Every child develops at their own pace and in their own way within a multitude of individual, family, and community contexts. Yet, modern schooling often requires adherence to an age-graded schedule of learning based not upon an individual student’s naturally developing interests and abilities, but rather upon a segment of society’s notions about college and career readiness. It is not surprising, then, that students (and even many teachers and parents) frequently fail to recognize the relevance, if any, such content has in their daily lives—especially students whose abilities or interests may lie outside the prescribed set of requirements. Further, beginning at a young age, the behavior of children is highly constrained through the use of various rewards and punishments, including a punitive disciplinary system and a prominent and often public grading system that encourages strong social comparisons and may evoke feelings of inadequacy, shame, and resentment, even among those students who appear, on the surface, to excel (Ryan & Deci, 2018, p. 353). 

One common complaint from teachers and parents about adolescents is a perceived lack of self-motivation in school settings. In fact, research shows persistent age-related declines in a variety of school engagement measures from elementary school to high school (Kaufman et al., 2010; Wang, Chow, Hofkens, & Salmela-Aro, 2015). It can be tempting to assume many students simply lack an interest in or enthusiasm for learning. The perspective presented in this course, however, emphasizes the types of social support students receive from both adults and peers.

As the primary context within which the whole child develops, school culture and climate shape not only students’ intellectual outcomes, but also their motivation, self-concept, self-regulation, interpersonal relationships, and community engagement. Decades of research confirm how deeply important social and emotional competencies are for present and future achievement and wellbeing (Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, et al., 2011; Jones, Greenberg, & Crowley, 2015). As such, we wish schools to be places of support, encouragement, and inclusion, rather than sources of control, discouragement, and exclusion.

Unfortunately, administrators, teachers, and students face a waterfall of external pressures and performance goals largely driven by state and federal incentives and test-based accountability systems. These policies constrain curricular choices and classroom practices in ways that are frequently experienced as controlling, which can hinder students’ and educators’ basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and belonging. 

When educators perceive their professional environments as controlling, they may be more likely to also teach, or otherwise interact with students, in controlling ways that undermine students’ autonomous motivation and learning. In many ways, students and educators are caught in the same trap, experiencing these parallel pressures and responding in similar ways to similar incentives. These conditions have a profound impact on motivation, and frequently the results are neither productive nor fun for anyone involved. 

Of course, none of this means that educators should not set limits or have high expectations for students, but there are important differences between structure and control, a topic to be explored later in this course. This perspective simply recognizes traditional narrow measures of school success are not only insufficient, but they can also be alienating. Grades alone do not necessarily reflect mastery, nor do they reflect the breadth of social and emotional competencies known to support long-term achievement and wellbeing. In the challenging developmental context of modern school settings, however, educators can still be a powerful force for good. As you will discover throughout this course, simple but important acts, such as framing learning with students’ authentic interests and intrinsic goals in mind and being responsive to students’ preferences and emotional needs, can make teaching and learning easier and more enjoyable.