The influence of teachers' autonomy support on students' entrepreneurial enthusiasm: A mediation model with student gender as a moderator

Based on the drive theory of student learning, this study explores the relationship between teachers' autonomy support and the development of and change in students' entrepreneurial enthusiasm in innovation and entrepreneurship classes with consideration of the regulatory effect of student gender. We used a simple sampling method to recruit 2456 college students (46.9% female), who completed a questionnaire on the quality monitoring and evaluation systems of innovation and entrepreneurship education in their schools. The results showed that higher autonomy support from teachers significantly improved students' entrepreneurial enthusiasm. Conversely, their level of class-related boredom had a negative buffering effect on changes, and their evaluation of the innovation and entrepreneurship curriculum played a positive role in the relationship between teachers' autonomy support and students' entrepreneurial enthusiasm, as did sex. We found that the influence of teachers' autonomy support on students' entrepreneurial enthusiasm was more significant when students were male than female. This study is expected to serve as a useful reference for innovation and entrepreneurship in higher education.