Sample Size, Means, and Standard Deviations for Physical Education Teachers’ Motivational Orientations by Gender and Teaching Level
Male
Female n M SD
Elementary 67
-1.75
1.89 93
.48
2.45
Secondary
163
-1.60
2.06
145
-1.10
2.30
Total
230
-1.64
2.00
238
-.45
2.48
Table 2
Spearman Correlations for Teaching Experience, Motivational Orientation, Gender, and Teaching Level
Teaching Exp.
M.O.
Gender
Teaching Level
1.00
.21**
-.13**
-.02
-.24**
.18
-.11*
.18**
** Correlation significant at the .01 level (2-tailed)
* Correlation significant at the .05 level (2-tailed)
The Present Study
Three such factors may be teaching experience, gender, and teaching level. Lawson (1983) labeled schools as custodial beauracracies. Therefore, the institutional press (Zeichner & Tabachnick, 1983), which often serves to preserve the dominant culture, may incline teachers to become more controlling with experience. Indeed, Templin (1978) observed a shift from a humanistic to a pupil-control ideology with teaching experience.
While the literature is currently absent of research specifically comparing the autonomy-supportive instruction of males versus females and elementary versus secondary teachers, it seems plausible to purport that, by and large, males tend to be more authoritative than females. Moreover, considering the role overload and conflict experienced by many physical education teachers at the secondary level due to the additional responsibilities associated with coaching athletics, elementary physical education teachers may be more patient and nurturing in their instruction.
Table 3
ANCOVA Table for the Measures of Motivational Orientation by Gender and Teaching Level while Controlling for Teaching Experience
Source F p
Partial-η2
Teaching Experience
16.33
<.001
.034
Sex
34.51
.069
Teaching Level
11.92
.001
.025
Sex*Teaching Level
62.64
.028
Purpose and Hypotheses
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between physical education teachers’ provision of autonomy-support and their gender and teaching level while controlling for teaching experience. Specifically, we generated three hypotheses:
Teaching experience and autonomy support would be negatively related.
Females would be more autonomy-supportive than males.
Elementary teachers would be more autonomy-supportive than secondary teachers.
Participants
This study involved a sample of in-service physical education teachers (N = 468; 230 male, 238 female) employed at either the elementary (n = 160) or secondary (n = 308) levels from the Northeastern, Southeastern, and Midwestern United States. The teachers, collectively, had a considerable number of years of teaching experience (M = 19.43, SD = 10.48), with the secondary teachers (M = 19.65, SD = 10.60) having slightly more experience than elementary teachers (M = 19.00, SD = 10.26).
Dependent Variable
All teachers completed an electronic survey containing the Problems in Schools questionnaire (PIS; Deci et al., 1981). The PIS measures the extent to which teachers orient toward supporting their students’ autonomy versus controlling their behavior (i.e., their motivational orientation). Specifically, the PIS contains eight hypothetical situations involving children that would warrant action from the teacher. Following each situation are ways of responding in a highly autonomous (HA), moderately autonomous (MA), moderately controlling (MC), and highly controlling (HC) manner. Using a Likert scale, respondents indicate each response’s level of appropriateness (1 = very inappropriate, 7 = very appropriate). The four subscales (HA, MA, MC, HC) are then weighted and inserted into the following formula (Reeve et al., 1999): (2*HA) + (0*MA) – (1*MC) – (2*HC). This formula generates a numerical value between 11 (highly autonomy-oriented) and -19 (highly controlling), representative of a teacher’s motivational orientation.
Figure 1. Level of physical education teacher-provided autonomy support by gender and teaching level.
Discussion
The purpose of this study was to examine the motivational orientations of male and female physical education teachers working at the elementary and secondary levels while controlling for teaching experience. In conflict with the notion that teachers become more controlling with experience, the more experienced teachers in this study were reportedly more autonomy-supportive. One possible explanation for this is that, upon receiving the protection provided by tenured status, teachers may feel more comfortable “in their own skin” amidst relatively custodial conditions. Results also support the hypothesis that males tend to be more controlling than females and lend credence to the notion that females tend to be more nurturing than males. Interestingly, females at the elementary level tended to be more autonomy-supportive than those at the secondary level. This may be attributable to role strain associated with coaching duties or, perhaps, that many secondary physical education teachers choose their positions in order to coach (Lawson, 1983) and may inherently possess more controlling dispositions. Lastly, considering the most autonomous score on the PIS (11) in relation to the mean for the most autonomously-oriented group of teachers (.422), the teachers in this study, as in others (De Meyer et al., 2014), appeared to rely on relatively controlling motivational tactics. This can possibly be explained by the fact that many physical education teachers enter the profession due to their desire to continue involvement in the traditional sporting arena ( Spittle et al., 2009).
Analysis
Data analysis commenced with standard cleaning and screening procedures (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2013). Then, we generated descriptive statistics and Spearman correlations for all study variables, which are located in Tables 1 and 2, respectively. Finally, we conducted a 2 x 2 ANCOVA to investigate the relationships between Gender and Teaching Level on Motivational Orientation while controlling for Teaching Experience in years. The results of this analysis are provided in Table 3. Figure 1 provides a graphical representation of the analysis.
Results
The main effects for all three study variables were significant. These main effects were qualified, however, by a significant Gender x Teaching Level interaction effect F(1, 463) = 62.64, p < The covariate, Teaching Experience, was significantly positively related to a more autonomy-supportive motivational orientation, F(1,463) = 16.33, p < Males held significantly more controlling Motivational Orientations than females at both levels. Lastly, the female elementary teachers in this sample responded as being significantly more autonomy-supportive than their female counterparts at the secondary level.
Conclusion and Future Research
The majority of physical education teachers could benefit from autonomy-supportive interventions. The PIS, however, is not designed specifically for physical education teachers and, furthermore, only addresses one aspect of need-supportive instruction, namely autonomy support. Thus, a call is made for future research seeking to validate a comprehensive need-supportive instruction scale in physical education.