Why are some students more engaged in and adjusted to school than others? Why are some students more competent and why do they perform better than others? Self-determination theory is a theory of human motivation to explain students’ classroom behavior, learning process, and relationship with the environment. The goal of this paper is to review the concept of autonomy support in the classroom within the self-determination framework. Autonomy is defined as a form of voluntary action, stemming from a person’s interest and with no external pressure. Social environments that support autonomy provide meaningful rationale, acknowledge negative feelings, use noncontrolling language, offer meaningful choices, and nurture internal motivational resources. In classrooms where teachers support autonomy, students improve their academic performance, are more creative and better adjusted, engage more in school, and feel less stress. We provide theoretical and methodological suggestions for future research.

This research has a dual purpose: to translate into Spanish and validate a classroom engagement measure and, over a semester, to analyse the effect of students’ perception of autonomy support on the need for autonomy and the effect of autonomy, in turn, on four types of engagement. Data were collected at three time points from 448 undergraduate students via a longitudinal design. The results revealed adequate psychometric properties for the engagement scale, and the hypothesised effects were supported. Autonomy support was a significant predictor of the need for autonomy, which, in turn, predicted changes in four types of classroom engagement. Emotional engagement displayed the strongest relationship with need for autonomy. Moreover, need for autonomy mediated the relationship between perceived autonomy support and each indicator of student engagement. The findings are interpreted as supporting self-determination theory’s motivation mediation model and could be considered in future intervention programmes to improve the teaching–learning process in education.

Math achievement and engagement declines in secondary education; therefore, educators are faced with the challenge of engaging students to avoid school failure. Within self-determination theory, we address the need to assess comprehensively student perceptions of teaching quality that predict engagement and achievement. In study one we tested, in a sample of 548 high school students, a preliminary version of a scale to assess nine factors: teaching for relevance, acknowledge negative feelings, participation encouragement, controlling language, optimal challenge, focus on the process, class structure, positive feedback, and caring. In the second study, we analyzed the scale’s reliability and validity in a sample of 1555 high school students. The scale showed evidence of reliability, and with regard to criterion validity, at the classroom level, teaching quality was a predictor of behavioral engagement, and higher grades were observed in classes where students, as a whole, displayed more behavioral engagement. At the within level, behavioral engagement was associated with achievement. We not only provide a reliable and valid method to assess teaching quality, but also a method to design interventions, these could be designed based on the scale items to encourage students to persist and display more engagement on school duties, which in turn bolsters student achievement.

Self-determination theory has shown that autonomy support in the classroom is associated with an increase of students’ intrinsic motivation. Moreover, intrinsic motivation is related with positive outcomes. This study examines the relationships between autonomy support, intrinsic motivation to learn and two motivational consequences, deep learning and vitality. Specifically, the hypotheses were that autonomy support predicts the two types of consequences, and that autonomy support directly and indirectly predicts the vitality and the deep learning through intrinsic motivation to learn. Participants were 276 undergraduate students. The mean age was 21.80 years (SD = 2.94). Structural equation modeling was used to test the relationships between variables and delta method was used to analyze the mediating effect of intrinsic motivation to learn. Results indicated that student perception of autonomy support had a positive effect on deep learning and vitality (p < .001). In addition, these associations were mediated by intrinsic motivation to learn. These findings suggest that teachers are key elements in generating of autonomy support environment to promote intrinsic motivation, deep learning, and vitality in classroom. Educational implications are discussed.