CRITIQUE PAPER:
Teacher Autonomy Support Intervention As A Classroom Practice In A Thai School A Self-Determination Theory Perspective
Rohaiza Binti Ahmad 819146 SGDY 5033 (Group B)
[email protected]
Professor Dr. Rosna binti Awang Hashim Lecturer of SGDY 5033 16th April 2016
Teacher Autonomy Support Intervention as a Classroom Practice in a Thai School A self-determination theory perspective. Teacher autonomy support intervention as a classroom practice in a Thai school from self-determination theory perspective is a case study about teachers applying the concept of autonomy support in regular classroom. Even though the benefits of teacher autonomy support for optimal school functioning is evident in literature. But this study a meager about teachers applied or not in their classroom. This is a well-written article and significant study worth to an education purpose. In the following paragraphs, I will examine the research methodology and the findings of the study, and finally discuss the implication of TAS intervention from self-determination theory perspective for future research in school reform. I feel that the author has presented a good research to the study. Background of the study was clearly defined by presenting specific theory of human motivation and the definition of the concept of the self-determination itself clearly. The author has successfully oriented readers to problems of the study and the community studied. This background to study is important to sensitize readers to the context of the research. Readers were also well informed of the purpose and methodology of the study. The design, methodology and approach used based on empirical data within self-determination theory. A longitudinal intervention program was designed to facilitate autonomy support instruction in a natural classroom setting and to access its effectiveness on Thai students’ learning motivation. In a quasi-experimental, non-equivalent control group design, with an appended withdrawal design, 103 students from Grade 6 of a Thai public school underwent the intervention for seven weeks in natural classroom setting. The students in both the groups self-reported their class-related experience before intervention (pretest), after intervention (posttest1) and after the withdrawal of intervention (posttest2). The teacher had been
observed and measured using TAS rating scale during regular sessions to ensure whether the teacher using or not TAS. The teacher’s intervention was dully observed by trained raters in experimental group. Experimenter effect is the one of the threats to quasi-experimental design. It is because the teacher of both groups different on demographic data, years of teaching experience, nationality and native language. Limitation of the study were clearly stated such as the research design chosen, combination validated instructions from past studies and participant of the study were sampled from one grade of a Thai School. Thus, I feel in terms of methodology her finding was cleared. The study was enclosed with a positive finding, whereby MANOVA was used to determine if independent variables on their own in combination with one another have an effect on dependent variable. Through this study, I believed that TAS are very important that teacher should use in their teaching to increase a student motivation and effort. From the study, its shows that the teacher become more autonomy supportive after trained. When the programme withdrawal treatment, teacher could not discontinue her newly adopted motivating style instantly. If no continuous effort, possible to them to internalize the autonomy supportive methodology. Student perception is an evident of teachers’ autonomy support in experimental group when it shows significant increase in perceived autonomy support after the intervention. The score decrease significantly with the withdrawal of intervention. This indicates that students were benefitted by autonomy supporting teaching methods because teacher nurtured student’s inner motivational resources (Reeve,2006). Student become higher interest and made harder effort to learn the subject in autonomy supportive conditions and student feel less pressured. The study sends a powerful message. From this study, her univariate results on withdrawal of intervention failed to show significant difference on variable interest, pressure, external regulation and internal regulation. These finding partially contradict their hypothesis
that lower perceived autonomy support in withdrawal condition would result in decrease of means of dependent variables. They could not find substantial published study to compared their finding within the SDT. But they found some explanation in a study, Tsai et al. (2008), investigating the role of situational (classroom context) and individual factors on interest found that interest, developed within a period of time in an activity or subject is likely to continue as a function of the prior experience of the individual’s interest. The prior experience of the learner will affect the interest of the learner. That’s why when student’s perception of TAS was low with withdrawal conditions, the effects were only significant on effort and feeling of relatedness. From the study, the successful to implement these reforms at Thai classrooms because the lack of information of the relevance and the effectiveness of learner-centered pedagogy in Thai classroom. Misconception about the ”student-centered” approach are prevalent among Thai educators (Chongcharen, 2008; Friday, 2002). Considering the background of Thai Education reforms in 1999 that strongly recommend learner- centered pedagogy. Finally, this study provides strong implication for future education by using TAS intervention in Asian classroom. The researcher hope that this study will help in advance their understanding of motivation Thai elementary school level by considering the motivational constructs, and teachers will be able to focus on their education practices in a more meaningful way based on the needs of their student. To implement autonomy support in class not depend on teacher factors but the school policy itself that influence the degree of support a teacher can extend in classroom. The researcher also hope this study will inform Thai school policymakers about the feasibility of implementing TAS in regular classroom setting.
Reference Kaur, A., Awang Hashim, R., & Noman, M. (2015). Teacher autonomy support intervention as a classroom practice in a Thai school: A self-determination theory perspective. Journal for Multicultural Education, Vol. 9 No 1, pp. 1027.
