How to Be an Autonomy-Supportive College Professor

What You'll Find:

·      Autonomy-supportive teaching will improve your students’ achievement of learning goals while boosting their psychological well-being. (And it will improve your own job-satisfaction as an instructor.)

·      The strategies for supporting student autonomy complement a wide variety of teaching styles and work for the breadth of student ability levels.

·      The evidence that autonomy-supportive teaching works is substantial.

Introduction

An exciting area of motivational psychology has been steadily making its way towards higher education. Self-determination theory (SDT), which examines basic psychological needs and their satisfaction, has been used with wide success in PK-12 schools. Thousands of studies conducted all around the world have shown that when teachers support their students’ basic need for self-direction, both teachers and students benefit. When carried out in the classroom, the practice is called autonomy-supportive teaching (AST).

AST is applicable to a wide variety of contexts for teaching and learning in higher education—small classrooms and large lecture halls; synchronous and asynchronous online courses; courses in the fine arts, humanities, natural sciences, social sciences, and physical education; first-year undergraduate courses to doctoral seminars; and at schools in countries around the world. Finally, AST complements any teaching style from lecturer to nondirective teacher—provided, of course, the instructor is willing to make changes in order to support their students’ autonomy. An in-depth overview and guide to AST for college professors is also available (Whitehead, 2023).

What Autonomy Supportive Teaching Is

SDT is an extensively studied and widely supported theory of motivation that explains, broadly, why people do what they do (Deci & Flaste, 1995; Ryan & Deci, 2017). Without getting into its history, SDT recognizes three psychological needs that contribute to human motivation:

1.     Autonomy: the need to be self-directed.

2.     Relatedness: the need to connect socially with others

3.     Competence: the need to be optimally challenged 

All three psychological needs are important to college professors. When learning is the goal, however, autonomy takes the lead. 

A professor is autonomy-supportive when they create classroom conditions that support their students’ basic psychological needs (i.e., the need for autonomy, relatedness, and competence) and that strengthen their students’ inner motivational resources. The result is that students’ learning behaviors, beliefs, and values become increasingly self-regulated and are therefore more satisfying.

External and Internal Regulation of Behavior 

External Regulation of Behavior

According to the behaviorist theory of motivation, which ruled American psychology and learning theory for most of the 20^th century, all human and animal behavior is externally regulated. John Watson and Rosalie Rayner (1920) regulated the emotional behavior of Little Albert by manipulating Albert’s environment. B. F. Skinner, using experiments with rats, pigeons, and dogs, argued that all learning is externally regulated (1950), even, for example, something as highly personal and nuanced as superstition (1948).

Figure 1: External Regulation of Student Behavior

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Figure 1 provides a simple model of external regulation in the context of teaching and learning. In each of the examples, student behavior is being elicited by instructor demands. Any resulting behavior is understood to come from outside of the student. Coercion and manipulation of students are its more troubling forms, but external regulation can also occur when goodies and treats are promised (such as extra credit for perfect attendance). When students are completing coursework for a grade, credits, or a diploma, the regulation of their behavior is still external and it therefore still works as external regulation of behavior. It thwarts students’ psychological need for self-direction. Because external regulation of student behavior puts the instructor in control, this style of teaching is called “controlling teaching.”

Controlling teaching seems like an obvious choice for instructors, because controlling teaching reliably gets students to show up and complete their assignments. The problem, however, is that controlling teaching undermines students’ need for autonomy, which then undermines the learning process. Education researcher Johnmarshall Reeve (2009) writes, 

Given that students relatively benefit when teachers support their autonomy but relatively suffer when teachers control their behavior, one might expect that teachers would commonly enact autonomy-supportive instructional behaviors and only rarely enact controlling ones. This, however, does not seem to be the case. (p. 159)

Controlling teaching eventually leads to apathy, disinterest, and absenteeism—problems familiar to most college professors. 

Internal Regulation of Behavior

When students’ learning behaviors are internally regulated, which means that students perceive themselves to be the source of their behaviors, we know that they are identifying as learners, that they understand the significance of what they’re learning, that they find their learning more psychologically satisfying, and that they will continue their learning activities after the course ends. They’re also more creative, more curious, they perform better, they are more likely to attend class and matriculate through their programs, and they report higher well-being and life satisfaction (see Reeve, 2009 for a complete meta-analysis). 

Figure 2. Internal Regulation of Student Behavior

ibid.

 

Figure 2 provides a simple model of internal behavioral regulation. Note how the behavioral outcomes are identical to the outcomes in Figure 1. The difference is that, with internal regulation, the student is the one who is taking the initiative. Students are exercising their autonomy while satisfying course requirements.

How to Be an Autonomy-Supportive Professor

By supporting your students’ autonomy, you will transform students from the person in Figure 1 to the person in Figure 2. In my experience and from the hundreds of examples I’ve read, AST will complement your preferred style of teaching. That is to say, AST can be practiced in a course that is lecture-based, activity-based, discussion-based, lab-based, online or asynchronous, and so on. They all make capable vehicles for supporting student autonomy. None of these formats require controlling teaching.

There are seven strategies that, when practiced, will increase your students’ perception that you are supporting their autonomy. The first three invite students to participate using their intrinsic motivation. This is the motivation that comes from inside, and that was likely there before they had ever heard of you or the subject you teach. The remaining four strategies help students begin to internalize the regulation of behavior that began as externally demands.

Strategy 1: Take Your Students’ Perspective

Taking your students’ perspective begins before your students ever set foot in your classroom (or set cursor on your virtual learning-scape). You might begin by creatively imagining who your students are, what interests them in your subject, what questions they’ll have, what will be easy or difficult for them, and what personal or lifestyle factors might affect them. In other words, from the very beginning of your course design process, you are imagining how it will seem to your students.

Once class meetings begin, you might seek their feedback directly. Ask them what they’re looking forward to, what they’ve enjoyed, and what they hope to see more (or less) of. 

I have found perspective-taking to be one of the most rewarding parts of teaching. (I bring it into my university administrative work, too.) Students are giddy with pride when they see course changes that they were responsible for. They feel heard, and I feel a deeper sense of community and collaboration.

Tip: After getting feedback from your students, don’t be afraid to check in to see if you have understood them. I once prepared a 40-minute lecture on “Personal finance” based on a unanimous classroom decision. It was one of the most stilted class periods in my life. The problem was that I had mistakenly assumed that financial-planning (i.e., retirement accounts, tax-optimization) was what they meant by “personal finance.” Much frustration could have been avoided by asking, “did I understand you correctly?"

Strategy 2: Invite Students to Pursue their Interests

Faculty in the Nursing Program at my school are careful to remind me that students are not free to pick and choose which anatomy they learn. I understand. Perhaps you teach a subject that has little or no room for students to choose topics or explore areas of personal interest.

But maybe there is room for discretion in your courses. Inviting students to pursue their interests means requesting their input on course material decisions, resources, activities, assessment styles, and maybe even learning objectives (if you have lots of autonomy as a professor).

I admit that psychology, which has 50+ subareas to explore, is a diverse enough subject to allow for a wide variety of student interests. I have begun letting my students choose all of the topics we study. In a course on human development, for example, we will begin with the topic of Trauma. This was chosen because my students have had personal experiences with trauma that they would like to understand better. Three students have already elected to prepare something to present in lieu of an instructor lecture.

Tip: If students aren’t eager to pursue their interests, then don’t force them to. Try to remember that they probably have never been given this opportunity in a classroom setting. Indeed, they will probably think you are deceiving them. Just keep an eye out for their interests, and be ready when they share them. It will happen.

Strategy 3: Present Learning Activities in Need-Satisfying Ways

This strategy addresses the other two psychological needs identified in SDT—relatedness and competence. A simple way to support students’ need for relatedness is to invite them to collaborate as partners or in groups. For example, Conrad and Lundberg (2022) provide an excellent description of collaborative learning in this magazine. Students, I’ve found, can also feel related to their professor. Learning student names, interests, and hobbies, visiting their athletic competitions, and getting to know them as people helps enhance their sense of connection to your course.

Supporting student competence means taking care to challenge your students in an optimal way. This means recognizing when they are feeling overwhelmed and making the decision to back up a few steps. Or it means recognizing when something is too easy so as to be boring and then adding another level of complexity. Last week during a lackluster discussion about personal worldviews, I asked if my students knew what a worldview was. They explained that they didn’t. I apologized and gave a description with lots of examples, after which students had an easier and more comfortable time sharing.

Tip: Relatedness can be difficult to support in an asynchronous online course. Try to provide opportunities for students to connect with you (or with each other) personally (e.g., “Send me a personal email”). If they take this opportunity, then be sure to respond to them in a real way (e.g., don’t use the auto-respond feature on Outlook).

Strategy 4: Provide Explanatory Rationale

Look back at the commands in Figure 1, which were given as examples of controlling teaching. You may have been tempted to think, “Well I better not ask students to avoid interrupting me. Not if I want to support their autonomy.” Think again. There is no reason to revise all of your course rules and policies. When you share these, however, give your rationale for choosing them. For example:

1.     No Interruptions: In order to keep a respectful and organized environment, I have found that it is best when participants, which means professors and students alike, don’t talk over one another. Whoever is speaking has the floor. 

It would be easy to end the rule with “No interruptions.” By sharing the rationale behind this policy, however, a professor is letting their students in on the reasoning behind it. If the students value a respectful and organized learning environment, then they will also value the policies that support such an environment. 

Tip: Provide explanatory rationale for everything in your courses, right down to the attendance policy. Students will see that their professors don’t have complete autonomy (I have to report grades and take attendance, for example). But you might also find that there are some policies that you have kept out of habit, and not because you feel as though there is a rational reason for doing so.

Step 5: Acknowledge Negative Feelings

As college faculty, it is sometimes difficult to remember that students don’t enjoy our subjects as much as we do. It helps to remember that they haven’t had a decade-plus of experience internalizing the various practices the way that we have. 

When students groan, sigh, or frown, or when they have an excuse for why they didn’t do the reading, acknowledge their negative feelings. “You’re feeling a bit sluggish today, hm? I get that. I, too, have those days where everything seems harder than it should.”

In my own teaching before learning about AST, I would judge students for any feelings short of chipper enthusiasm about that day’s lesson. “You’ll adjust your attitude if you ever hope to graduate college.” 

By judging them, I now realize, I was ignoring the breadth and diversity of life-experiences they were bringing into the classroom.

By honoring and accepting that some days learning is more difficult than others, you will invite your students to participate more fully and with all of themselves.

Tip: If a student seems particularly sullen or upset, try not to take it personally. They might even criticize you directly, but try not to become defensive. Accept their anger and frustration, and try to listen to what they are saying. Once they realize that you are not attacking, criticizing, or judging them, they will feel free to share their real concern, and then you can work out a solution together.

Step 6: Rely on Invitational Language

Throughout this article I have used versions of the line, “you might invite students to…”. By beginning with “You might…”, I am inviting you to try something out. It would be very different were I to say, “You should…” or "You're better off...".

Invitational language works as a conditional phrase. It communicates to students that, “I have thought about it, and here is the best that I could come up with. So, unless you have a better idea, I think it is the best way to spend class time today.” Students aren’t being directed around, but they aren’t being stuck with the difficult problem of having to choose what to do. 

It is possible, however, to use the word “invite” or the words “you might” without actually supporting your students’ autonomy. A workshop participant once gave the example classroom instruction, “You might choose to answer the 10 questions at the end of the chapter, or you might fail.” This, of course, is hardly a choice.

Tip: First-year undergraduates will be unlikely to jump at the first or second chance to suggest alternative assignments or activities. It can be helpful to give several options, and to communicate a willingness to try a variety of pathways for achieving a learning objective. Advanced undergraduate students, in my experience, have a much easier time knowing what works for them, and they are more willing to make suggestions and take lead.

Step 7: Display Patience

Of all the strategies for supporting student autonomy, patience struck me as somewhat of a no-brainer. But that doesn’t make it easy to practice.

Patience includes how long students are given to complete tasks, answer questions, share, and work together. It also includes the pace of the semester and how much material or how many activities and assessments are completed.

A simple practice of patience is how much silence you can endure after asking a question of your class. What happens next? Do you jump in with the answer after two or three seconds? Do you pick on a student and put them on the spot? Do you reword the question? These are examples of being impatient with students. The alternative is to be in synch with them—to be attuned to their involvement with the course activities.

Maybe you’ve had the experience of listening to a speaker who asked a question of the audience. As an audience member, your identity has suddenly shifted from passive listener to active participant. The spotlight is on you all of the sudden. You wonder if you’ve heard the question correctly. Or maybe the speaker has said something that would make your answer sound foolish. And so on. “Can you repeat the question?

Tip: Video-record one of your class periods. It is helpful if the recording captures you and your students. Note how long you give students to answer questions before butting in with an answer. Note how long students get to work on a group activities. Do they seem finished, or are they just getting started? Your perception of time changes when you’re a participant (this time watching the recording).

Conclusion

The change you will undergo once you begin teaching in an autonomy-supportive way will be substantial. Over the course of a semester, you will notice a significant change in student interest, engagement, and enthusiasm. You’ll notice the same changes in yourself. If you continue for a year or more, then you will notice that every aspect of your teaching from course-design to assessment has changed. You might even find that the autonomy supportive mentality has worked its way into your scholarship and institutional service. 

If you are wondering how to begin implementing AST into your classrooms, then pick any one strategy and start there. You will find that all of the strategies are linked together. In order to practice patience well, it is necessary to take your students’ perspective (which is aided by watching video recordings of class). In order to rely on invitational language, it is necessary to have explanatory rationale. Even by practicing one strategy you will find in time that you have confronted them all.

 

References

Conrad, C., & Lundberg, T. (2022). A call for placing collaborative learning at the core of a college education. CHANGE: The Magazine of Higher Learning. March/April, 23-29.
Deci, E., & Flaste, R. (1995). Why people do what they do. Penguin.
Reeve, J. (2009). Why teachers adopt a controlling motivating style toward students and how they can become more autonomy supportive. Educational Psychologist, 44(3), 159-175.
Ryan, R., & Deci, E. (2017). Self-determination theory: Basic psychological needs in motivation, development, and wellness. The Guilford Press.
Skinner, B. F. (1948). Superstition and the pigeon. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 38, 168-172.
Skinner, B. F. (1950). Are theories of learning necessary? Psychological Review, 57, 193-216.
Watson, J., & Rayner, R. (1920). Conditioned emotional reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 3, 1-14. 
Whitehead, P. (2023). Autonomy-supportive teaching in higher education: A practical guide for college professors. Rowman & Littlefield.