Integrating Self-Determination Theory and Social Cognitive Theory to Explain Student Engagement in Ideological-Political Courses
Journal: Region - Educational Research and Reviews DOI: 10.32629/rerr.v7i10.4828
Abstract
Student engagement is a core indicator of the quality of ideological-political (IP) education in universities, yet many students still experience these compulsory courses as exam oriented and boring. Self-Determination Theory (SDT) shows that environments which support autonomy, competence and relatedness foster deep engagement, while Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) highlights academic self-efficacy as a key mechanism linking social support to motivated learning. Drawing on recent empirical studies, this conceptual paper integrates SDT and SCT to explain how teacher support shapes university students’ engagement in IP courses. We argue that teachers influence engagement through two connected pathways: by satisfying students’ basic psychological needs they promote autonomous motivation, and by building students’ academic self-efficacy and self-regulated learning skills they enable students to act on this motivation in demanding ideological tasks. An integrative framework linking teacher support, need satisfaction, self-efficacy and multi-dimensional engagement is proposed, together with implications for the design and study of contemporary IP courses.
Keywords
ideological-political courses, student engagement, self-determination theory, social cognitive theory, academic self-efficacy
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[5] Chen, Z. (2025). Exploring the mediating effect of academic self-efficacy and self-regulated learning in the relationship between teaching and social presence and cognitive presence in blended learning. Journal of Pedagogical Research.
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