Motivation Theory and Its Yields for Promoting Students' Social and Emotional Competence

A vast and comprehensive body of research highlights the importance of motivation for academic outcomes. More recently, researchers and educators are increasingly becoming aware of the importance of motivation for social and emotional outcomes. In the current chapter, it is argued that motivation is a core component of social and emotional competence because such competence must be actively and willfully applied to have a positive impact on the individual and those around them. Motivation is essential for this application. In this chapter, three well-known motivation constructs are presented as playing a role in promoting positive social and emotional outcomes: social goals, growth mindsets, and autonomous motivation. Then, attention is narrowed down to an in-depth consideration of autonomous motivation and its role in a recently developed conceptual model that articulates the instructional, motivational, and behavioral factors and processes implicated in social and emotional development (Collie, 2020). The conceptual model highlights that instructional practices promote students' perceptions (of autonomy, competence, and relatedness) and, in turn, their autonomous motivation and enactment of socially and emotionally competent behaviors. The chapter concludes with implications for practice and research.