Teachers

India celebrates Teachers Day today and I was invited to address teachers at a school. The following is a recalled description of part of what I said.

Teaching, as in imparting knowledge, such as maths, science, geography etc., is only one of the functions of a teacher. Among the more imporant ones I focused on today is: creating the contexts in which children can grow emotionally.

A very important part of this function is helping children meet ther basic emotional needs. Self Determination Theory (SDT) in psychology has zeroed in on three basic emotional needs: relatedness, competenc and autonomy.

Relatedness refers to the need to feel accepted and loved, to have a sense of belonging. Competence means that one feels capable of achieving desires results, one feels capable and ocnfident. Autonomy here is understood as freedom to make choices, to give directions to one's life, to have a say on matters that affect one's life.

An effective teacher does not just impart knowledge, but creates an environment in the class room and in the school which faciliates the satisfaction of these basic needs.

When such an environment reigns in the class room, then children will be intrinsially motivated to study, that is, they study because they enjoy studying.

Self Determination theorists Ryan and Deci tell us:

Contexts supportive of autonomy, competence, and relatedness were found to foster greater internalization and integration than contexts that thwart satisfaction of these needs. This latter finding, we argue, is of great significance for individuals who wish to motivate others in a way that engenders commitment, effort, and high quality performance.

….if the social contexts in which such individuals are embedded are responsive to basic psychological needs, they provide the appropriate developmental lattice upon which an active, assimilative, and integrated nature can ascend. Excessive control, non-optimal challenges, and lack of connectedness, on the other hand, disrupt the inherent actualizing and organizational tendencies endowed by nature, and thus such factors result not only in lack of initiative and responsibility but also in distress and psychopathology (2000, p. 76).

Teachers are individuals who wish to motivate others in a way that engenders commitment, effort, and high quality performance. More than techniques and tricks, what they require to motivate their students is the ability to create the context in which stufents feel accepted and loved, competent and confident, and free to be creative.

Happy Teachers Day!