BECE. Newsletter 

Vol.16, No.2, 2024, BECE 1841 

 

 

 

 

Teacher Autonomy Support and Intellectual Risk 

Taking in Science Learning among Pupils: The  

Mediating Effects of Science Learning Interest and 

Creative Self-Efficacy 

By Tan, L. & Feng, S. 
Correspondence to: Shiji Feng, Guangxi Normal University, China. E-mail: 

fengshiji999@163.com  

EACHER autonomy support is about teachers’ instructional behavior 

that respects, support, and encourage students’ autonomy in learning, 

including providing them with behavioral and emotional support, appreciat-

ing their ideas, allowing them adequate free space in learning, inquiry, and 

choice-making, and more. Intellectual risk taking refers to the quality of be-

ing academically active in experimenting without concern about failure, a 

quality crucial to students’ science learning and creativity ability develop-

ment. Creative self-efficacy is about the individual’s judgment on their ca-

pacities to generate creative ideas and solutions to problems. This article in-

vestigates the linkage between teacher autonomy support and student intel-

lectual risk taking in science learning and examines the mediating effects of 

interest in science learning and creative self-efficacy.  

Research findings indicate that the more teacher autonomy support 

students perceives, the more daring they are in scientific inquiry; and that 

teacher autonomy support can enhance students’ level of intellectual risk tak-

ing by piquing their interest in science learning and boosting their creative 

self-efficacy. This also means that students’ interest in science learning and 

creative self-efficacy will increase when the teacher shows respect to their 

opinions and allows them the freedom of autonomous inquiry, and that, as a 

result, they will become bolder in trying new things and experimenting new 

solutions to problems, less likely to be overwhelmed by setbacks and failures.  

The study provides several important implications: (i) Rigid teaching 

procedures are not beneficial for motivating students’ active engagement in 

science learning or enhancing their interest in learning and creative self-

efficacy. Hence, the teacher should give students more space for autonomous 

exploration. (ii) Learning interest, creative self-efficacy, and intellectual risk 

taking are positive predictors of student engagement in learning, science 

achievements, and creative and innovative behaviors. (iii) More autonomy-

supportive teaching strategies should be adopted to boost student learning in-

T 

mailto:fengshiji999@163.com


 

Vol.16, No.2, 2024, BECE 1842 

terest and creative self-efficacy such that students will become more ready to 

make bold, creative attempts. 

 

 
Source: Psychological Development and Education, 2024; 40(3):375-383.