Professor Johnmarshall Reeve: The Benefits of Autonomy Supportive Teaching
Autonomy-supportive teaching is the instructional effort to nurture students’ autonomy and agency so that students become increasingly able and willing to volitionally self-engage themselves in learning activities. This talk will explain what autonomy-supportive teaching is, its essential teaching practices, the professional development journey needed to become more autonomy supportive, and how and why autonomy-supportive teaching produces its multiple benefits—for students, for teachers, and for the learning climate. The talk will also identify the tell-tale signs of students’ agentic motivation and engagement, and it will review longitudinal research confirming the very constructive reciprocal relation between autonomy-supportive teaching and students’ agentic engagement.
Sunday May 18th 12:30 - 13:30 Professor Reeve will also be joining the Mind, Brain and Education Forum Brain SIG Forum: Practical Issues of Autonomy and Agency in Our Classrooms: Let Us Share! Room B3-302
Bio: Professor, Institute for Positive Psychology and Education at the Australian Catholic University
Dr. Johnmarshall Reeve is an educational psychologist. His areas of expertise are autonomy-supportive teaching, teachers’ motivating styles, students’ agentic engagement, and the neuroscience of intrinsic motivation. Reeve was a professor in both South Korea (Korea University) and the United States (University of Iowa, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee). He received his PhD from Texas Christian University (1986) and completed postdoctoral work at the University of Rochester (1990-1992). He has published 81 articles in peer-reviewed journals, such as the Journal of Educational Psychology, authored 29 book chapters and 4 books, including Supporting students’ motivation and Understanding Motivation and Emotion, 7th ed., and edited 3 books. Prof. Reeve served as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Motivation and Emotion (2011-2017).
Links: ACU Google Scholar Webpage
Learner autonomy, a critical concept in second and foreign language education, has been widely discussed across various contexts worldwide. In this talk, I will focus on learner autonomy in the Asian context, particularly in Japan. The talk consists of two main sections. In the first section, I will examine the different types and stages of learner autonomy and discuss where Asian students’ autonomy falls within this continuum. I will also introduce empirical studies to support my argument. Furthermore, I will address autonomy needs within the framework of Deci and Ryan’s self-determination theory, highlighting the challenges in establishing a causal relationship between the fulfillment of autonomy needs and Japanese EFL learners’ motivation.In the second section, I will explore pedagogical approaches to fostering learner autonomy both inside and outside the classroom. I will argue that educators should provide scaffolding in the early stages, gradually granting students greater freedom of choice and responsibility. In terms of classroom instruction, I will discuss the use of cooperative and collaborative learning and explain how these methods can help students develop autonomy. Regarding out-of-class online speaking lessons, I will present a study that examined how students, with support from teachers and staff, gradually gained confidence in speaking English, developed a sense of connection with other countries, and ultimately continued taking lessons voluntarily. 