Here are some of the behaviors that are listed as ways for teachers to encourage student autonomy:

- teachers can listen to students more
- teachers can allocate time for students to do independent work in class
- when teachers give feedback, mentioning quality of students' work can help
- teachers can ask questions of what the student wants
- teachers can respond to questions asked by students
- teachers can provide empathic statements taken from students' perspective
- teachers can try to support intrinsic motivation and internalization

University of California, Berkeley

This is one chapter of a handbook that talks about self-determination research. It focuses on how the concept of autonomy and encouraging other aspects of SDT can have positive effects on students' learning. It goes into detail about what teachers can do to encourage autonomy and discusses the possibility that teachers can change their teaching style to focus on intrinsic motivation and student autonomy. It goes into detail about why teachers can be controlling as well. The chapter also discusses the importance of students' autonomy, namely that it can help students feel more competent when they are given a chance to give answers themselves and do independent work.

Self-Determination Theory Applied to Educational Settings

Reeve, J. (2002). Self-determination theory applied to educational settings. In E. L. Deci & R. M. Ryan (Eds.), Handbook of self-determination research (p. 183–203). University of Rochester Press.

Self-Determination Theory Applied to Educational Settings- Citation Reference

Self-Determination Theory Applied to Educational Settings- Autonomy Behaviors

The chapter regarding SDT in educational settings has a section in which the reasons behind teachers acting controlling toward their students are discussed. To summarize:

- the job itself focuses on behavior modification and has trouble showing teachers how to encourage autonomy in students
- teachers are stuck in inflexible conditions, not being able to exercise independent teaching behavior as well as potentially dealing with disinterested students
- extrinsic motivation is often considered to be greater than intrinsic motivation and it is believed that students rarely possess intrinsic motives (which is untrue)
- teachers are considered to be in charge of students and that this is the best method of teaching, to be authoritative (also untrue)
- teachers disregard findings by researchers about motivation, SDT, etc.

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