Humanistic Approach – Self-Determination Theory:
Self-Determination Theory Deci and Ryan’s (1985) self-determination theory emphasizes the human needs to exert control and have autonomy over our lives, to have choices, to connect and feel a part of a social unit, and to feel a sense of competence when associating with others.
Specifically, self-determination theory centers around three innate needs: competence, relatedness, and autonomy or self-determination (Deci, Vallerand, Pelletier, & Ryan, 1991; Ryan & Deci, 2000). Meeting these needs is an inherent part of human life and important for psychological well-being.
Self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985; 1991), when applied to the realm of education, is concerned primarily with promoting in students an interest in learning, a valuing of education, and a confidence in their own capacities and attributes. These outcomes are manifestations of being intrinsically motivated. (Deci et al., 1991, 326)
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(SDT) is a theory of motivation that uses traditional empirical methods to build its theory and to inform its classroom applications. The theory, which has been 40 years in the making, assumes that all students, no matter their age, gender, socioeconomic status, nationality, or cultural background, possess inherent growth tendencies (e.g., intrinsic motivation, curiosity, psychological needs) that provide a motivational foundation for their high-quality classroom engagement and positive school functioning (Deci & Ryan, 1985a, 2000 ; Reeve, Deci, & Ryan, 2004 ; Ryan & Deci, 2000, 2002 ; Vansteenkiste et al., 2010 ).
Strategies
The degree to which teachers support students’ autonomy has an instrumental effect on students’ self-determination and academic motivation (Deci et al., 1991).
Teachers can engage in teaching strategies that offer students choices in their learning and foster students’ natural curiosity and intrinsic interest in learning, while providing the necessary instructional assistance for students to complete the academic tasks ahead of them. Ideally, teachers will want to support students’ autonomy while also affording a structured learning environment, as both promote students’ classroom engagement (Jang, Reeve, & Deci, 2010; Reeve, 2009):
* Support students’ self-regulated learning.
* Build lessons around students’ interests.
* Encourage students to set meaningful goals for themselves.
* Initiate academic activities by providing clear expectations and instructions.
* Display patience for students’ self-paced learning and offer helpful encouragement and scaffolding when students invite help or require assistance in order to proceed.
* Offer instructional feedback that enhances students’ perceived competence and control.
* Provide rationales for why academic subject matter is worth the students’ effort and help students come to see possibly uninteresting activities as having personal value and connecting to students’ academic goals and values.
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Encouraging Students sense of belonging and Relatedness
* Conveying to students they are liked, respected, and valued
* Employing cooperative learning activities in the classroom
* Encouraging parental involvement in their child’s education
* Generating a feeling of classroom community
*Cultivating meaningful relationships among students and teachers
Evidence
* Correlational analyses confirmed that students perceived the functional significance of 8 instructional behaviours as autonomy supports. These correlations confirm that students, on average, perceived the functional significance of these instructional behaviours as autonomy supports. ———————————————————————-
* Showed that students who perceived an autonomy supportive environment experienced greater levels of autonomy, competence, and relatedness and have higher intrinsic motivation. ——————————————————————————
* Perceived autonomy predicts intrinsic motivation in the classroom
Goal Orientations – Achievement Goal Theory
Goal orientation theory examines how the types of achievement goals students adopt are linked with important academic outcomes for students (Ames & Archer, 1988; Conroy & Elliot, 2004; Dweck & Leggett, 1988; Elliot, 2005; Elliot & McGregor, 2001; Ryan, Ryan, Arbuthnot, & Samuels, 2007; Sideridis, 2008).
Individuals with mastery goals are interested in learning new skills and improving their understanding and competence, whereas individuals with performance goals are more concerned with proving their ability or avoiding negative judgments of their competence (Ames & Archer, 1988; Dweck &Leggett, 1988). When individuals adopt mastery goals they seek out challenge, persist in the face of difficulty, view errors as opportunities to learn, and are more likely to be intrinsically motivated (Dweck, 1986; Dweck & Leggett,1988).
Research indicates that students show the most beneficial achievement patterns and motivational patterns when they focus on a mastery goal orientation (see Meece, Anderman, & Anderman, 2006).
Strategies
Educators can create mastery-oriented classrooms by examining the nature of the tasks they assign students, the degree they involve students in academic decision-making, the types of evaluation and recognition they utilize, and the classroom climate they create (Ames, 1992; Furner & Gonzalez-DeHass, 2011; Stipek, 1998).
Tasks A basic element to teaching is lesson planning and designing engaging learning activities for students. Teachers should choose tasks that:
Tasks
* highlight the real-world significance of learning activities and how such skills are important outside the classroom
* are personally relevant and take into account student interests
* are meaningful and help students connect new concepts to prior knowledge
* encourage peer collaboration or active participation where students can make meaning out of the experience
* utilize suspense, discovery, variety, and novelty
* are moderately challenging enough to pique students’ interest while still being seen as realistic and attainable
Evaluations
Assessment is a natural part of education. However, it is how grades are used and the nature of grading that is emphasized that plays a key role in influencing students’ motivational outlooks.
During evaluation, teachers should:
* avoid social comparisons and normative evaluation
* focus on predetermined standards or criteria
* highlight students’ individual improvement
*consider supplementing traditional assessment with alternative assessment so students can experience a range of ways to demonstrate mastery
* treat errors as a natural part of the learning process, not as a sign of failure or incompetence * convey that failing grades are not meant as punishment but are an indicator that additional effort or assistance is necessary
Evidence
Considerable evidence suggests that elementary and secondary students show the most positive motivation and learning patterns when their school settings emphasize mastery, understanding, and improving skills and knowledge.