Autonomous Motivation for Teaching: How Self-Determined Teaching May Lead to Self-Determined Learning

This study examined teachers’ experience of autonomous motivation for teaching and its correlates in teachers and students. It was hypothesized that teachers would perceive various motivations posited by E. L. Deci and R. M. Ryan’s (2000) self-determination theory as falling along a continuum of autonomous motivation for teaching. Autonomous motivation for teaching was predicted to be associated positively with teachers’ sense of personal accomplishment and negatively with emotional exhaustion. Most important, teachers’ self-reported autonomous motivation for teaching was expected to promote students’ self-reported autonomous motivation for learning by enhancing teachers’ autonomy-supportive behavior, as indicated by students’ reports. Results from a sample of 132 Israeli teachers and their 1,255 students were consistent with the hypotheses. Discussion focuses on the importance of the experience of autonomous motivation for teaching for teachers and students.