Education Practical Tip 19

Classroom Environment Can Strengthen or Weaken Student's Inner Motivational Resources

All students possess inherent psychological needs and internalized motivational resources that energize them to engage in classroom
learning activities proactively as an expression of self and to interact effectively in the classroom environment (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 1991; Ryan &
Deci, 2000, 2002). When the classroom environment, including teacher’s motivating style, is autonomy-supportive, it would strengthen the
expression of students’ inner motivation, thereby developing students’ growth fostering behaviors to internalize values, goals, and requirements etc.
of the school. On the other hand, a controlling classroom environment weakens the students’ autonomous motivation, thereby producing in the
student less autonomous forms of extrinsic motivation such as, introjected regulation and external regulation, amotivation and behavioral problems.

Student actively
interacts Classroom environment
Students’
Inner Motivational Resources
School Culture/ Social Demands Affordances
- Priorities - Interesting activities
Inherent (innate) - Ideals - Optimal challenges
Growth fostering
- Values
energizes behaviors
- Autonomy internalizes - Goals
- Seeking out External events
- Competence - Requirements
challenges - Rewards
- Relatedness - Prescriptions (“do this”)
- Exercising skills - Praise
- Proscriptions (“don’t do that”)
- Pursuing interests - Feedback
Internalized
(acquired through learning)
Teacher’s motivating style continuum
(Deci, Schwartz, Sheinman, & Ryan, 1981;
- Interest Reeve, Bolt, & Cai, 1999)
- Values
- Personal strivings
- Preferences Controlling Autonomy supportive
- Goals
- Aspirations Autonomy-
supportive
strengthens

Controlling weakens

Fig. 1 Adapted from the dialectic framework within self-determination theory (Reeve, 2006).

Copyright © 2010 Motivation in Educational Research Laboratory, NIE

Written by Chua, L.L. Page 1
Education Practical Tip 19

Key definitions: Back to top

Amotivation Refers to a perception that no worthwhile reasons for pursuing an activity exist and hence a complete absence of self-determination (Ryan & Deci, 2002).
Autonomy “A sense of being choiceful in one's actions and experiencing oneself as the locus of initiation of those actions" (Connell & Ryan, 1987; deCharms, 1976; Deci & Ryan, 1985; White, 1959).
Autonomy-supportive Environments that minimize the salience of external incentives and threats, avoid controlling language, and acknowledge the learners’ frame of reference (Black & Deci, 2000; Ryan & Connell, 1989).
Autonomy-supportive teaching involves behaviors that seek to promote students’ tendency to engage in learning because they value this activity or find it interesting (Roth, Assor, Kanat-Maymon, & Kaplan,
2007).
Competence Experiencing one-self as capable and competent in controlling the environment of the activity. The need for competence (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Elliot & Thrash, 2002; Koestner & McClelland, 1990) is the need
to experience satisfaction in exercising and extending one’s capabilities. Naturally, people seem to seek out challenges that are optimal for their level of development (Harter, 1978; White, 1959).
Controlling Events that pressure people toward specified outcomes, thereby denying them the experience of choice (Deci & Ryan, 1980). Presence of salient external controls or incentives.
External Regulation Doing an activity because of external pressures or incentives (Ryan & Deci, 2002). E.g. “I study because my parents force me to.”
Extrinsic motivation Behaviors engaged as a means to an end and not for their own sake (Deci, 1975). Four types of extrinsic motivation are ordered along a self-determination continuum (Deci and Ryan, 1985, 1991). From
lower to higher levels of self-determination, they are: external regulation, introjections, identification and integration.
Introjected regulation Involves taking in a contingency or value or regulation but not accepting them as their own (e.g. planning to attend college to avoid feelings of guilt). Controlled motivation accompanied by feelings of inner
compulsion, based on self-esteem being contingent upon approval and worth that had previously been applied by others (Niemiec et al., 2006; Roth, Assor, Niemiec, Ryan, & Deci, 2009).
Psychological needs People’s innate needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. For a high level of intrinsic motivation people must experience satisfaction of these needs(Deci & Ryan, 2000).
Relatedness Feeling connected with significant others; experiencing authentic relatedness from others and to experience satisfaction in participation and involvement with the social world, e.g. with class mates during a
PE lesson.

References:

Black, A. E., & Deci, E. L. (2000). The effects of instructors’ autonomy support and students’ autonomous motivation on learning organic chemistry: A self-determination theory perspective. Science
Education, 84(740-756).
Connell, J. P., & Ryan, R. M. (1987). Self-Regulatory Style Questionnaire: A measure of external introjected, identified, and intrinsic reasons for initiating behaviour. : Manual, University of Rochester.
deCharms, R. (1976). Enhancing motivation: Change in the classroom. . New York: Irvington.
Deci, E. L. (1975). Intrinsic Motivation. New York: Plenum Press.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1980). The empirical exploration of intrinsic motivational processes. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 13). New York: Academic Press.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behaviour: New York: Plenum Press.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1991). A motivational approach to self: Intergration in personality. In R. Dienstbier (Ed.), Nebraska symposium on motivation: Perspectives on motivation. (Vol. 38, pp. 237-288).
Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11, 227-268.
Deci, E. L., Schwartz, A., Sheinman, L., & Ryan, R. M. (1981). An instrument to assess adults' orientations toward control versus autonomy in children: Reflections on intrinsic motivation and perceived
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Elliot, A. J., & Thrash, T. M. (2002). Approach-avoidance motivation in personality: Approach and avoidance temperaments and goals. . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 804-818.
Harter, S. (1978). Effectance motivation reconsidered: Toward a developmental model. Human Development, 1, 661-669.
Koestner, R., & McClelland, D. C. (1990). Perspectives on competence motivation. In L. A. Pervin (Ed.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (pp. 527-548). New York: Guilford Press.
Niemiec, C. P., Lynch, M. F., Vansteenkiste, M., Bernstein, J., Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2006). The antecedents and consequences of autonomous self-regulation for college: A self-determination theory
perspective on socialization. Journal of Adolescence, 29, 761-775.
Reeve, J. (2006). Teachers as facilitators: What autonomy- supportive teachers do and why their students benefit. The Elementary School Journal, 106(3), 225-236.
Reeve, J., Bolt, E., & Cai, Y. (1999). Autonomy-supportive teachers: How they teach and motivate students. . Journal of Educational Psychology, 91, 537–548.
Roth, G., Assor, A., Kanat-Maymon, Y., & Kaplan, H. (2007). Autonomous motivation for teaching: How self-determined teaching may lead to self-determined learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99,
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Roth, G., Assor, A., Niemiec, C. P., Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2009). The emotional and academic consequences of parental conditional regard: Comparing conditional positive regard, conditional negative
regard, and autonomy support as parenting practices. Developmental Psychology, 45, 1119–1142.
Ryan, R. M., & Connell, J. P. (1989). Perceived locus of causality and internalization: Examining reasons for acting in two domains. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 749-761.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55, 68-78.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2002). An overview of self-determination theory: An organismic dialectical perspective. In E. L. Deci & R. M. Ryan (Eds.), Handbook of self-determination research (pp. 3-33).
Rochester, NY: University of Rochester.
White, R. W. (1959). Motivation reconsidered: The concept of competence. Psychological Review, 66, 297-333.

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