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Autonomous and controlled motivation: what's the difference?
Mōrena.
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A Quote
Deci & Ryan1 argue
Autonomous motivation involves behaving with a full sense of volition and choice, whereas controlled motivation involves behaving with the experience of pressure and demand toward specific outcomes that comes from forces percieved to be external to the self.
A Thought
We all want motivated kids and, for many in education, the path to that is through learner agency: active, engaged learners busy ‘driving’ their own learning. But, can we call this autonomous motivation? Hmmm. I’m not so sure we can. I’ve seen lots of teachers frustrated when students are given agency, yet the context for agency is one with a lot of control: processes, frameworks, checkpoints, productivity pressure, deadlines. All these serve to control the expression of agency.
What I have noticed is that they also undermine the degree of motivation in the students.
Autonomous motivation is a slippery beast. We can’t control it in others, and this is problematic when we think about the ways schools organise themselves. But just because we can’t control something, it doesn’t mean we have nothing: there is still influence.
Influence is a relational interaction. We can influence people when we listen to them, understand them, and respond to them in ways that demonstrate care and interest. This takes time.
It’s a bit of a paradox, isn’t it: automonous motivation is dependent on connection.
If schools are genuine in their pursuit of agency, it seems to me that Deci and Ryan’s ideas about the difference between autonomous and controlled motivation need to be considered.
An Action
What can you influence?
Spend some time listening to your students. Make a list of what you are hearing. Interpret it by making a list of the things listening has made you realise.
Is there one you can act on?
Coming up next week:
Tuesday and Wednesday: two more resources added to the Reference Library
Friday: October’s Deep-Dive essay on the place of beauty in education (exclusive to subscribers on the paid plan) and the weekly Q-T-A (free to all subscribers).
Thanks for reading. I appreciate your interest.
Have fun out there on the education frontier.
Bevan.
Two fairly influential psychologists.