One of the many important things to me in my practice is building a real sense of intrinsic motivation in my students. I truly believe that to foster a love of learning, we should be setting the space for students to take more ownership of their work and find enjoyment and excitement in the process. This leads not only to greater energy and enthusiasm in the classroom, but also builds life long learners who are curious and passionate about their interests.
Recently, I have been having a lot of professional conversations with colleagues about this topic and I wanted to create a short post that shares my experiences with building lessons and rehearsals with Self-Determination Theory (SDT) in mind. Using this theory over the past few years to inform my work has been pretty transformative.
For those that are unfamiliar with the theory, I will briefly explain in this paragraph but if not, skip ahead to the next section. Self-Determination Theory is a psychological framework that explores what drives human motivation and well-being. At its core, SDT identifies three fundamental needs that fuel intrinsic motivation: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Autonomy is the feeling of being in control of one’s choices and actions; competence is the sense of mastery and effectiveness in tasks; and relatedness is the need to feel connected and valued by others. When these needs are met, students are more likely to feel motivated from within, rather than relying on external rewards or pressures. By fostering these conditions in the classroom, educators can help students develop a deeper, more sustainable love of learning. For more information visit: https://selfdeterminationtheory.org/theory/
So what does this look like in my classroom? I will split the next section in to three the three categories of SDT.
Autonomy:
This is a powerful section of the theory and to apply it, one must truly build moments of choice and independence in the classroom. This could be in the form of presenting students with different options for the way they capture and present their learning, or it could be in the form of giving them choice within an activity, for example choose from option A, B or C and create your scene (if this is Drama). Another idea from a Drama perspective but also useful across subjects would be to allow students to bring in their own content to apply to the form, for example, if you are doing physical theatre, allow students to express their favourite movie scene through the skills they have learned in the unit. This sense of ownership creates buy in and excitement for the work. Building more choice into your lessons will maximise the effect of the theory.
Competence:
This part of the theory is what many great teachers already foster in their students. The aim being to build students’ sense of self-efficacy within the discipline they are studying. This is done through careful sequencing and planning alongside creating a safe-to-fail environment. Part of this is related to ensuring that activities put students into the Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky), meaning that the task is challenging enough to promote growth but not so difficult that the learner becomes frustrated or disengaged. In addition to this, building reflective thinking within lessons can also allow students to see where they have made progress, enhancing their confidence. Modelling humility is another tool that I find helps build students sense of confidence, for example if we are playing a drama game, I will model failure by being “out” and accepting this calmly, showing students that it is OK to fail and try again.
Relatedness:
Even though all three components are important, this to me is one of the most important elements as it is where students can feel as though they belong. When students feel a sense of connection and belonging within the classroom, that will not only provide them with a safe learning environment, it will also boost their motivation to succeed. We’ve only got to look at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs within the context of a classroom to see why this is so important. Some of the ways I build this in my classroom is to foster a sense of strong routine so that students feel safe in the space, also greeting students as they enter and connecting through showing genuine interest to how their day is going or congratulating them for something they did outside the classroom. Within the work itself, I am choosing more and more topics that feel relevant to the context I am in, ensuring that the plays and stories we explore are from a range of cultures as well as bridging the old with the new. For example modernising Macbeth and getting students to create an instagram reel of each character. It’s closer to their world!
These are just some of the things I have been doing recently within my practice and I wanted to share this because I truly believe in the power of these three components. I will expand on these points over time and share more insights and I would also enjoy hearing some of the ideas you have for using SDT in the classroom.
This post was written 95% by hand as I believe that we should continue to connect through real experiences. (I used AI to help me articulate what SDT is). When AI first came out I used it a little more to help refine my posts but I’m moving away from that as I would rather it be articulated slightly less well but be from me to you directly!
