Configurations of Teaching Styles among Secondary School Teachers: The Role of Teachers' Personal and Sociodemographic Factors

Teaching styles that support students' basic psychological needs are beneficial, yet, teachers often display a mix of both need-supportive and need-thwarting behaviors. This study applied a person-centered approach to identify naturally occurring teaching style configurations among secondary school teachers (N = 448). Cluster analysis revealed four distinct profiles: a need-supportive, need-thwarting, directive, and low-involvement profile. We then examined the extent to which personal (right-wing authoritarianism, self-critical perfectionism) and sociodemographic (gender, teaching experience) factors predicted membership in these profiles. Teachers with higher levels of authoritarianism were more likely to belong to the need-thwarting and directive profiles. In contrast, self-critical perfectionism was not significantly associated with profile membership. More experienced teachers were less likely to belong to the low-involvement profile, while male teachers were overrepresented in the need-thwarting profile and underrepresented in the need-supportive and directive profiles. These findings highlight the complexity of teaching styles in real-world classrooms and the importance of considering individual characteristics when designing professional development initiatives.