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Teacher education at universities often lacks practice although preservice teachers should be equipped with effective teaching methods. We conducted an intervention to convey and practice autonomy-supportive teaching behavior (ASTB) with 63 preservice teachers. The first control group (n = 76) did not receive any information on ASTB. A second control group (n = 54) had their regular seminar on ASTB without practicing what they had learned. Significant differences in the participants’ (Mage = 24.18 ± 3.26 years; Msemester = 7.61 ± 1.84; 63% female) knowledge, beliefs, and intentions were found. Participants of the intervention had higher theoretical and practical knowledge regarding ASTB and a higher level of perception that ASTB is easy to implement than a seminar without information on ASTB (first control group) and the regular seminar (second control group). That is, their knowledge acquisition and their belief about the ease of implementation were positively affected by the intervention in comparison to both control groups. Although no significant differences were found, preservice teachers in the intervention group also showed the highest level of agreement with the belief about the effectiveness of ASTB and the most pronounced intention to implement ASTB. The results of our study show that the developed intervention based on self-determination theory had a positive impact on preservice teachers’ knowledge and beliefs about ASTB as well as their intention to apply it in the future. Since teacher education at university often lacks practice, the development of such effective theory- and practice-based interventions for preservice teachers is especially important. The practical skills acquired in our study are of particular importance for one central challenge teachers face in their profession: the need to counteract the decreasing trend of student motivation during secondary schooling.

IntroductionDigitalization and gamification offer numerous motivation-enhancing opportunities to design biology lessons. For example, digital, gamified learning settings can enhance lessons by offering intense experiences. Such lessons might offer the opportunity to witness flow during the learning activity. For learners, flow can be positively influenced by perceived autonomy, competence, and relatedness. However, previous research on biology lessons has not focused on the impacts of the basic need satisfaction on the flow experience in digital learning settings.MethodsTo address this research gap, using the topic of the locomotion systems of animals, we investigated students’ perceived autonomy, competence, and relatedness as possible predictors of their flow experience while processing a digital, gamified learning environment. The teaching unit was thematically focused on the locomotion system of animals. Our sample consisted of 161 students (46.6% female) from sixth to eighth grade. Students’ perceived satisfaction of their basic needs and their flow experience were evaluated.Results and DiscussionResults confirmed perceived autonomy and perceived competence as predictors of students’ flow experience. However, perceived relatedness had no impact on the flow experience. Our findings are in line with the current state of research and prove to be mostly consistent with previous results.

IntroductionDissecting animal organs is a method of biology teaching that offers a direct and authentic view into morphological structures and enables hands-on activity and multisensory experiences. However, the dissection process is often associated with certain (negative) emotions that might hinder successful learning. One such emotion that is particularly common during dissection is disgust. Experiencing disgust can negatively affect emotional experiences. Consequently, alternatives for dissection in biology lessons are being sought.MethodsIn this study, the method of dissection is compared with two common methods of teaching the anatomy of the mammalian eye: watching a video and working with an anatomical model. The focus of the comparison is on the influence on the following emotional qualities of experience: perceived disgust, perceived interest, well-being and boredom. Two hundred and eighteen students (Mage = 14.19, SDage = 1.02 years, 52% female) from secondary schools in Germany participated in a two-hour lesson on the anatomy of the mammalian eye using one of the three aforementioned teaching methods.FindingsOur results show that perceived disgust was higher for the dissection group than in the ones that worked with a video or a model. We found that dissecting and watching a video led to a similar level of interest, well-being, and boredom. The anatomical model was perceived as less disgusting but more boring than the dissection. The detailed videos of a dissection seem to offer similar positive emotional experiences when compared to dissecting in class and may be an alternative approach when teachers have concerns about performing a real dissection.

This qualitative study aimed to identify and to systematize factors that contribute to students’ competence satisfaction in class from students’ perspectives. Based on self-determination theory as our primary theoretical background, we conducted episodic interviews with 25 high school students. A combined deductive-inductive qualitative content analysis approach was applied. As our key finding, we revealed different teaching factors within and beyond self-determination theory (i.e., structure, autonomy support, relatedness support, mastery goal structure, perceived error climate, teaching quality, teachers’ reference norm orientations) as well as additional factors (e.g., students’ motivation and engagement, peer climate and reciprocal peer support) that contributed to students’ competence satisfaction in class from the students’ points of view. This study contributes to existing research on why students’ competence satisfaction arises in class by complementing it with an integrative, explorative, and student-oriented perspective.

Outreach science labs have been established as non-formal out-of-school learning environments in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Previous research has suggested that visiting an outreach science lab can be beneficial in terms of student motivation. Nevertheless, the current research on these out-of-school learning environments lacks studies that investigate important variables for the development of self-determined student motivation, such as perceived competence. In our study, we investigated the moderating effect of the learning environment on the relationship between students' contextual competence perceptions and their situational competence experiences regarding experimentation. For this purpose, 119 students in the first year of the upper secondary school participated in an experimental course on enzymology at an outreach science lab (n = 60) and in their biology classroom at school (n = 59). Our results showed that the relationship between students' contextual competence perceptions and their situational competence experiences during experimentation is moderated by the learning environment. The analyses revealed that students with a higher contextual competence perception showed comparable situational experiences of competence in both learning environments. In contrast, the students who perceived themselves as less competent at a contextual level benefited from experimenting at the outreach science lab in terms of their situational competence experiences.

Self-determination theory assumes that the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness are associated with motivational regulation. As these basic psychological needs may have been affected by the shift to distance learning, students’ motivational regulation and vitality may have suffered as well. The purpose of this study was to examine the motivational regulation, satisfaction, or frustration of the basic psychological needs and vitality of university students before and after the transition to forced distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic: Two student samples from Austria and Germany were studied: One was surveyed before the conversion to distance learning (N=1,139) and the other at the beginning of forced distance learning (N=1,835). The instruments used were the Scales for the Measurement of Motivational Regulation for Learning in University Students (SMR-L), the German version of the Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction and Frustration Scale, a scale developed by the authors to differentiate the assessment of social relatedness, and the German version of the Subjective Vitality Scale. The results show that the satisfaction of basic psychological needs was significantly lower and the frustration thereof substantially higher during the distance learning period than before the pandemic. Intrinsic motivation and identified regulation were significantly lower during the forced distance learning period, and more controlled forms of motivation were higher than before the pandemic. Structural equation models showed that 42% of the students’ vitality can be explained by motivational regulation and the satisfaction and frustration of their basic needs. Motivational regulation styles functioned (differentiated according to the degree of autonomy) as mediating variables between basic needs and vitality. In terms of theoretical implications, the distinction between approach and avoidance components of introjected regulation was shown to be adequate and necessary, as they explain the outcome vitality differently. The support and avoidance of frustration of basic psychological needs should be considered in distance learning to promote the quality of motivation and students’ vitality.

Professional teaching competence is significantly influenced by beliefs about learning. Prospective teachers start their teacher training at university with quite persistent beliefs about learning processes. Beliefs about learning can be differentiated into two perspectives: beliefs about student learning and beliefs about one’s own learning. Theoretical considerations suggest that the latter influence beliefs about student learning and both perspectives are influenced by the way in which prospective teachers experienced their own lessons as pupils at school. We investigated how prospective biology teachers remembered their own biology lessons and how these experiences influenced their beliefs about learning regarding both perspectives. The sample consisted of 164 prospective biology teachers (Mage = 21.58 years, SDage = 2.5, 66.02% female) in Germany. Results of a simple mediation model indicate that previous experiences in biology lessons had an impact on both perspectives. Moreover, we found that the influence that previous lessons had on the beliefs about student learning was fully mediated by one’s beliefs about own learning processes. This suggests that experiences from one’s own schooling have an impact on how teachers view learning of their students. As implications for teacher training and future research, our findings suggest that both perspectives of beliefs need to be further taken into account and that an explicit focus on beliefs about teachers’ own learning is needed.

During the COVID-19 shutdown phase in Germany, universities stopped presence teaching and students had to turn to digital instruction. To examine their capability to cope with the changed learning situation, we assessed how basic psychological need satisfaction and frustration, motivational regulation, vitality, and self-efficacy of 228 German biology-teaching students (75% female) relate to their chronotype and personality (Big Five). Specifically, we were interested in possible effects of chronotype and personality dimensions on variables related to successful remote learning. Since the pandemic and remote learning will accompany teaching and learning at university in 2021, predictors of successful remote learning need to be identified to support student learning optimally in digital learning environments. In our study, morning-oriented, conscientious, and open students with low neuroticism seem to better cope with the shutdown environment due to vitality, self-efficacy, and partly their self-determined motivation. Moreover, our findings implicate students might need different support depending on their chronotype and personality during the digital learning phase.