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Students' adaptive motivation to study tends to decrease over time. However, the reasons for this decline are not fully understood. Drawing on self-determination theory (SDT), we investigated whether changes in teachers' motivating style and students' associated need-based experiences could explain the motivational decline documented in the literature. A total of 472 Israeli seventh and eighth graders (in their first and second years of middle school) completed questionnaires at the beginning and end of the school year. Students reported their perceptions of their teachers' (de)motivating styles (i.e., autonomy support, structure, control, and chaos), the extent to which their psychological needs were satisfied or frustrated, and their motivation to study. There was a significant decrease from the beginning to the end of the school year in 7th- and 8th-grade students' perceptions of autonomy support and structure provided by their teachers, students' autonomous motivation, and their experienced need satisfaction. There was a significant increase from the beginning to the end of the school year in 7th and 8th graders' perception of their teacher as chaotic and the students' experience of need frustration, controlled motivation, and amotivation. A growth curve multilevel model (GCMLM) indicated that the perceived changes in teachers' motivating and demotivating styles, together with the changes in the students' reported need-based experiences from the beginning to the end of the year, could account for these changes in students' motivation. Teachers should develop and maintain a need-nurturing environment to prevent a drop in student motivation.

Grounded in self-determination theory, this study examined the explanatory role of teachers' need-based experiences in the association between teachers' perceived social pressure (i.e., from the principal, colleagues, and students) and their personal adjustment and motivating teaching style. In total, 482 secondary school teachers (M age = 39.9 years) participated in this questionnaire-based study. Teacher need satisfaction was primarily related to adaptive work adjustment (i.e., job satisfaction) and a motivating teaching style (i.e., provided autonomy support and structure), while need frustration was primarily related to maladjustment (i.e., emotional exhaustion) and a demotivating teaching style (i.e., provided control and chaos). Need-based experiences played either a partial or fully mediating role in the relation between different sources of social pressure and all but one outcome (i.e., chaos). Pressure from students yielded the strongest relation to teacher outcomes, suggesting that the need for targeting this source in intervention research and daily school life. Overall, the present findings highlight the unifying role of need-based experiences as a critical mechanism underlying the relation between different sources of pressure and both teachers' personal adjustment and their motivating teaching style.

Given the importance of student engagement for students' current and future success, it is essential to explore how teachers can foster student engagement within lessons. This study relied on classroom observations to describe how teachers applied Self-Determination Theory (SDT) related (de)motivating teaching behaviours to foster students' engagement. Results from 120 observed lessons of 43 teachers indicated there were distinct relations between motivating teaching behaviours and student engagement. Most striking regarding the use of motivating teaching behaviours were the higher levels of relatedness support and guidance during activities in lessons in which students showed the highest levels of engagement. Conversely, in lessons where students were least engaged, teachers showed higher levels of chaotic teaching behaviours. Analyses of behaviours within lowly and highly engaging lessons showed that teachers in highly engaging lessons were observed to start with high levels of enthusiasm and after about ten to fifteen minutes focused on activating their students by offering room for experimenting and support while students worked on assignments. In contrast, teachers in lowly engaging lessons seemed to have a tendency to employ demotivating teaching behaviour at the start of the lesson. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

A major area of interest within the field of professional development is the concept of motivation. However, research explaining how to enhance motivation in participants during training is scarce. Grounded in Self-Determination Theory, this study aimed to gain insight into the design approaches of professional development initiatives in higher education. Based on semi-structured interviews with 16 Ecuadorian university authorities in charge of professional development, design features that likely satisfy or frustrate university teachers' basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness were identified. Results pointed to a stronger, yet limited focus on the needs for autonomy and competence, when compared to the need of relatedness. These findings are expected to initiate a discussion on guidelines aimed at enhancing the motivation of professional development participants and to respond to calls for design approaches centred on the learner.

Background: Research stemming from Self-Determination Theory (SDT) shows that physical education (PE) teachers who endorse an autonomy-supportive and structuring motivating style positively affect students' motivation, engagement and learning. Choice provision and positive feedback are two concrete strategies that are part of an autonomy-supportive and structuring style, respectively. While the benefits of choice provision and positive feedback have been shown in contexts other than PE, evidence in the specific context of PE is much scarcer. Grounded in SDT and relying on experimental design, the present study sought to examine the effects of choice provision and positive feedback on students' motivational experiences in PE, and whether these effects were moderated by students' actual motor competence (AMC). Method: A sample of 277 students (41% boys, Mage = 12.78 years) was randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions (2 × 2 design). Prior to the experimental manipulation, participants' AMC was measured with the Test of Gross Motor Development second edition. Participants then watched a videotaped PE lesson, in which the provision of choice (choice -- no choice) and type of feedback (corrective feedback -- positive and corrective feedback) were manipulated. Participants were asked to imagine how they would feel being a student in the displayed lessons. After watching the video, they completed validated questionnaires on their (1) anticipated need satisfaction and frustration and (2) autonomous and controlled motivation. MANOVAs were conducted to investigate the differences between the experimental groups in terms of anticipated need satisfaction, need frustration and motivation. Multiple linear regression analyses were used to examine the potential moderating role of AMC. Findings and conclusions: The benefits of choice provision were clearly shown with students in the choice condition anticipating significantly more autonomy, competence and relatedness satisfaction and autonomous motivation, while they anticipated significantly less autonomy and relatedness frustration when compared to students in the no choice condition. Similarly, the addition of positive feedback to corrective feedback yielded clear benefits, with lower averages in anticipated need frustration found among students who watched the videos in which positive feedback was added to corrective feedback. No support was provided for a synergetic motivational effect between choice and positive feedback. Overall, the present findings show the importance of offering choice and providing positive feedback to motivate students in PE, with positive effects being present for all students independent of their initial AMC levels. Although few interaction effects were found, lowly motor competent students benefited even more from receiving positive feedback than highly motor competent students. The findings of this study are important to take into account in PE teacher education programs and professional training programs for PE teachers about how to teach in a (more) motivating way.

Students' knowledge about the criteria for an upcoming test is a crucial component of assessment quality. Grounded in self-determination theory, we investigated whether knowledge about the criteria for an upcoming test related to students' situational motivation and experienced anxiety during physical education (PE). We also examined whether these relations were: (a) mediated by need-based experiences; and (b) moderated by teachers' motivating style. Participants were 659 students (55.54% boys, 44.46% girls, mean age 14.72 years, standard deviation = 0.94) out of 40 classes from 32 schools taught by 39 different PE teachers. Analyses through multilevel structural equation modeling showed that students with more knowledge about the criteria for an upcoming test valued and enjoyed the lesson more (i.e. autonomous motivation), and felt less aloof (i.e. amotivation). Relations between knowledge about the criteria and students' situational motivation were mediated by experienced need satisfaction. Specifically, students who had more knowledge about the criteria for an upcoming test felt more in charge of their learning process (i.e. autonomy satisfaction), felt more effective in reaching their goals (i.e. competence satisfaction) and felt more connected to the teacher (i.e. relatedness satisfaction). Although relations between knowledge about the criteria and students' motivation were not moderated by teachers' motivating style, teachers' motivating style displayed independent relations with students' motivation. Implications for assessment quality and students' motivation in PE are discussed.

Guided by Self-Determination Theory, we offer an integrative and fine-grained analysis of teachers' classroom motivating style (i.e., autonomy support, structure, control, and chaos) to resolve existing controversies in the literature, such as how these dimensions relate to each other and to educationally important student and teacher outcomes. Six independent samples of secondary school teachers (N = 1332; M[subscript age] = 40.9 years) and their students (N = 1735, M[subscript age] = 14.6 years) read 12 ecologically valid vignettes to rate four dimensions of teachers' motivating styles, using the Situations-in-School (SIS) questionnaire. Multidimensional scaling analyses of both the teacher and the student data indicated that motivating and demotivating teaching could best be graphically represented by a two-dimensional configuration that differed in terms of need support and directiveness. In addition, eight subareas (two subareas per motivating style) were identified along a circumplex model: participative and attuning, guiding and clarifying, demanding and domineering, and abandoning and awaiting. Correlations between these eight subareas and a variety of construct validation and outcome variables (e.g., student motivation, teacher burnout) followed an ordered sinusoid pattern. The discussion focuses on the conceptual implications and practical advantages of adopting a circumplex approach and sketches a number of important future research directions.

Background: It is generally accepted that well-established classroom rules prevent problem behaviour, while also supporting students' achievement gains. Yet, there might be considerable variability in students' underlying motives to comply or refrain from complying with classroom rules, with some students adhering to them because they fully accept them as their own, and others feeling compelled by external or internal demands to do so or even defying the rules altogether. Aims: Grounded in self-determination theory, this study aimed to examine whether students' reasons for following (i.e., internalization) and for refraining from following (i.e., defiance) classroom rules differentially and uniquely predict student outcomes, including feelings of resentment, acting out, cheating, and truancy. Sample: A total of 1006 students (46.7% boys; M = 14.18 years ± 1.73) out of 56 different secondary school classes participated in the study. Methods: Students were invited to fill out an online survey about experiences with their head teacher. Results: For three out of four outcomes, identified regulation and external regulation to follow classroom rules were found to be, respectively, negatively and positively related, whereas a null relationship with introjected rule following was found. Controlled non-rule following was most strongly predictive of maladaptive functioning, as indexed by more feelings of resentment, acting out, cheating, and truancy. Conclusions: Whereas students' ownership of rules is critical to prevent classroom misbehaviour, their pressured non-adherence is a risk factor.

Background: A distinction is made in Achievement Goal Theory (AGT) between task-oriented (i.e. effort, intra-individual progress, and self-comparison) and ego-oriented (i.e. inter-individual progress and normative comparison) climates. Combining insights from AGT and Self-Determination Theory (SDT), studies in the PE context have shown that a task-oriented climate positively relates to need satisfaction, although the findings regarding the motivating role of an ego-oriented climate are inconsistent. Moreover, little is known about the role of task- or ego-oriented climates in explaining experiences of basic psychological need frustration. Purpose: Grounded in AGT and SDT, the aim of the present study was to examine if experiences of basic psychological need satisfaction and need frustration can explain why task- and ego-oriented climates elicit positive and negative motivational outcomes in PE, respectively. Research design: Cross-sectional study. Method: A sample of 524 secondary school students (51.1% boys, M[subscript age] = 14.51; SD = 1.81) from five different secondary schools participated in this study. Students reported on their perceptions of task- and ego-oriented climates, motivational regulations, basic psychological need satisfaction, and need frustration, as well as positive and negative outcomes in PE. Structural equation modeling was used to investigate our objective. Results: We found that a task-oriented climate had a strong and positive relationship with basic psychological need satisfaction, eliciting a bright pathway to autonomous motivation and affective attitude. An ego-oriented climate was positively related to basic psychological need frustration, eliciting a dark pathway to amotivation and boredom. A negative cross-path from task-oriented climate to basic psychological need frustration was also found, while no significant cross-paths were found from ego-oriented climate to basic psychological need satisfaction. Conclusions: This study provides a better understanding of the mechanisms that explain why task- and ego-oriented climates shape students' motivational experiences in PE lessons. It is suggested that a task-oriented climate elicits a bright pathway towards more optimal functioning, because it fosters experiences of need satisfaction and buffers against experiences of need frustration. In contrast, an ego-oriented climate is primarily positively related to feelings of need frustration and negative motivational outcomes. Practical implications for PE teacher training are discussed.

There are indicators that a substantial number of students in vocational education and training (VET) experience problems with successfully building their careers. This is often attributed to VET students' motivation. The present study provides insight into VET students' motivational profiles based on self-determination theory. Additionally, differences between those motivational profiles in terms of self-efficacy, test anxiety and perception of motivating teaching were investigated. The study involved 195 VET students, from one VET college in the Netherlands. Using latent profile analyses, four motivational profiles were identified that differed with respect to quality and quantity of motivation. Profiles with higher quality (25%) and higher quantity (27%) of motivation were related to higher levels of self-efficacy and perceived motivating teaching compared to profiles with low quantity (7%) or low quality (41%) of motivation. Furthermore, students in the profile with high-quality motivation reported the lowest levels of test anxiety. Additionally, our findings suggest there is indeed a relatively large group of VET students (48%) who actually experience motivational problems. Practical implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Central to self-determination theory (SDT) is the notion that autonomously motivated learning relates to greater learning benefits. While learners' intrinsic motivation has received substantial attention, learners also display volitional learning when they come to endorse the personal meaning or self-relevance of the learning task. In Part I of this review, we discuss how the process of internalization, in addition to intrinsic motivation, constitutes an important growth process. In Part II, we indicate how autonomy-supportive teaching and the provision of a rationale are critical to fostering internalization, and we review past empirical studies. Further, we propose an emerging model to explain when provided rationales foster perceived self-relevance and promote the process of internalization, thereby, considering both critical features of the rationale itself and the broader context in which the rationale becomes embedded. In Part III, the process of internalization is discussed in relation to the concepts of utility value and instrumentality.

Background: Injury prevention is highly needed in physically active populations, such as pre-service and in-service physical education teachers (PETs). As a lack of adherence to preventive strategies is problematic in injury, it seems crucial to develop and optimize interventions that correspond to the specific needs and wishes of PETs. Aim: The purpose of the present study was fourfold. Specifically, we aimed at (1) systematically optimizing an injury prevention intervention for PETs, based on teachers' qualitative evaluation of the intervention, (2) quantitatively investigating whether the appreciation of the injury prevention intervention was higher after optimization, (3) examining whether participation in the intervention resulted in positive changes in teachers' perceived utility of, and confidence to apply the proposed preventive strategies, as well as their knowledge about these strategies, and (4) describing teachers' adherence to the proposed preventive strategies while they were engaging in the intervention. Participants: Twenty PETs (13 men, Mage = 42.1 ± 12.17 years) from nine different secondary schools in Flanders (Belgium) voluntarily participated in this study. The intervention, based on findings from the continuing professional development (CPD) literature, and the principles of the self determination theory, took place on two different training days (Training A and Training B) and consisted of seven intrinsic injury prevention strategies. Data collection and analysis: Qualitative data on teachers' appreciation of the intervention were collected by means of focus group interviews, which were used to optimize the intervention (Aim 1). Quantitative data on teachers' appreciation were collected directly after they had engaged in the intervention and were used to compare the appreciation from the initial to more optimized versions of the trainings (Aim 2). Further, by means of repeated measures ANOVAs positive evolutions in teachers' belief in the utility of, confidence to apply and knowledge about the provided strategies across time were examined (Aim 3). Finally, teachers' adherence was evaluated by relying on weekly online registrations of minutes and types of preventive strategies teachers had practised during the past week (Aim 4). Data collection and analysis: Qualitative data on teachers' appreciation of the intervention were collected by means of focus group interviews, which were used to optimize the intervention (Aim 1). Quantitative data on teachers' appreciation were collected directly after they had engaged in the intervention and were used to compare the appreciation from the initial to more optimized versions of the trainings (Aim 2). Further, by means of repeated measures ANOVAs positive evolutions in teachers' belief in the utility of, confidence to apply and knowledge about the provided strategies across time were examined (Aim 3). Finally, teachers' adherence was evaluated by relying on weekly online registrations of minutes and types of preventive strategies teachers had practised during the past week (Aim 4). Findings: Despite the relatively high initial appreciation scores (4.2 out of 5), the optimized versions of the trainings scored better on interaction, intelligibility, innovation, practical usefulness, and recommendation (Aims 1 and 2). Significant differences were found over time in terms of within-teacher changes in perceived utility of (4.05-4.73-4.48; p < 0.001), confidence to apply (3.75-3.96-4.26; p < 0.001) and knowledge about preventive strategies (2.49-3.53-3.39; p < 0.001; Aim 3). Finally, prospective registrations of teachers' adherence to the proposed strategies showed a mean time of 62.1 ± 48.6 min/week with a balanced distribution of the different strategies (Aim 4). Conclusions: The present study developed an intervention that optimally fulfils the wishes and needs of the target population, namely PETs, and can readily be implemented in PET education programmes or CPD programmes for in-service PETs. Results of this pilot study are promising because teachers displayed increases in several relevant outcomes. Various suggestions are formulated on how to increase PETs' appreciation of CPD programmes.

Background: In Self-Determination Theory (SDT), a well-validated macro-theory on human motivation, a distinction is made between internally controlling teaching practices (e.g. guilt-induction and shaming) and externally controlling practices (e.g. threats and punishments, commands). While both practices are said to undermine students' motivation, they would do so through somewhat differential motivational processes. Unfortunately, the relevance of the conceptual distinction between internally and externally controlling strategies has not been examined systematically. In the context of sport and physical education (PE), most studies on controlling teaching have either measured controlling teaching in an undifferentiated way or have focused on one particular feature of controlling teaching. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to provide a more fine-grained picture on the differential de-motivational effects of internally and externally controlling teaching strategies in the domain of PE. Participants: A total of 925 students with an average age of 15.80 years (±1.99) coming out of 92 classes taught by 22 different PE teachers participated in the present study. Data analysis: Data on perceived controlling teaching style and students' motivation were analyzed within a multilevel framework from both a variable-centered (regression analyses) and person-centered approach (cluster analyses). Results: We found evidence for a distinction between perceived internally and externally controlling teaching. Both teaching styles were strongly related to each other (r = 0.54). At the level of zero-order correlations, both internally and externally controlling teaching related negatively to students' intrinsic motivation and identified regulation and related positively to introjected regulation, external regulation, and amotivation. However, when both teaching styles were included simultaneously as predictors of motivation in the regression analyses, only internally controlling teaching predicted poor quality and low quantity of motivation. A cluster analysis revealed different profiles of perceived controlling teaching style, with two profiles being characterized by either high or low levels of the two types of controlling teaching and other profiles displaying elevated or reduced levels of one of the types of controlling teaching. This person-centered analysis confirmed that particularly students who perceive their PE teacher as internally controlling are likely to report poor-quality motivation. Conclusion: Controlling teaching (and internally controlling teaching in particular) is related to maladaptive motivational outcomes. As such, it can be advised to PE-practitioners to refrain from using controlling strategies when teaching students. More research is needed to identify the conditions under which teachers' behavior is perceived as externally and/or internally controlling.

Responding to the declining trend in reading motivation in and beyond the elementary school years, the authors aimed to enhance late-elementary school students' autonomous reading motivation. Toward this end, the authors evaluated the influence of a teacher professional development grounded in self-determination theory on fifth-grade students' (n = 664) autonomous motivation for in-school and leisure-time reading. A quasi-experimental repeated measures design was set up with experimental and control conditions. The experimental condition consisted of teachers participating in a professional development workshop aimed at providing the knowledge and skills necessary to implement an autonomy-supportive and structuring teaching style, whereas the control condition included teachers who continued with their current teaching repertoire. Multilevel piece-wise growth analyses corroborated that students in the experimental group reported increased recreational autonomous reading motivation from pretest to posttest relative to the control group. Additional analyses made clear that boys in particular benefitted from their teachers' professional development.

Self-determination theory (SDT) has served as a theoretical framework for considerable research on teaching behavior and student motivation. The majority of studies have focused on need-supportive teaching behavior at the expense of need-thwarting teaching behavior (i.e., the "dark side" of teaching). The goal of the present study was to examine motivational dynamics involved in controlling teaching behavior in the context of physical education (PE). The majority of studies on observed teaching behavior were conducted in the laboratory. To augment the ecological validity in the present study, the behavior of PE teachers was videotaped to rate their controlling teaching behavior in a real-life setting. In a sample of 56 teachers and 702 secondary school students, controlling teaching behavior during a specific PE class, as observed by external raters, was related positively to students' perceived controlling teaching behavior and, through these perceptions, to controlled motivation and amotivation. These associations were obtained in spite of the low incidence of controlling teaching behaviors, suggesting that students may be quite sensitive to controlling teaching behaviors. No associations were found between observed controlling behavior and student autonomous motivation and students' perceptions of autonomy-supportive teaching. Practical implications and recommendations for PE teachers' professional development training are included.

In this study, involving 585 youth sport coaches (Mage = 35.76), the authors investigated whether coaches who perceive their environment to be highly evaluative would report acting in a more controlling or pressuring way. In a subsample (n = 211, Mage = 38.14), they examined the explanatory role of coaches' experiences of psychological need frustration in this relation. They also considered whether years of coaching experience would serve as a buffer against the adverse effects of an evaluative context. In line with the tenets of self-determination theory, results of structural equation modeling indicated that an evaluative context was related to the use of a more controlling coaching style, with experiences of need frustration accounting for this relation. Coaching experience did not play any moderating role, suggesting that even more experienced coaches are vulnerable to the harmful correlates of an evaluative sport context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Burnout in teachers is related to different maladaptive outcomes. This study aimed at exploring the relationship between emotional exhaustion and motivation to teach in 93 physical education teachers. Results showed that teachers report more emotional exhaustion when they are less autonomously motivated, while the opposite relationship was found for controlled motivation. Next, four motivational profiles were identified by means of cluster analyses: (a) a relative controlled group, (b) a relative lowly motivated group, (c) a relative autonomous group, and (d) a relative highly motivated group. The controlled group reported most emotional exhaustion, whereas the relative autonomous and highly motivated group had the lowest scores on emotional exhaustion. The results indicate that being autonomously motivated may function as a "buffer" against the development of emotional exhaustion. This implicates that it is important for politicians, directors, teachers, and teacher educators to consider teachers' type of motivation to teach to prevent emotional exhaustion.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a chronic and impairing clinical disorder in childhood, often characterized by a heterogeneous symptomatic profile and high co-occurrence with other disorders. The present study introduces a new perspective on the description of OCD symptoms in youth, and empirically examines the value of a personality framework (e.g. Five Factor of Personality; FFM) for understanding early OCD symptomatology in a referred sample of 274 children and adolescents, relying on age-specific measures of general and maladaptive personality. Differences in general and maladaptive personality traits for high versus low-scoring children and adolescents on the Obsessive-Compulsive Scale of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL-OCS) were explored. The discriminant validity of both higher-and lower-order personality traits was supported, showing that high CBCL-OCS scorers are characterized by specific personality features ranging from adaptive to pathological, especially in terms of Conscientiousness. In addition, personality traits contributed to the accurate classification of high- versus low-scorers on the CBCL-OCS. Implications for clinical practice and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Grounded in self-determination theory, this experimental study examined whether the valence (i.e., positive vs. negative) and style (i.e., autonomy-supportive vs. controlling) of normative feedback impact the self-talk, motivational experiences (i.e., psychological need satisfaction and enjoyment), and behavioral functioning (i.e., perseverance and performance) of tennis players (N = 120; Mage = 24.50 ± 9.86 years). Positive feedback and an autonomy-supportive style positively influenced players' enjoyment and perseverance, with psychological need satisfaction and self-talk playing an intervening role. While positive feedback yielded its beneficial effect via greater competence satisfaction and decreased negative self-talk, the beneficial impact of an autonomy-supportive communication style was explained via greater autonomy satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from self-determination theory, we explored whether student engagement/disengagement relates to teachers' need support and whether this relationship is moderated by teachers' causality orientations. A sample of 2004 students situated in 127 classes taught by 33 physical education teachers participated in the study. Both teachers and students reported on students' (dis)engagement, allowing investigation of the proposed relationships both at the student and teacher level. Most of the variance in need support was at the student level, but there was also between-teacher and between-class variance in need support. Engagement related to more need support, but only at the student level. In total, few moderation effects were found. Teachers with a relatively low controlled orientation were more need supportive when perceiving their students as emotionally and behaviorally engaged. By making teachers aware of these dynamics, automatic responses to student engagement can be better thought out. Recommendations for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present intervention study examined whether physical education (PE) teachers can learn to make use of autonomy-supportive and structuring teaching strategies. In a sample of 39 teachers (31 men, M = 38.51 ± 10.44 years) and 669 students (424 boys, M = 14.58 ± 1.92 years), we investigated whether a professional development training grounded in self-determination theory led to changes in (a) teachers' beliefs about the effectiveness and feasibility of autonomy-supportive and structuring strategies and (b) teachers' in-class reliance on these strategies, as rated by teachers, external observers, and students. The intervention led to positive changes in teachers' beliefs regarding both autonomy support and structure. As for teachers' actual teaching behavior, the intervention was successful in increasing autonomy support according to students and external observers, while resulting in positive changes in teacher-reported structure. Implications for professional development and recommendations for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]