yadegar Mohamadi

Self-determination theory emphasizes that three inner needs are central to human growth and development, the needs for autonomy, competence, and social relatedness.Autonomy refers to volition and the experience of freedom. Competence is about feeling effective and confident in pur-suing an activity(Ryan & Deci, 2002), and relatedness is about being accepted by others and feeling connected to others in a secure environment. An autonomy supportive learning environment plays a key role in the satisfaction of these needs. According to the theory, satisfaction of these needs supports intrinsic motivation, internalization, and autonomous motivation. In an educa-tional setting, students’ often encounter activities they do not enjoy or that they find of little interest. Internaliza-tion of extrinsic motivation is therefore important for the students to maintain volition for those activities(Nie-miec& Ryan, 2009). By supporting the needs for competence, relatedness, and autonomy in physical activities, teachers can enable the process of internalization and integration of motivation

Self-Determination Theory, Need Satisfaction, Motivation, Performance, Autonomy Support