Self-Determination Theory and the Education of Learners with Disabilities

Abstract The development of interventions to promote the self-determined learning of students with disabilities has its roots in understandings of causal agency, intrinsic motivation, and autonomous functioning described in early research in self-determination theory (SDT) and in applications of SDT in the context of positive psychology and education. In the early 1990s, the field of special education recognized that students themselves were the missing actors in efforts to improve post-school and life outcomes. As the field moved toward strengths-based approaches to disability after the turn of the 21st century, research in SDT, positive psychology, and positive education, including work on the application of SDT to educational settings, was critical in efforts in special education to enhance self-determined learning. This chapter overviews this progression, describes a model of the development of self-determination derived from SDT and causal agency theory, and overviews an intervention, the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction, that has strong evidence of efficacy and potential to contribute to enhancing self-determined learning for all students, with and without disabilities.