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)
learohaiza@gmail.com

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 teachers 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 students 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 individuals interest. The prior
experience of the learner will affect the interest of the learner. Thats why when students
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.