It takes two to tango: a dyadic self-determination perspective on need-supportive coaching
Rooted in Self-Determination Theory, this thesis explores how need-supportive coaching addresses beginning teachers’ basic psychological needs (BPNs, including autonomy, competence, and relatedness) and autonomous motivation within coach-coachee dyads. Chapter 1 outlined a four-step empirical approach across Chapters 2 to 5 to understand BPN-supportive coaching. Chapter 2 meta-analysed the extant literature guided by a circular framework connecting BPN support, BPN satisfaction, and autonomous motivation for both parties. The results revealed that previous studies predominantly used individual-level data, neglecting the dynamic, reciprocal interactions in coaching. Chapter 3 investigated perceptual distance between coaches and coachees regarding BPN support using polynomial regression and response surface analysis. Results indicated that coachees reported greater BPN satisfaction when perceptions were closely aligned. Chapter 4 adopted the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model to examine how both parties’ BPN satisfaction is associated with their own and each other’s autonomous motivation. We found a positive unidirectional association between coachees’ relatedness satisfaction and coaches’ autonomous motivation and bidirectional associations for autonomy satisfaction. Chapter 5 employed State Space Grid analyses to capture the moment-to-moment co-regulation of autonomy in coach-coachee dyads. Results revealed recurrent patterns of predominant functional co-regulation (e.g., autonomy support met with proactive autonomy expression), and occasional dysfunctional co-regulation (e.g., evaluative feedback met with disengagement). Temporal evolvement in autonomy co-regulation was identified across coaching sessions in response to changing goals. Chapter 6 synthesised the contributions of the thesis. Collectively, BPN-supportive coaching can be viewed as a context-sensitive, interdependent, co-regulatory, and dynamic process, and we provided guidance for adaptive and relationally grounded coaching practices.