The self-determination theory (SDT) assumes that healthy motivation needs to be intrinsic in nature and that the basic psychological needs competence, autonomy and relatedness are prerequisites for intrinsically motivated behaviour. Intrinsically motivated students in turn show more persistence and understanding of classroom material. However, in secondary education, students often participate in performance-oriented classrooms with an extrinsic orientation and it cannot be assumed that the principles advocated by the SDT are automatically applicable in this context. We tested a model relating basic psychological needs via intrinsic motivation to persistence and performance at two waves using data from 476 students (aged 11-17 years) attending pre-vocational secondary education. Structural equation analysis showed that a partial mediation model with perceived competence also directly associated with persistence and performance fitted the data best at both waves. Interestingly, the strength of the effects varied across waves, such that relatedness and Eur J Psychol Educ (2012) The importance of classroom motivation in secondary education is undisputed. Unfortunately, there are many motivational problems in the classroom. Students in their early adolescence show a decline in motivation and interest in school (e.g. Eccles et al. 1993). Additionally, late adolescent students show a general decline in achievement and mastery goals compared to younger students (Mansfield and Wosnitza 2010).Furthermore, in class, there is a strong emphasis on performance and extrinsic motivation. Teachers evaluate and monitor learning by grading their students' performance (Ryan and Weinstein 2009). As a consequence, classroom performance is commonly assessed with tests and exams, which may lead students towards extrinsic orientations. According to the self-determination theory (SDT; Deci and Ryan 2000), under such conditions, feelings of enthusiasm and interest are in danger of being replaced by experiences of anxiety, boredom and alienation (Niemiec and Ryan 2009). Imposing external control might even disrupt students' natural tendency to learn. Therefore, the present study was designed to test the predictions generated by SDT in a predominantly extrinsically oriented context. Self-determination theory: research findingsSDT is a universal motivation theory that is presumed to apply to individuals of all age groups across all situations (Ryan and Deci 2000b). This implies that SDT can also be applied in the educational context (Reeve 2002). SDT proposes that people have a natural tendency to learn. Within SDT, the concept of motivation can either be intrinsic or extrinsic. Ryan and Deci (2000a) postulate that extrinsic motivation can vary in the degree to which it is autonomous, which results in four different sub-categories of extrinsic motivation depending on the amount of internalisation and regulatory style of adopting a specific goal. The taxonomy of human motivation contains six different motivation styles. At the lef...

Different theoretical viewpoints on motivation make it hard to decide which model has the best potential to provide valid predictions on classroom performance. This study was designed to explore motivation constructs derived from different motivation perspectives that predict performance on a novel task best. Motivation constructs from self-determination theory, self-regulation theory, and achievement goal theory were investigated in tandem. Performance was measured by systematicity (i.e. how systematically students worked on a problem-solving task) and test score (i.e. score on a multiple-choice test). Hierarchical regression analyses on data from 259 secondary school students showed a quadratic relation between a performance avoidance orientation and both performance outcomes, indicating that extreme high and low performance avoidance resulted in the lowest performance. Furthermore, two three-way interaction effects were found. Intrinsic motivation seemed to play a key role in test score and systematicity performance, provided that effort regulation and metacognitive skills were both high. Results indicate that intrinsic motivation in itself is not enough to attain a good performance. Instead, a moderate score on performance avoidance, together with the ability to remain motivated and effectively regulate and control task behavior, is needed to attain a good performance. High time management skills also contributed to higher test score and systematicity performance and a low performance approach orientation contributed to higher systematicity performance. We concluded that self-regulatory skills should be trained in order to have intrinsically motivated students perform well on novel tasks in the classroom.