A systematic review and meta-analysis of self-determination-theory-based interventions in the education context

Abstract

For more than two decades, researchers/schools have adopted Self-Determination Theory (SDT)-based interventions to provide valuable insights into improving education process. The systematic review examined 36 SDT-based intervention studies (N = 11,792 participants) to understand the nature and effects of these interventions in promoting students’ intrinsic motivation and basic psychological needs. Among those studies, 31 included effect sizes related to the effectiveness of the SDT-based interventions. Results from the meta-analysis with the 137 effect sizes extracted from those studies (N = 9433 participants) consistently support students’ need for autonomy and competence, with evidence of effectiveness of SDT-based interventions across both experimental/quasi-experimental (autonomy: g = 1.14, p < 0.0001; competence: g = 0.48, p < 0.05) and pre-post study designs (autonomy: g = 0.19, p < 0.01; competence: g = 0.58, p < 0.05). These interventions also demonstrated a partially significant effect in enhancing students' intrinsic motivation within experimental/quasi-experimental frameworks (g = 0.58, p < 0.01), but no significant overall effect on satisfying students’ relatedness (g = 0.44, p > 0.05). We also discussed the different designs of teacher-centered, student-centered, parent-centered, mentor-mentee-centered, and combined approaches of SDT-based interventions and extracted basic psychological needs support strategies from the included interventions (N = 119). Through synthesizing the results from systematic review and meta-analysis, we provide nine research recommendations and future directions for conducting evidence-based and sustainable SDT interventions.