In recent years, personalized learning has become a buzzword in the field of education and an approach that schools across the United States have adopted in their attempts to account for the diverse interests, aspirations, and needs of their students. Despite the growing interest in personalized learning, there is a dearth of empirical research on this educational approach, particularly as it relates to the student experience. Given the paucity of research in this area, little is known about the extent to which personalized learning can offer students a more beneficial quality of experience than traditional educational methods. This question is further complicated by the fact that personalized learning has been defined and put into practice in diverse ways. Given these conditions, the purpose of this study was to explore students' experiences with more humanistic forms of personalized learning at three high schools in Vermont. A pragmatic approach to qualitative research was used along with self-determination theory (SDT) as a framework to investigate students' perceptions of their autonomy, competence, relatedness, motivation, and well-being within the context of personalized learning. SDT was used as framework because it offers a lens for analyzing how social contexts affect people's experiences and proposes that individuals experience higher qualities of motivation, engagement, and performance when their basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness are met. Study findings, which are based on interviews with 28 students from three Vermont high schools, suggest participants generally felt autonomous, competent, and related in their personalized learning environments, which contributed to their intrinsic motivation, engagement, and well-being within these settings. Some features of personalized learning that supported multiple facets of students' basic psychological needs were the individualized nature of instruction, student-driven curriculum, and structures that enabled and supported community-based learning. Although many students suggested personalized learning supported their basic psychological needs, some struggled to direct and manage their own learning, which diminished their feelings of competence while others indicated that the individualized nature of their projects undermined their sense of relatedness to their peers. Overall, the findings indicate that humanistic approaches to personalized learning have the potential to contribute to a more beneficial quality of experience for high school students than traditional educational methods. The study has implications for educational policy and practice as it suggests personalization may be an effective approach for engaging a variety of students with their education and promoting the skills and dispositions for lifelong learning.

Self-Directed Work Teams (SDWT) are strategic organization designs based on the belief that the time required to make good decisions decreases when employees are empowered to tap their tacit job knowledge. Because this strategy requires employees to think differently about the way they perform their jobs, the supervisor plays a critical role in SDWT implementations. If leaders fail to adequately manage the challenges associated with the transition to the SDWT structure, employee commitment towards the team and organization at large may suffer, putting the realization of SDWT benefits at risk. To better understand this complicated process, this research describes a field study observation designed to explore the relationship between the constructs of Self-Determination Theory (autonomy, competence, relatedness) with employee affective commitment towards a SDWT transition. Additionally, this research evaluates the mediating role leadership influence tactics has on the relationship between Self-Determination Theory and employee affective commitment towards a SDWT transition.

The purpose of the thesis is to examine how adult immigrants in Romania describe the learning strategies that have helped them integrate in the new culture. To be able to draw conclusions about migrants' learning strategies and what has made them work, I have looked at the experience of five immigrants who speak Romanian and who have successfully integrated in the Romanian culture. The study employs a qualitative methodology, information has been collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis and a framework approach to data analysis. The key findings of the thesis are that integration through education, specifically through language learning, takes place more effectively if migrants are driven by intrinsic goals or if they internalize the extrinsic rewards that they expect upon completion of their goals. These findings can be put into practice to form better strategies and actions steps in organizational programs that aim at integrating migrants. They can also be brought to the knowledge of migrants looking to successfully integrate, to make them aware of how their choices and goals, even those apparently unrelated, can impact the outcome of their integration efforts.

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of teenage deaths in the United States, highlighting the need for ways to reduce teenage driver crash rates. Adolescents (n = 176, M age = 16.4 years, 53% female) and their parents (n = 204, 71% mothers) self-reported on parenting style, driving restrictions, and risky driving. Results showed that more parental restrictions were associated with less adolescent risky driving. Three-way interactions were found such that more restrictions were associated with less concurrent risky driving in boys only under conditions of high parental warmth, structure, or autonomy support. Parenting style generally did not moderate the association for girls, although more restrictions were associated with less risky driving one year later for girls only in the context of low autonomy support. Findings are discussed in terms of how parenting may differentially affect risky driving as a form of risk-taking versus risky driving stemming from inexperience.

Ce mémoire de maîtrise a été accompli simultanément à des études à temps plein en droit. / Le Québec est confronté à un vieillissement de sa population et une pénurie de main-d’œuvre spécialisée. Pour faire face à ces difficultés tout en restant compétitives à l’échelle internationale, les entreprises québécoises doivent adopter des méthodes de gestion novatrices qui génèrent une performance élevée chez leurs travailleurs peu nombreux. Il est donc essentiel de se servir – et de repenser – le mieux possible des déterminants reconnus de la performance au travail, au premier chef : la motivation. Or, les recherches adoptent habituellement une perspective linéaire en un temps entre ces variables, alors que différentes études soulèvent la possibilité que les relations soient différentes lorsque ces variables sont analysées dans une perspective autre que linéaire. La présente étude teste si une dynamique cyclique se produit. Les résultats de médiation multiples ne révèlent pas d’effet significatif de la motivation entre les performances de deux temps de mesure consécutifs. Cela conforte la nécessité d’élargir la recherche sur de nouvelles variables de manière à vérifier le potentiel lien cyclique entre deux performances. Également, cette recherche relève une zone d’ombre dans la relation dynamique entre la motivation et la performance : ce lien n’est pas aussi lisse qu’il ne le semble. Il arrive parfois que les motivations et performances initiales aient un impact plus déterminant sur les comportements futurs. / Québec has to deal with an aging population and a shortage of highly-skilled labor. In order to face these difficulties while remaining competitive internationally, Quebec’s businesses must adopt new management methods that generate a higher performance from their fewer workers. It is therefore essential to better utilize – and rethink – the predictors of work performance with motivation at the forefront of this endeavor. However, studies usually adopt a one-time only linear perspective between these variables, while other studies suggest that the relations between them would differ when analyzed more dynamically. The present study tests if a cyclic relation performance-motivation- performance occurs. Multiple mediation results do not show a significant effect of various forms of motivation on the performance of two consecutive time measures; hence supporting the need for future studies to test new variables in order to verify the potential cyclical link between two performances. Moreover, the present study identifies a grey zone in the dynamic relation between motivation and performance. Indeed, the link isn’t as smooth as it seems since initial motivations and performances appear to have the greatest impact on future behaviors.

Regular physical activity (PA) participation and fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption confers numerous positive health outcomes for cancer survivors, including prevention of cancer recurrence, second primary cancers, and other non-communicable chronic diseases. Rural-living young adult cancer survivors (YAs) possess unique barriers and concerns that influence their ability to participate in traditional face-to-face behaviour change interventions. Few researchers have explored alternative means for delivering behaviour change interventions grounded in theory utilizing a mixed-methods approach to assess processes of change and behavioural outcomes. To fill this gap and provide recommendations for future interventions and services focused on positive health behaviours in this population, the objective of the research presented in this thesis was to explore the feasibility and acceptability of a 12-week theory-based telehealth behaviour change intervention aiming to improve PA and FV consumption using a single-arm, mixed methods pilot trial. Over a 7-month period, 14 YAs self-referred. Of these 14, 5 were eligible and consented to participate with 3 completing the study. Retention to the study was 73% and adherence to the health coaching program ranged from 66.67-100% with a 40% attrition rate. Inquiry into the acceptability of the intervention offered insight into participants experiences, which was summarized within five themes: (1) the more time the better, (2) the human factor, (3) supporting access, (4) influencing the basic psychological needs, and (5) finding motivation. Collectively, the findings suggest the methods used require minor modifications before being deemed feasible despite the general acceptability of the intervention. Importantly, they highlight the necessity of more expansive recruitment strategies and a need to explore participants’ underlying intentions for participating in behaviour change interventions. Further, recommendations are made based on the findings to improve this style of intervention, including testing stepped down models of support because it may help some YAs maintain behaviour change post-intervention.

<p><i>Background.</i> Regular physical activity is beneficial for older adults in order to protect against age related injuries and illnesses, and to maintain their independence and quality of life. However, older adults are the least likely age group to meet the physical activity guidelines set forth by the American College of Sports Medicine and World Health Organization. According to the self-determination theory framework, health practitioners and exercise instructors should aim to create and deliver interventions in a way that fosters an autonomy-supportive health care climate (e.g., taking the perspectives of patients, providing choices) to facilitate satisfaction of the basic psychological needs and self-determined motivation. <i>Purpose</i>. The specific aims of this study were to (1) determine whether autonomy support is associated with physical activity-related need for autonomy, autonomous regulation, and physical activity behavior; and to (2) determine whether autonomy support moderates the association between physical activity-related need for autonomy and autonomous regulation. <i>Methods.</i> The design of the study was longitudinal. A total of 431 adults aged ≥ 55 years completed an online survey (Baseline – Week 0) containing self-determination theory-related predictor variables, along with past month and past week physical activity. Weekly online physical activity recall questionnaires were completed for four weeks (at Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, and Week 4). The product of coefficient <i>a</i> × <i>b</i> approach was used to test the mediation effect using multiple linear regression analysis. The Monte Carlo 95% confidence interval [95% CI] (5,000 bootstrap samples) for the mediated effects were obtained using Hayes SAS MCMED macro. <i>Results. </i>Physical activity-related need for autonomy was found to partially mediate the relationship between autonomy support and autonomous regulation, but only for those who were engaging in physical activity 2 days per week (0.0195 [0.0004, 0.0438]) and ≥ 4 days per week (0.0390 [0.0098, 0.0774]). Additionally, the physical activity-related need for autonomy and autonomous regulation were found to mediate the relationship between autonomy support and physical activity, but only for those who were previously physically active (≥ 4 days per week in the last month) and younger (e.g. aged 58 years). Autonomy support was not found to moderate the need for autonomy-autonomous regulation relationship. Physical activity-related need for competence was positively associated with autonomous regulation and physical activity behavior. <i>Conclusion.</i> In line with the self-determination theory, the current findings suggest that the facilitation of autonomy support and the subsequent fulfillment of the psychological needs; consequently, lead to an increase in autonomous regulation. Future research should consider how the need for competence plays a role in physical activity participation beyond autonomous regulation as adults age. </p>

Abstract Background:  Both the fitness and gamification industry are booming with no signs of slowing down in the near future. Gamified applications are entering the markets, attempting to induce gameful elements into tedious environments to enhance intrinsic motivation. The same goes for the gym sector, as market leaders, such as the Swedish gym chain Nordic Wellness, are increasingly implementing gamification elements into their business models.   Problem: The true effectiveness of gamification on intrinsic motivation remains underdeveloped. Literature highlights the necessity of adapting gamification design towards the end-user, by considering the different effects from the individual game elements and the context. However, the gym context has been completely neglected, even though gamification has become increasingly utilized in this sector.     Purpose: The purpose of this study is to increase the body of knowledge on how extrinsic mechanisms such as gamification can influence intrinsic motivation. This study utilizes the context of a gamified gym application for Nordic Wellness to determine the motivational potential of game elements. Thereby, the research team attempts to add to the body of literature by expanding on the effectiveness of gamification on intrinsic motivation, while also contributing through entering a currently undiscovered domain of gamification in the gym context.   Method: A qualitative approach with fifteen semi-structured interviews has been conducted on young Swedish adults attending the Swedish gym chain Nordic Wellness.   Results: The findings suggest Self-Determination Theory as a valid framework to examine the effects of gamification on intrinsic motivations. Through connecting the identified themes and theory, a framework is proposed for the evaluation on the effectiveness of game elements on intrinsic motivation. From evaluating the discussed game elements through this framework, recommendations are made for a gamified gym application that is argued to positively satisfy the psychological needs and therefore enhance the intrinsic motivations in a gym context.

Vårt syfte med denna uppsats har varit att öka vår förståelse för om, och i så fall hur, ledarskap skiljer sig åt mellan idrottsorganisationer och näringsliv med fokus på ledare och spelare/medarbetare. Uppsatsen har en kvalitativ ansats med semi-strukturerade intervjuer, där både ledare och spelare/medarbetare från båda organisationer intervjuats. Ledarskapen har jämförts med hjälp av The Full Range of Leadership av Bass &amp; Bass (2008) samt The Self- Determination Theory av Ryan &amp; Deci (2000). Våra resultat visar att ledarskapet skiljer sig åt på flera punkter, däribland mål, konflikthantering, feedback och motivation. Vi fann även likheter som bestrider tidigare forskning.

Destruktiva former av ledarskap har visat sig ha stor negativ påverkan på både individnivå och organisatorisk nivå. För att minska förekomsten av destruktiva ledarbeteenden är det viktigt att förstå vad som bidrar till att chefer agerar destruktivt. Studien syftade därför till att undersöka antecedenter (orsaker) till kontrollerande ledarskap. Data insamlades i en medelstor kommun genom webbaserade enkäter till chefer (n = 37) och deras medarbetare (n = 329) vid två tillfällen. Flernivåanalys användes för att analysera data. I linje med Self-determination theory (SDT) visade resultaten att lägre känsla av kompetens hos medarbetare predicerar ökad grad av kontrollerande ledarbeteenden hos chefer. Vidare återfanns resultat som visar att medarbetares arbetsprestation samt chefers stress inte predicerar kontrollerande ledarskap. Sammanfattningsvis indikerar resultaten att följare har betydelse för ledares användande av kontrollerande ledarbeteenden. Denna kunskap kan bidra till utformningen av interventioner i syfte att minska kontrollerande ledarskap och i förlängningen de kostsamma effekter som följer. / Destructive forms of leadership have been proved to have major negative impact at both individual and organizational levels. To reduce the occurrence of destructive management behaviors it is important to understand what contributes to the manager acting destructive. The study therefore aimed to investigate antecedents (causes) to controlling leadership. Data were collected in a medium-sized municipality through web-based surveys, to managers (n = 37) and their employees (n = 329) on two occasions. Multilevel analysis was used to analyze data. In line with Self-determination theory (SDT), the results showed lower sense of competence among employees predicts higher levels of controlling leadership behaviors among managers. Furthermore, the results showed that employees’ work performance and managers’ stress do not predict controlling leadership. In summary, the results indicate that followers play a role in manager’s use of controlling leadership behaviors. This knowledge can contribute to the design of interventions in order to reduce controlling leadership and, in the long run, the costly effects that follows.