The Influence Of Perceived Teaching Styles On High School Students’ School Engagement

As one of the most influential contemporary theories,Self-Determination Theory was proposed by Deci and Ryan in the 1980 s.It is a cognitive motivation theory based on people’s self-determined needs,which focuses on how much human behavior is volitional and self-determined.Basic psychological needs are the core of the theory.The basic psychological needs are innate and universal,and have the consistency of cross-culture,cross-gender and cross-group.The satisfaction of basic psychological needs is very important for the growth,integrity and wellbeing of the individual.However,when the basic psychological needs are frustrated,it will increase the risk of harm and unhealthy of the individual,and experiencing the need frustration is more intense and threatening than the need dissatisfaction.As one of the significant others,teachers’ teaching styles perceived by students can affect students’ basic psychological needs,thus affecting students’ academic development.Previous studies on teachers’ teaching styles mainly focused on the positive effects of perceived motivating teaching styles(i.e.autonomy support and structure)on students’ learning,but less on the influence mechanism of demotivating teaching styles(i.e.control and chaos).Also,researchers often ignore the power of students’ positive personality to compete with or develop in coordination with the external environment.There may be interaction between perceived teaching styles and students’ proactive personality characteristic,which jointly affect students’ basic psychological needs and school engagement.In this study,we surveyed 1330 senior high school students to investigate the relationship between perceived teaching styles(autonomy support,structure,control and chaos)and students’ basic psychological needs(need satisfaction and frustration),school engagement,as well as the moderating role of students’ proactive personality in this process.The results showed that:(1)Students’ perceived teaching styles(i.e.autonomy support,structure,control and chaos)influenced their school engagement through the mediating role of basic psychological needs((i.e.need satisfaction and frustration).(2)In the mediating model of which students’ perceived teaching styles(i.e.autonomy support,structure,control and chaos)through basic psychological needs(i.e.need satisfaction and frustration)affected school engagement,students’ proactive personality played a moderating role with enhancement effect and compensation effect.