Need-supportive teaching practices and student engagement: It’s not the amount, it’s the balance

Olivier, Elizabeth Galand, Benoît [UCL] Morin, Alexandre

This study contrasts three hypotheses to determine the best configuration of teacher need-supporting practices (autonomy support, structure, and involvement) in terms of classroom-levels of behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement. Multilevel analyses were conducted among a sample of 1,193 8th grade Belgian students nested in 57 math classrooms. Results failed to support the additive hypothesis (H1), which anticipated that all three practices would be associated with classroom-levels of engagement when jointly considered. Results also failed to support the synergistic hypothesis (H2), which predicted that the greatest benefits would emerge in classrooms characterized by a high level of two or three of these practices. Finally, results supported the global hypothesis (H3), which anticipated that the global level taken across the three practices—captured by a global factor—would provide optimal support to classroom-levels of engagement. Specific factors representing the imbalance in autonomy support, structure, and involvement also contributed to some aspects of classroom-levels of engagement.