Enhancing primary students' autonomous reading motivation: impact of an SDT-based teacher training

Responding to the declining trend in reading motivation in and beyond the primary school years, the present study aimed to enhance late primary studentsU+2019 autonomous reading motivation. Towards this end, this study evaluated the impact of a need-supportive teacher training grounded in self-determination theory (SDT) on fifth-grade studentsU+2019 (n = 664) autonomous motivation for school and leisure-time reading. A quasi-experimental repeated measures design was set up. The experimental condition consisted of teachers (n = 12) participating in a training aimed at providing the knowledge and skills necessary to implement an autonomy-supportive and structuring teaching style, whereas the control condition included teachers (n = 26) who continued their current teaching repertoire. Multilevel piece-wise growth analyses corroborated that students of trained teachers reported increased autonomous reading motivation relative to those in the control group, with the effects being more prominent for leisure-time reading compared to school-related reading. Students in the experimental group reported an increase in autonomous reading motivation from pretest to posttest in particular, whereas the control group experienced a decline. Additional analyses made clear that boys in particular benefitted from their teachersU+2019 need-supportive training. The findings of the present study complement the SDT literature by corroborating the positive effect of a need-supportive teacher training on late primary studentsU+2019 autonomous reading motivation.

Jaar van publicatie:2013