Basic psychological needs in the classroom: A literature review in elementary and middle school students

The impact of instructional behaviors on learning motivation via subjective task value in high school students in Cambodia

Instructional behavior plays a key role in learning motivation. In many developing countries, students' learning motivation needs to be restored, primarily through effective teaching. This research investigated the impact of instructional behaviors on learning motivation among high school students in Cambodia, emphasizing the mediating role of subjective task value. This study was conducted in three provinces of Cambodia, and a sample was obtained by convenience sampling. A total of 515 participants (42.72% male and 56.70% female) were lower secondary and high school students. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to test the proposed relationship between the two first-order constructs of instructional behaviors and learning motivation. The results revealed direct positive associations between all of the constructs in the model. Autonomy support was a significant predictor of both subjective task value and intrinsic motivation. Cooperative learning support was significantly associated with only subjective task value and had no direct effect on intrinsic motivation. Conversely, video lecture support positively predicted extrinsic motivation. Additionally, subjective task value played an important role as a mediator of the relationship between autonomy support and cooperative learning support. These results emphasize the importance of developing instructional behaviors to support students' learning motivation.

Exploring the Associations Between School Climate and Mental Wellbeing: Insights from the MOVE12 Pilot Study in Norwegian Secondary Schools

This study examined the association between school climate, defined by social and academic environments, and mental wellbeing among 446 first-year upper-secondary students in eastern Norway (ISRCTN10405415). As part of the MOVE12 pilot study conducted in February 2023, a cross-sectional online questionnaire targeted approximately 600 students from five schools offering diverse academic and vocational tracks. Mental wellbeing was assessed using the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (SWEMWBS, scale 7-35), and the data were analyzed with stepwise multiple linear regression. The mean mental wellbeing score was 24.5 ± 4.3, with significant gender differences (p < 0.05) but no variations between academic and vocational tracks. Self-efficacy was the strongest predictor of mental wellbeing (b = 0.236, p < 0.001), followed by health satisfaction (b = 0.179, p < 0.001), time spent with friends (b = 0.163, p < 0.001), social isolation (b = -0.162, p = 0.001), wellbeing in physical education (b = 0.129, p = 0.002), and classroom climate (b = 0.128, p = 0.007). These findings emphasize the critical role of self-efficacy, peer connections, and supportive classroom climates in promoting mental wellbeing. Addressing these elements of school climate can significantly enhance the mental health and overall outcomes of upper-secondary students.

Variable- and person-centered approaches to teacher support and learning satisfaction in blended English learning: the role of SDT motivation and learning engagement

BACKGROUND

With blended learning boosting explosively, learning satisfaction is confronted with challenges. Aiming at its enhancement, teacher support, an essential element of instruction, was investigated.

METHODS

To pinpoint the dynamics between teacher support and learning satisfaction, 376 university students who participated in blended English learning were involved in self-report questionnaires. A variable-centered approach for data analysis was employed to examine the chain mediation model, and a person-centered one was utilized for exploring more personalized learning patterns of the samples.

RESULTS

The variable-centered investigation validated the hypothesized chain mediation model. SDT motivation and learning engagement were two successful mediators, and they also formed an effective chain mediator between teacher support and learning satisfaction. The person-centered study analyzed teacher support and learning satisfaction reported, and identified three latent profiles: below-average-both, average-both, and high-both profile. Learners in different profiles were spotted with disparate traits, with those in high-both profile presenting the most favorable results.

CONCLUSION

This study addresses the gap in research on the four variables from a blended learning perspective, and innovatively combines variable-centered and person-centered analytical approaches, providing customized enlightenments into fostering students' progress. Pedagogical implications are part of discussion.

Development of competencies in secondary education through the motivational style of autonomy support

Background

The aim of the study was to test the effect of a meta-disciplinary intervention based on the motivational style of autonomy support on the development of competencies in secondary school students. It was carried out by means of a quasi-experimental design and lasted for three months.

Methods

A total of 62 students between the ages of 12 and 16 (M = 13.61; SD = 1.16) participated, with 33 in the experimental group and 29 in the control group, along with 12 teachers (7 in the intervention group and 5 in the control group). The study measured teaching motivational style, satisfaction of basic psychological needs, motivation, and key competencies.

Results

The results demonstrate improvements in the autonomy-supportive motivational style, satisfaction of the basic psychological need for autonomy, autonomous motivation, and competencies in the experimental group, while the control group exhibited an increase in the chaos style.

Conclusions

These findings reveal the positive impact of the supportive motivational style on the development of key competencies establishing it as an active, valid, and reliable methodology to motivate secondary school students.

Measuring autonomy support in special needs teachers from a self-determination theory perspective: validation of the Italian version of the learning climate questionnaire

Introduction

Self-determination construct is a motivation theory used in professional and educational context to foster special needs teachers' development of metacognition, and psychological wellbeing. The Learning Climate Questionnaire (LCQ) is a validate questionnaire used to underly teachers' professional and personal competence, and improving social, emotional and career outcomes. The present paper aims to evaluate the degree of reliability (R1) and the adherence of construct validity to the construct of self-determination (R2) of the Italian adaptation of the LCQ.

Methods

A confirmatory factorial analysis was conducted to evaluate the factorial structure of the LCQ in a sample of Italian special needs teachers (N = 953). Teachers was asked to complete an online version of the LCQ. Construct validity was conducted by relating the learning climate with the basic psychological needs satisfaction, measured with PBNSF, and with academic motivation scale, measured with AMS.

Results

The analysis showed a good reliability (R1) and construct validity of the Italian adaptation of the questionnaire, with a high internal consistency compared to those obtained in other studies (R2).

Discussion

Teachers' autonomy support and teacher-student relation can positively impact the students' psychological factors and enhance students' learning motivation and academic achievement. Findings reveal that higher levels of learning climate could also be a key factor in reducing teachers' negative stress and mental health consequences.

Conclusion

This study may facilitate further research about the autonomy-supportive learning climate in educational settings in Italy.

Theories of Motivation in Education: an Integrative Framework

Several major theories have been established in research on motivation in education to describe, explain, and predict the direction, initiation, intensity, and persistence of learning behaviors. The most commonly cited theories of academic motivation include expectancy-value theory, social cognitive theory, self-determination theory, interest theory, achievement goal theory, and attribution theory. To gain a deeper understanding of the similarities and differences among these prominent theories, we present an integrative framework based on an action model (Heckhausen & Heckhausen, 2018). The basic model is deliberately parsimonious, consisting of six stages of action: the situation, the self, the goal, the action, the outcome, and the consequences. Motivational constructs from each major theory are related to these determinants in the course of action, mainly revealing differences and to a lesser extent commonalities. In the integrative model, learning outcomes represent a typical indicator of goal-directed behavior. Associated recent meta-analyses demonstrate the empirical relationship between the motivational constructs of the six central theories and academic achievement. They provide evidence for the explanatory value of each theory for students’ learning.

Qualitative motivation with sets and relations

In self-determination theory (SDT), multiple conceptual regulations of motivation are posited. These forms of motivation are especially qualitatively viewed by SDT researchers, and there are situations in which combinations of these regulations occur. In this article, instead of the commonly used numerical approach, this is modeled more versatilely by sets and relations. We discuss discrete mathematical models from the theory of knowledge spaces for the combinatorial conceptualization of motivation. Thereby, we constructively add insight into a dispute of opinions on the unidimensionality vs. multidimensionality of motivation in SDT literature. The motivation order derived in our example, albeit doubly branched, was approximately a chain, and we could quantify the combinatorial details of that approximation. Essentially, two combinatorial dimensions reducible to one were observed, which could be studied in other more popular scales as well. This approach allows us to define the distinct, including even equally informative, gradations of any regulation type. Thus, we may identify specific forms of motivation that may otherwise be difficult to measure or not be separable empirically. This could help to dissolve possible inconsistencies that may arise in applications of the theory in distinguishing the different regulation types. How to obtain the motivation structures in practice is demonstrated by relational data mining. The technique applied is an inductive item tree analysis, an established method of Boolean analysis of questionnaires. For a data set on learning motivation, the motivation spaces and co-occurrence relations for the gradations of the basic regulation types are extracted, thus, enumerating their potential subforms. In that empirical application, the underlying models were computed within each of the intrinsic, identified, introjected, and external regulations, in autonomous and controlled motivations, and the entire motivation domain. In future studies, the approach of this article could be employed to develop adaptive assessment and training procedures in SDT contexts and for dynamical extensions of the theory, if motivational behavior can go in time.

Developments in early adolescents' self-regulation: The importance of teachers' supportive vs. undermining behavior

Research has established that the ability to self-regulate is an important factor in adolescents' learning, and cognitive and social functioning. Several theories on self-regulation and classroom studies suggest effects of the social learning environment on students' self-regulation. However, most studies investigating these relations have a cross-sectional correlational design and do not relate to adolescents, resulting in little knowledge about causal directions and adolescents. This study extends existing research by examining effects of a selection of supportive and undermining teacher behavior dimensions on early adolescents' development of self-regulation (self-regulated learning). The teacher behavior dimensions are based on ideas of the self-determination theory in which a distinction is made between dimensions that support vs. thwart three basic psychological needs (need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness) which are assumed to be important for human growth and (psychological) well-functioning. Supporting autonomy, delivering structure, and being involved with the students are assumed to be important for the fulfillment of students' basic psychological needs, while exhibiting controlling instructional behavior, having chaos, uncertainty and inconsistency in the classroom, and rejection and neglect of students, are supposed to be a treat. Questionnaires were used for measuring students' perceptions of their teachers' behavior and their own self-regulation at several points in time during their first year of secondary education. Participants in the study were 566 students belonging to 20 Mathematics/English grade-7 secondary education classes in The Netherlands. Multilevel analyses point to the importance of all three teacher need-supportive dimensions (with highest effects of structure and involvement) and indicated that teachers' need-thwarting behavior negatively affected students' self-regulation. However, when corresponding supportive and thwarting teacher behavior dimensions were included together in the same multilevel model, only the effect of the undermining dimension of controlling teacher behavior remained significant in addition to the corresponding autonomy-support dimension. Findings are in line with existing research and highlight the importance of both teachers' need-supportive and teachers' need-thwarting behavior in daily secondary-education classrooms and contribute to deepen our insight in and understanding of factors (related to external regulation by teachers) leading to positive and negative developments of early adolescents' self-regulation, and, in particular, their self-regulated learning.

Psychometric Properties of the Portuguese Adolescent Students’ Basic Psychological Needs at School Scale (ASBPNSS) and Evidence of Differential Associations With Indicators of Subjective Wellbeing

The study aimed to test the psychometric properties of a Portuguese adaptation of the Adolescent Students’ Basic Psychological Needs at School Scale (ASBPNSS). For this, we used data from a sample of eighth graders ( N = 1648; Mage = 14.1 years; 46.9% girls) from Portugal. Cronbach alpha and omega coefficients showed the ASBPNSS subscales—autonomy, relatedness, and competence—were reliable. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed the hypothesized three-factor model fit the data well. Multi-group CFAs showed the ASBPNSS had scalar invariance across gender and students from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Finally, need satisfaction in school was positively correlated with positive affect and life satisfaction and negatively correlated with negative affect. These findings support the theoretical assumptions of Basic Psychological Needs Theory (BPNT), and particularly the assumption that basic needs are universally applicable. We conclude the ASBPNSS is a reliable and valid measure of basic need satisfaction at school in Portuguese adolescents.