A Self-determination Theory Perspective on Student Engagement*

This chapter pursues three goals. First, it overviews selfdetermination theory (SDT). SDT is a macrotheory of motivation comprised of fi ve interrelated minitheories—basic needs theory, organismic integration theory, goal contents theory, cognitive evaluation theory, and causality orientations theory. Each minitheory was created to explain specifi c motivational phenomena and to address specifi c research questions. Second, the chapter uses the student-teacher dialectical framework within SDT to explain how classroom conditions sometimes support but other times neglect and frustrate students’ motivation, engagement, and positive classroom functioning. Third, the chapter highlights student engagement. In doing so, it overviews recent classroom-based, longitudinally designed research to reveal three new and important functions of student engagement—namely, that student engagement fully mediates and explains the motivation-toachievement relation, that changes in engagement produce changes in the learning environment, and that changes in engagement produce changes in motivation, as students’ behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and agentic engagements represent actions taken not only to learn but also to meet psychological needs. The chapter concludes with implications for teachers and with suggestions for future research. J. Reeve (*) Department of Education , Korea University , Anam-Dong, Seongbuk-Gu Seoul , 136-701 Korea e-mail: [email protected] A Self-determination Theory Perspective on Student Engagement*