Chaotic (laissez-faire) teaching: The most harmful style for students’ psychological needs?

Self-Determination Theory (SDT) has been widely used to understand how different teaching styles impact student outcomes. Previous research has mainly focused on the negative effects of controlling teaching, while the influence of chaotic (laissez-faire) teaching has been less explored. This study examines how students' perceptions of highly chaotic (i.e., abandoning) and highly controlling (i.e., domineering) teaching approaches are related to the satisfaction and frustration of student basic psychological needs in secondary physical education (PE). The study involved 916 students in Belgium (58% girls; 15.37 ± 1.62 years old) and 1124 students in Spain (52% girls; 14.60 ± 1.51 years old).

Using linear mixed-effects models, we found that both abandoning and domineering teaching approaches were adversely associated with students' basic psychological needs. The abandoning approach showed the strongest positive association with overall need frustration in both samples. Moreover, the abandoning approach was most strongly associated with competence and relatedness frustration in both countries, as well as with lower competence satisfaction in Spain. Both approaches showed a similar positive relationship with autonomy frustration.

This study expands our understanding of demotivating teaching by demonstrating the harmful potential of highly chaotic teaching, beyond the well-known harmful effects of controlling teaching. The consistency of the findings across both countries highlights the international relevance of this research. These findings suggests that reducing highly chaotic (i.e., laissez-faire) teaching should be a priority in international educational practices and policies. Future research could investigate the causes, effects, and potential moderators of chaotic teaching to further guide educational policy and practice in different cultural contexts.