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Handbook of Research on Student Engagement pp 421–439Cite as

Allowing Choice and Nurturing an Inner Compass: Educational Practices Supporting Students’ Need for Autonomy

Abstract

This chapter focuses on seven practices of autonomy support which are likely to promote two major components of the need for autonomy: (a) lack of coercion and optional choice and (b) formation and realization of an inner compass: authentic, direction-giving values, goals, and interests. A special emphasis is put on research pertaining to three autonomy supportive practices which are assumed to support formation and realization of authentic, direction-giving values, goals, and interests, whose impact on perceived autonomy was not sufficiently examined so far: (a) IVD – intrinsic value demonstration, (b) SVE – support for value/goal/interest examination, and (c) FIV – fostering inner-directed valuing processes. The autonomy supportive practices that foster the development of stable authentic values and goals might be especially important in western countries, in which postmodern moral relativism and the abundance of information and options make it particularly difficult for youth to form stable and authentic values and goals.

Keywords

  • Psychological Control
  • Autonomy Support
  • Autonomous Motivation
  • Perspective Taking
  • Academic Engagement

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

The research reported in this chapter was supported by grants from the Israel Science Foundation, the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation, and the chief scientist of the Israel education ministry.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Educational and School Psychology Program, Ben Gurion University, Be’er-Sheva, Israel

    Avi Assor

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  1. Avi Assor
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Correspondence to Avi Assor .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota, E. River Road 56, Minneapolis, 55455, Minnesota, USA

    Sandra L. Christenson

  2. Dept. Educational Psychology &, Instructional Technology, University of Georgia, Aderhold Hall 325N, Athens, 30602, Georgia, USA

    Amy L. Reschly

  3. Educational Research, New Zealand Council for, Wellington, New Zealand

    Cathy Wylie

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Assor, A. (2012). Allowing Choice and Nurturing an Inner Compass: Educational Practices Supporting Students’ Need for Autonomy. In: Christenson, S., Reschly, A., Wylie, C. (eds) Handbook of Research on Student Engagement. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-2018-7_20

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