The defining features of teacher talk within autonomy-supportive classroom management

•Autonomy-supportive classroom management removes barriers to learning.•Enactment of autonomy-supportive classroom management differs along informational and socioemotional continuums.•Students endorse positive affective responses to teaching with transparency and providing choice.

Classroom management practices were studied in middle school classrooms with positive interpersonal classroom climates, high levels of student engagement, and high levels of autonomy support. Students' motivational responses to autonomy-supportive instructional interactions were explored to understand variability within classroom management practices identified and described in this study as providing autonomy support. Our findings suggest proactive classroom management is enacted through instructional interactions wherein teachers scaffold students' autonomous self-regulatory capacities that sustain student engagement in classroom activities by supporting students' strategy use, transferring responsibility to students, encouraging students' to structure physical and social contexts to support learning, and promoting prosocial behavior.