WISE INTERVENTIONS

Belgian college students studying to become preschool teachers learned about recycling in class. For some the instructions used autonomy-supportive phrases like “you can,” “you might,” and “if you choose.” For others the instructions used controlling phrases like, “you should,” “you have to,” and “you’d better.” Students in the autonomy-supportive condition learned more, performing better on a test of conceptual understanding and contributing more to a group discussion a week later, reported more autonomous motivation, and were more likely to seek out further information about recycling. Similar benefits were also found for an intervention that represented the course content as linked to students’ intrinsic goals to be teachers.