Students’ perceptions of lecturers and its influence on their need for autonomy, competence and relatedness

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate and understand how students’ perception of their lecturers influence their basic psychological needs. The study was approached using Self-Determination Theory as a theoretical lens, focusing specifically on the aspect of basic needs satisfaction (need for autonomy, competence and relatedness). A qualitative research approach was followed to ensure that the research questions could be answered. The study followed a secondary data analysis design, with data sources in the form of pre-existing narratives that were collected from the first-year students at the University of Pretoria describing the attitudes and behaviours of motivating and demotivating lecturers. Purposive sampling procedures were used to select the 20 information rich narratives for use in this study. Further, inductive thematic data analysis procedures were employed as these allowed for the clustering and thematising of meaningful data. The emerging themes were: lecturer’s relationship with the students, formal content presentation, teaching approach, and lecturer’s personality. These themes represent the aspects of lecturers’ attitudes and behaviours that potentially foster or thwart students’ basic psychological needs. The findings highlighted a positive role of the students’ perception of their lecturers on their perception of the learning environment. The findings further highlighted the importance of lecturers understanding the effect of motivation on their students in order for them to sustain a classroom environment where students can excel through having their basic psychological needs met.