How can the blow of math difficulty on elementary school children’s motivational, cognitive, and affective experiences be dampened? The critical role of autonomy-supportive instructions.
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Although teachers are recommended to create a stimulating learning environment in which children can use, perfect, and extend their skills, this is far from easy. In many cases, identifying the optimal difficulty level of learning tasks involves a trial-and-error process during which teachers offer children too difficult tasks, with negative outcomes as a result. This experimental study investigated if autonomy-supportive instructions could dampen or even cancel out these presumed negative outcomes associated with math difficulty in elementary schoolchildren (N = 479; M-age = 9.41). After varying an autonomy-supportive versus a controlling instructional style through a comic book, children solved a series of either easy-medium or difficult math exercises, followed by the completion of questionnaires and the opportunity to choose the difficulty level of a final set of exercises to work on independently. Children who solved difficult, relative to easier, exercises reported less interest, more irritation, and more cognitive disengagement, while also seeking less challenge when asked to work independently. Need-based experiences of competence and autonomy accounted for these effects. Yet, the impairing impact of task difficulty could, at least partially, be dampened through the use of an autonomy-supportive relative to a controlling instructional style, which led to enhanced autonomy satisfaction. These findings largely occurred independent of children's motives for mathematics. The results have high practical value, especially for poor performers and children with mathematical learning disabilities, who find math to be harder overall. Limitations and implications for practice are discussed. Educational Impact and Implications Statement : Autonomy-supportive instructions (e.g., inviting language, meaningful rationale) were found to dampen the impairing effects of too difficult math tasks on children's motivational, cognitive, and affective experiences. This is especially important for poor performers and children with mathematical learning disabilities, who find math to be harder overall. An autonomy-supportive environment and avoiding too hard learning material may stimulate children to accept new challenges, thereby possibly improving chances for later academic/job success.
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Differences in individuals' autonomous motivation, causality orientations, need strength and motive dispositions can moderate to some extent the relation between various need-supportive and need-thwarting practices and outcomes.
“Yet, as for the first part of the model, differences in individuals' autonomous motivation (e.g., Baten et al. 2020;Black and Deci 2000;Mouratidis et al. 2011), causality orientations (e.g., Hagger and Chatzisarantis 2011), need strength (Katz et al. 2009) and motive dispositions (Sheldon and Schüler 2011) can moderate to some extent the relation between various need-supportive and need-thwarting”
From Basic psychological need theory: Advancements, critical themes, and future directions (2020) · cites this paper as Baten et al. 2020
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- Authors
- Baten, E., Vansteenkiste, M., De Muynck, G.-J., De Poortere, E., & Desoete, A.
- Venue
- Journal of Educational Psychology
- Published
- 2020-11
- Volume
- 112
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 1490-1505
- ISSN
- 0022-0663 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-2176
- OpenAlex
- W2995110658
- Cited by
- 46
- References
- 84
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 3
- FWCI
- 4.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Licence
- other-oa
- Locations
- Journal of Educational Psychology (publishedVersion)
- Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Motivation and Self-Concept in Sports
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Education, Achievement, and Giftedness
- Social Sciences › Education › Early Childhood Education and Development
- Keywords
- task difficulty, mathematics learning, elementary school students, interest, cognitive disengagement, challenge seeking, competence, autonomy, need satisfaction, mathematical learning disabilities, student motivation, emotional experience
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