According to self-determination theory, social contexts that support students' basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness foster motivation toward behaviors that are valued in that social context. This study investigated the socio-contextual elements of a learning environment that support or undermine students' basic…

Problem-based learning (PBL), initiated when learners meet the problem scenarios, develops learners' skills and subject matter content to make the transition from beginner to more expert problem solver. Beginning students might benefit from simple, well-structured problems, in which the understanding of sets of rules and principles results in a…