Self-determination Theory - All staff meeting

More motivation, less lamination

Creating self-determined learners

Conclusion

• Activities that meet the needs of SDT: autonomy, competence, relatedness
• Leads to increased intrinsic motivation
• Centered around students' personal interest
• = increased meaningfulness

Discussion and Questions

Can we adjust tomorrow's lesson plans to fulfill the psychological needs of SDT?

Findings

• TPRS needs of competence, relatedness and autonomy -> highly motivating
• Visible signs of excitement, enjoyment and engagement
• TPRS allowed students to develop strong relationship to classmates and teacher

• But what about meaning?
• It comes from personal interest

Limitations: New to my classes or new to TPRS; Role of the teacher

The Research Study

• Context and Participants: International school in Switzerland; 13 Year 10 students; Vast language learning experience
• Methodology: Group interview; Classroom observations; Focus group interviews; 3 months

Relatedness

Sense of belonging to the group through combined creation of story

• Stories were “very extroverted” meaning “everybody will feel included” and “everybody gets to participate” (Kevin; Donna, FGI1).

Competence

• “You don’t get judged” because you are “doing it as a group” (Prue, FGI2).
• Everyone was “so energetic and open and talkative” (Prue, FGI2), which “makes you more motivated and more eager to learn” (Orla, FGI1).

Increased sense of capacity, ability and understanding

• It “really helped my speaking” (Diana, FGI1), raising students' perceived personal competence.
• “I believe that through storytelling I improved a lot” (Amy, FGI1)

Building on Self-Determination Theory

“The reason why [storytelling] is less scary is because everybody's sharing their ideas and modifying them to form the story so everybody is a part of the story” (Aidan, FGI2)

Autonomy

© Liam Printer

Highly autonomous nature acknowledged positively multiple times.

• Engagement has recently been added (Oga-Baldwin, 2017)
• Others have expanded it in education to include 'meaningfulness' (Bondie & Zusho, 2018)

• TPRS’s goal of 100% comprehension meant “you do understand it better” (Gwen, FGI2) thus raising their feelings of proficiency
• It erased their anxiety of “saying the wrong thing” (Steven, FGI2)
• The fact that “everyone contributes” (Steven, Aidan; FGI1), meant participants felt “they'll be heard so their confidence will really be built” (Kevin, FGI1).

• A highly motivating factor of TPRS was the ability to “contribute any idea” and “it'll make this story” (Kevin, FGI2).
• “when you give an idea and it gets accepted you feel really good” (Donna, FGI2), while others also “felt better” when they could “add to the class” (Prue, FGI1).

• TPRS stories meant students could “steer the learning” and “effect what would happen next” (Amy, FGI2).
• Students reported “feeling motivated” in the TPRS class as “you're more involved and more in control of your own learning” (FGI1).

• Research suggests that the quality of motivated behavior is higher when students find the task and/or subject domain important, interesting, and useful (Wigfield & Eccles, 2000).

Intrinsically motivated behaviors are produced and maintained because the enjoyment such tasks impart reinforces the behavior (Lavigne et al., 2009).

The more intrinsically motivated a student is, the more likely it is that he or she will report engaging in proactive study at any point in time. Educators will be highly likely to boost student participation and engagement by cultivating intrinsic (rather than extrinsic) motivation (Cerasoli & Ford, 2014).

Moving from extrinsic to intrinsic?

References

• Continuum -> Very possible to move along it
• Activities that meet the needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness can move students from extrinsic to intrinsic motivations

Intrinsically motivated students elicit higher levels of task persistence and show greater desire toward behaviors such as attending class and staying in school (Hardre & Reeve, 2003; Robbins et al., 2004).

Such students tend to have higher levels of confidence and persistence; this leads them to implement more of the deep-level learning behaviors that have been found to predict higher exam scores (Simons, Dewitte, & Lens, 2004).

Extrinsic v Intrinsic Motivation

Teacher Motivation

• Extrinsically motivated behaviours - rewards; fear or shame; short-term achievement but no longevity
• Intrinsically motivated behaviours - pure engagement, enjoyment and interest; increased self-confidence, desire towards learning and sustained positive learning behaviours

• Student enjoyment and participation over extrinsic rewards like pay and recognition
• Motivated teachers inspire their students to be motivated too (Kassagby et al. 2001)

Strategies that motivate both teacher and students are crucial

• Boo, Z., Dörnyei, Z., Ryan, S., 2015. L2 motivation research 2005–2014: Understanding a publication surge and a changing landscape. System 55, 145–157.
• Bondie, R. S. & Zusho, A. 2018. Differentiated Instruction through Precise, Efficient, and Effective Classroom Routines
• Carr, S., 2016. Motivation, educational policy and achievement: a critical perspective. Routledge, Abingdon.
• Cerasoli, C.P., Ford, M.T., 2013. Intrinsic Motivation, Performance, and the Mediating Role of Mastery Goal Orientation: A Test of Self-Determination Theory. The Journal of Psychology. doi:10.1080/00223980.2013.783778
• Cooper, K. S. (2014). Eliciting engagement in the high school classroom: A mixed methods examination of teaching practices. American Educational Research Journal, 51, 363–402. doi:10.3102/0002831213507973
• Eccles, J., & Wang, M. T. (2012). Part 1 commentary: So what is student engagement anyway? In S. L. Christenson, A. L. Reschly, & C. Wylie (Eds.), Handbook of research on student engagement (pp. 133–145). New York: Springer.
• Dörnyei, Z., 2010. Questionnaires in second language research: construction, administration, and processing, 2nd ed. ed, Second language acquisition research.
• Dörnyei, Z., 2001. Motivational strategies in the language classroom, Cambridge language teaching library. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
• Kassabgy, O., Boraie, D., Schmidt, R., 2001. Values, rewards, and job satisfaction in ESL/EFL. Motivation and second language acquisition 213–237.
• Hattie, J. 2009. Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. New York: Routledge.
• Krashen, S., 1981. Second language acquisition and second language learning, Language teaching methodology series. Elsevier, Oxford.
• Lichtman, K., 2015. Research on TPR Storytelling, in: Fluency Through TPR Storytelling : Achieving Real Language Acquisition in School : 7th Edition. pp. 364–380.
• Machado, J.M., 2012. Early Childhood Experiences in Language Arts: Early Literacy, 10 edition. ed. Wadsworth Publishing, Belmont, CA.
• McMaster, J.C., 1998. “Doing” Literature: Using Drama to Build Literacy Classrooms: The Segue for a Few Struggling Readers. Reading Teacher 51, 574–84.
• Muñoz, A., Ramirez, M., 2015. Teachers’ conceptions of motivation and motivating practices in second-language learning: A self-determination theory perspective. Theory and Research in Education 13, 198–220. doi:10.1177/1477878515593885
• Niemiec, C.P., Ryan, R.M., 2009. Autonomy, competence, and relatedness in the classroom: Applying self-determination theory to educational practice. School Field 7, 133–144. doi:10.1177/1477878509104318
• Oga-Baldwin, W.Q., Nakata, Y., Parker, P., Ryan, R.M., 2017. Motivating young language learners: A longitudinal model of self-determined motivation in elementary school foreign language classes. Contemporary Educational Psychology 49, 140–150.
• Printer, L., 2017. Student perceptions on the motivational pull of Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling: a Self-Determination Theory perspective. (Doctor of Education). University of Bath.
• Ryan, R.M., Deci, E.L., 2000. Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. The American psychologist 55, 68–78.
• Seely, C., Ray, B., 1997. Fluency Through TPR Storytelling, 5th edition. ed. Command Performance Language Institute, Blaine Ray Workshops, Berkeley, Cal.

What is Self-Determination Theory (SDT)?

• SDT argues that we can increase intrinsic motivation by meeting the needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness (Ryan and Deci, 2000)

• Autonomy - choice; self-direction; student ownership of learning
• Competence - students’ perceptions about their capacity to achieve success
• Relatedness - sense of belonging, support and inclusion; relationships

The evidence base

• Stems from field of psychology
• Has been applied successfully in variety of fields: sport, medicine, coaching (Muñoz & Ramirez, 2015)
• Extensively researched, tested and applied in variety of educational settings: http://selfdeterminationtheory.org/publications/

© Liam Printer

What is education for?

• Lack of student motivation = teacher frustration
• High student motivation = teacher satisfaction
• Teacher satisfaction => increased motivation

Motivation, enjoyment and engagement = Life-long learners

Strategies that motivate both teacher and students