Teachers in Spain and their satisfaction of the three innate psychological needs: A study of Self-Determination Theory

Author(s):

Rolando Angel-Alvarado (presenting / submitting) Olga Belletich Miguel R. Wilhelmi

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

ERG SES E 12, Teachers' Motivation in Education

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-21

15:30-17:00

Room:

W4.21

Chair:

Sabine Krause

Contribution

According to Self-Determination Theory [SDT], autonomous motivation depends on the satisfaction of the three innate psychological needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) because social environment encourages intrinsic motivation (Gagné, 2009) as well as it promotes internalisation of extrinsic motivation (Deci & Ryan, 2000). In other words, social contexts that support controlled motivation, they do not satisfy the three basic psychological needs. Among innate psychological needs, autonomy is essential for self-determined behaviour because it is related optimal engagement and psychological well-being (Ryan, 1993), therefore, controlled environments cannot satisfy it (Deci & Ryan, 2000).

SDT establishes hypothesis that satisfaction of the three innate psychological needs promotes high performance in creative activities as well as in tasks that require effective solutions (Gagné & Deci, 2005) because the activity is enjoyed during the action (Deci & Ryan, 2000). Therefore, SDT is an alternative for promoting the self-determined learning in educational context (Ryan & Deci, 2000) because autonomy of teachers determines the relationship among epistemic knowledge, students, and education context (Zufiaurre, 2010). From empirical research linked teaching, several studies have demonstrated the importance of innate psychological needs on the motivation of educators. As a matter of fact, basic psychological needs directly impact on teacher health because they influence either strengthen their professional commitment (Domenech, 2013) or, on the contrary, abandonment of teacher activity (Lauermann, 2014).

Currently, the educational system in Spain has started to undergo deep changes after enactment of the Organic Law for the Improvement of Education Quality. Nonetheless, such educational reform poses some inconsistencies (Belletich, Wilhelmi & Angel-Alvarado, 2016; Gimeno-Sacristán, 2014) because it advocates for teaching autonomy, but at the same time, it promotes an exhaustive regulation to pedagogical work.

In accordance these social environment elements, this study formulates the next question: What satisfaction level have teachers reported in their innate psychological needs?

Method

This research responds to non-experimental quantitative design (Kerlinger & Lee, 2002). Sampling in non-probabilistic by accessibility because participants have been contacted using online networks to encompass teachers about different Autonomous Communities in Spain. The research objective establishes satisfaction level in each innate psychological need for educators that are working in Spanish educational context. So, research hypothesis is: The most teachers classify in low-autonomy. For verifying this hypothesis, three innate psychological needs are observed within an analysis matrix to determine different conglomerates. Our research applies the Innate Psychological Needs Questionnaire for Teaching Contexts [CNPIE, for its acronym in Spanish], which it has registered a reliability coefficient of 0.942 according to Alpha de Cronbach (Davenport, Davinson, Liou & Love, 2015). Therefore, internal consistency is acceptable (α>0.70). Moreover, CNPIE shows acceptable results (Hermida, Luchman, Nicolaides & Wilcox, 2015) in different good fit indexes (NNFI > 0.9; CFI > 0.9 y RMSEA < 0.05).

Expected Outcomes

The research hypothesis has been accepted because the most teachers classified in a low satisfaction level in the innate psychological need for autonomy. Instead, competence does not register significant differences between low and high satisfaction levels, and relatedness shows a majority of educators report a high satisfaction level. In conclusion, Spanish education context does not encourage the three innate psychological needs simultaneously.

References

Belletich, O., Wilhelmi, M. R., & Angel-Alvarado, R. (2016). La educación musical en la formación básica en España. El problema de la dispersión curricular. Perspectiva educacional, 55(2), 158-170. Available in (2017/01/08): http://www.perspectivaeducacional.cl/index.php/peducacional/article/viewFile/454/216 Davenport, E. C., Davison, M., Liou, P. & Love, Q. (2015). Reliability, dimensionality, and internal consistency as defined by Cronbach: Distinct albeit related concepts. Educational Measurement: Issues and practice, 34(4): 4-9. DOI:10.1111/emip.12095 Deci, E., & Ryan, R. (2000). The "what" and "why" of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), 227-268. Domenech, F. (2013). Teacher psychological needs, locus of control and engagement. Spanish journal of psychology, 16(e29), 1-13. Gagné, M., y Deci, E. (2005). Self-determination theory and work motivation. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 26(4), 331-362. Gagné, M. (2009). A Model of knowledge-sharing motivation. Human Resource Management, 48(4), 571-589. Gimeno-Sacristán, J. (2014). La LOMCE: ¿Una ley más de educación?. Revista interuniversitaria de formación del profesorado, 81(28.3), 31-44. Hermida, R., Luchman, J., Nicolaides, V., & Wilcox, C. (2015). The issue of statistical power for overall model fit in evaluating structural equation models. Computational methods in social sciences, 3(1): 25-42. Kerlinger, F., & Lee, H. (2002). Investigación del comportamiento: Métodos de Investigación en Ciencias Sociales. México D.F.: McGraw-Hill Interamericana. Lauermann, F. (2014). Teacher responsability from the teacher's perspective. International journal of educational research, 65, 75-89. Ryan, R. M. (1993). Agency and organization: Intrinsic motivation, autonomy and the self in psychological development. In J. Jacobs (Ed.), Nebraska symposium on motivation: Developmental perspectives on motivation (pp. 1–56). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. Ryan, R., & Deci, E. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. Contemporany educational psychology, 25, 54-67. Zufiaurre, B. (2010). Didáctica, currículo, pedagogía: Contextualizar la educación para preparar una ciudadanía democrática. In L. Pellejero, & B. Zufiaurre (eds.), Formación didáctica para docentes: Los proyectos como estrategias para trabajar la inclusión, la equidad y la participación (pp. 15-61). Madrid: CCS.

Author Information

Rolando Angel-Alvarado (presenting / submitting)

Public University of Navarra

Department of Psychology & Pedagogy

Pamplona

Olga Belletich

Public University of Navarra, Spain

Miguel R. Wilhelmi

Public University of Navarra, Spain

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