SELF-DETERMINATION THEORY

SELF-DETERMINATION THEORY

1. Inherent in human nature is the proactive tendency

   • People are innately curious, natural love of learning
   • Macro-theory of human motivation, emotion, and development that takes interest in factors that either facilitate or forestall the assimilative and growth-oriented processes in people.
   • Essentially, such practices reflect both external pressures on teachers (Ryan and Brown, 2005) and/or the beliefs of instructors that motivation is better shaped through external contingencies of reinforcement than by facilitating students’ inherent interests in learning
     • This creates the self-fulfilling prophecy

2. Intrinsic motivation and learning

   • Behaviors done in the absence of external impetus that are inherently interesting and enjoyable
     • internal perceived locus of causality
   • Autonomy and competence are necessary conditions for the maintenance of intrinsic motivation (Deci et al., 1999).
   • Findings
     • Teachers’ orientations and specific aspects of learning tasks that are perceived as autonomy supportive are conducive to students’ intrinsic motivation
     • controlling educational climates undermine intrinsic motivation.
     • To learn better and are more creative

3. Extrinsic motivation, internalization and learning

   • Students will need other incentives or reasons to learn
     • Autonomy-supportive versus controlling instruction
     • Conceptual learning versus rote memorization
   • External regulation
     • To obtain a reward or to avoid a punishment
       • Is experienced as relatively controlling
   • Introjected regulation
     • To satisfy internal contingencies(Ego involment)
       • Is experienced as relatively controlling
         • External perceived locus of causality
   • Identified regulation
     • To be valuable or important
       • Internal perceived locus of causality
   • Integrated regulation
     • Synthesize identifications with other aspects of the self
   • Internalization of extrinsic motivation is essential for students’ self-initiation and maintained volition for educational activities that are not inherently interesting or enjoyable