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The effects of instructors' autonomy support and students' autonomous motivation on learning organic chemistry: A self‐determination theory perspective
Author(s) -
Black Aaron E.,
Deci Edward L.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
science education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.209
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1098-237X
pISSN - 0036-8326
DOI - 10.1002/1098-237x(200011)84:6<740::aid-sce4>3.0.co;2-3
Subject(s) - psychology , autonomy , competence (human resources) , self determination theory , perception , anxiety , social psychology , autonomous learning , self regulated learning , perspective (graphical) , mathematics education , political science , artificial intelligence , computer science , law , neuroscience , psychiatry
This prospective study applied self‐determination theory to investigate the effects of students' course‐specific self‐regulation and their perceptions of their instructors' autonomy support on adjustment and academic performance in a college‐level organic chemistry course. The study revealed that: (1) students' reports of entering the course for relatively autonomous (vs. controlled) reasons predicted higher perceived competence and interest/enjoyment and lower anxiety and grade‐focused performance goals during the course, and were related to whether or not the students dropped the course; and (2) students' perceptions of their instructors' autonomy support predicted increases in autonomous self‐regulation, perceived competence, and interest/enjoyment, and decreases in anxiety over the semester. The change in autonomous self‐regulation in turn predicted students' performance in the course. Further, instructor autonomy support also predicted course performance directly, although differences in the initial level of students' autonomous self‐regulation moderated that effect, with autonomy support relating strongly to academic performance for students initially low in autonomous self‐regulation but not for students initially high in autonomous self‐regulation. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Sci Ed 84: 740–756, 2000.