What motivates students at school? Students’ motivation profile from a Self-Determination perspective

Abstract

In this study, 243 upper and 29 lower secondary school students from a private school in Bologna responded to a survey measuring the students’ academic motivation, the satisfaction of basic psychological needs, and teacher autonomy support according to the Self-Determination Theory. The purpose was to investigate the distribution of these variables and school-level-based differences in the sample analysed. Results show that, overall, students have a high mean level of autonomous motivation and satisfaction of competence and relatedness needs. Instead, students report a medium level of teacher autonomy support and a low level of autonomy need satisfaction. The results also show a decrease in almost all motivational variables in the transition from lower to upper secondary school. These findings constitute an element of interest in orientating the learning-teaching process towards improving students’ motivation.

Keywords

• self-determination theory
• academic motivation
• basic psychological needs
• teacher autonomy support
• grade level differences