Students’ motivation in emergency remote teaching during Covid-19 pandemic: a self-determination theory perspective

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic forced every educational system to adopt online teaching. This study aimed to investigate, in the light of self-determination theory, students’ motivation to learn using digital information.  The participants were 600 high school students from public schools that had studied using the Classroom application. A Likert-type scale questionnaire was administered to the participants to assess the quality of motivation and the perception of attending basic psychological needs, considering some intrapersonal and contextual variables. The results showed significant relationships between scores on the different measures. With a person-centered approach, students were also grouped into two clusters, one of which was considered risky to motivation. The results were discussed considering the theory, and consequences were drawn for both remote and face-to-face teaching situations.