Autonomy and Relatedness: Motivating Kindergarten Teachers in an Online Professional Development

Drawing on the self-determination theory, this paper focuses on two factors that are essential for individuals to be motivated, namely the psychological needs of autonomy and relatedness. We implemented three different iterations of an online PD course, entitled Chat with Children. While content was identical, the designs of autonomy and relatedness varied. Participants of this exploratory study were 417 in-service Hong Kong kindergarten teachers. We analyzed teachers’ enrollment, participation, and completion in the three iterations, and also interviewed teachers to explore their experiences of different autonomy and relatedness designs. We found that participation and completion were significantly higher in the iterations that fostered autonomy and relatedness, although enrollment was lower, and that certain aspects of the design of the PD were central for the participants’ experience of autonomy and relatedness. These results provide new insights for PD designers and teacher educators. Implications, limitations, and future research are discussed.