How student-faculty interactions influence student motivation: A longitudinal study Using self-determination theory

Abstract

Through the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and other sources we have quantitative measures of student-faculty interactions and we know that such interactions impact learning. Yet we know little about the quality of these interactions or how such interactions impact students' motivation. Grounded in self-determination motivation theory, this research begins addressing this gap using interviews with students to explore students' perceptions of interactions with faculty and how such interactions impact students' autonomy, competence and relatedness beliefs. The interviews, collected annually with each participant for four years, were analyzed using multi-case methods. The results of our analysis across all four years show that students' feelings of autonomy-support decrease after the first year, that students do not generally describe competence supporting behaviors by faculty, and that students are generally positive about relatedness with faculty other than in the third year. Over all four years, more women report positive relatedness than men, while men are much more likely to report neutral feelings or not discuss the topic. The primary implication for practice is the need for faculty to be more aware of the many unintended ways their actions can influence students. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2010.