What is the role of the external context and supportive structures in enhancing motivation to learn?
Building on what is known about relationships between motivation to learn and opportunities to satisfy basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness–with a particular emphasis on the importance of autonomy-supports in developing self-determined motivation–it is clear that students need to be supported by opportunities for choice, to participate in making decisions about their educational process and activities. They also need to be encouraged to take responsibility for regulating their own learning and for being self-determined and autonomous learners. According to Zimmerman (in press), the psychological dimensions of self-regulation that are possible in school environments are in the goals and motives for learning (the “why” dimension), the method of academic learning (the “how” dimension), the performance outcomes to achieve (the “what” dimension), and the physical and social environment in which they learn (the “where” dimension). When choices are given in al
