Supporting Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness in a Learning-to-Learn Course: College Students’ Insights Into Effective Instruction

Autonomy, competence, and relatedness are psychological needs that may be particularly important for instructors to address in learning-to-learn courses, which are designed to support college students’ personal development and academic success. Guided by self-determination theory, in this qualitative study we focused on the learning-to-learn context to understand psychological need satisfaction from the perspectives of college students and in their own words. We analyzed end-of-semester evaluations in 10 sections of a learning-to-learn course offered through an educational psychology program at a large public university. The findings highlighted how instructional features, intellectual experiences, and teaching practices supported autonomy, competence, and relatedness. The 10 themes emerging from the analysis can be used to understand self-determination theory in practice and guide learner-centered instruction.