1. Psychologically Controlling Teaching (PCT): Examining Self-Regulated Learning and Achievement Outcomes and Antecedents
Eline Sierens¹, Bart Soenens², Maarten Vansteenkiste², Luc Goossens¹, and Filip Dochy¹
¹Center for School Psychology and Developmental Psychology of Child and Adolescent, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium
²Center for Developmental, Social and Personality Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium
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Introduction: PCT refers to teaching behaviors that appeal to internally pressuring forces in learners’ functioning, such as guilt, shame, and anxiety. PCT is expressed through techniques, such as guilt-induction and instilling anxiety. Parenting research has largely demonstrated the negative consequences of parents’ use of psychological control for adolescents’ (school) functioning. In our studies, we extended the findings of the parenting literature by examining the dynamics (i.e., antecedents and outcomes) of psychological control in the teaching context.
Study 1: We investigated how PCT was related to students’ motivation, self-regulated learning (i.e., deep-level cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies), and performance. Based on self-determination theory (SDT), it was hypothesized that the more students perceive their teachers as psychologically controlling, the less they experience relative autonomy with respect to their learning. As a consequence, students would less often use self-regulatory strategies and obtain poorer grades.
Participants: 533 (41.2% males) Belgian adolescents from the academic track in secondary education (M = 16.9 years, SD = 0.7 years)
Results: Figure 1 depicts the model of outcomes of PCT. All paths in this model were controlled for gender.
Study 2: Because of the harmful effects of PCT it becomes imperative to explore its antecedents. Based on SDT and the parenting literature, we hypothesized that the more teachers (a) feel pressured from above (e.g., the school administration), (b) feel pressured from within (as indicated by low relative autonomy for teaching), and (c) feel pressured from below (as indicated by the perception that students experience low relative autonomy for learning), the more they turn to PCT. Moreover, we hypothesized that these relationships were mediated by burnout (i.e., emotional exhaustion and depersonalization).
Participants: 317 (37.2% males) Belgian teachers from the academic track in secondary education (M = 40 years)
Results: Figure 2 depicts the model of antecedents of PCT. In this model, we controlled for gender and years of teaching experience.
Conclusion: First, students of psychologically controlling teachers demonstrated diminished use of deep-level cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies (partially) because they showed reduced relative autonomy for studying. The decreased use of self-regulated learning strategies (and meta-cognitive strategies in particular), in turn, was associated with decreased academic success. Second, pressures from above and from within (i.e., low relative autonomy for teaching), but not pressure from below seem to increase the use of PCT by enhancing burnout. These findings are consistent with SDT’s claims (a) that controlling teaching disrupts individuals’ optimal functioning through frustrating feelings of autonomy and (b) that environmental and intra-individual pressures increase the likelihood of the self-protective, rigid, and controlling behaviors characteristic of PCT.
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