Greater autonomy need satisfaction with a little help from my friends: a randomized control trial to increase peer-directed agentic engagement

• Peer-directed agentic engagement is a new educational phenomenon. • We conducted a multilevel randomized control trial with longitudinally assessed dependent measures. • Peer-directed agentic engagement emerges from autonomy-supportive teaching and student autonomy. • Once increased, peer-based agentic engagement yields motivational benefits. This preregistered study introduced the new phenomenon of peer-directed agentic engagement, defined as the student’s constructive input into their peer conversations so that what happens during peer interactions will satisfy their personal motivations. Using a self-determination theory framework, the purpose of the study was to examine whether mid-semester gains in peer-directed agentic engagement would enhance late-semester autonomy need satisfaction. The research design was a multilevel randomized control trial with longitudinally assessed dependent measures. Twenty-one PE teachers (17 males, 4 females) who taught 52 classes were randomly assigned to participate (or not) in an autonomy-supportive teaching intervention, while their 1,569 middle- and high-school students (726 males, 843 females) reported their peer-directed agentic engagement, teacher-directed agentic engagement, and autonomy need satisfaction at the beginning, middle, and end of an 18-week semester. A doubly-latent multilevel structural equation modeling analysis tested the origins and benefits of peer-directed agentic engagement at both the individual student and whole class levels. At the student level, high (compared to low) baseline autonomy satisfaction energized mid-semester peer-directed agentic engagement, which increased late-semester autonomy satisfaction. At the whole class level, teachers who participated in the workshop, compared to teachers in a no-intervention control group, increased class wide mid-semester peer-directed and teacher-directed agentic engagement, which together increased late-semester class wide autonomy satisfaction. These findings reveal the origins and benefits of peer-directed agentic engagement