How Can We Create Better Learning Contexts for Children? Promoting Students’ Autonomous Motivation as a Way to Foster Enhanced Educational Outcomes

In many societies, teachers must cope with students who are not motivated to learn. Self-determination theory (SDT; Ryan & Deci (2009) Promoting self-determined school engagement: Motivation, learning, and well-being. In K. R. Wentzel & A. Wigfield (Eds.), Handbook on motivation at school (pp. 171–196). New York: Routledge) proposes that demotivation or amotivation can be attributed to learning environments that do not promote students’ autonomous engagement. In recent decades, SDT has provided a conceptual framework for many empirical education studies. In this chapter, we first describe the main instruments for measuring students’ motivation according to the different motivation types proposed by SDT. We then discuss the potential effects of these motivation types on students’ emotions, learning strategies, academic achievement, and school perseverance. In addition, the roles of parents, peers, and teachers in promoting certain motivation types are discussed. More specifically, we describe some of the practices of these social agents that are beneficial or harmful for students’ autonomous motivation and academic achievement. Some SDT-based school intervention programs are also presented. Finally, we derive certain practical implications from the reviewed studies and propose some avenues for future research.