ABSTRACT
Our view is that adjustments affect learning by changing the experiences, beliefs, and behaviors that define new adaptations to situations. Self-determined learning theory is based on this understanding that when a circumstance that is perceived to be an opportunity for gain provokes frequent and persistent engagement to produce new adjustments, the resulting adaptive changes are the maximum possible for that situation. Hence, learning is the maximum possible too. The theory in Table 3.1 uses the causal factors described in chapter 2 to make this claim explicit. Proposition 1 claims that when opportunities to learn about an unknown situation are as favorable as possible under the circumstances, engagement increases as actors regulate their expectations, choices, and actions to produce desirable changes in the situation. Proposition 2 claims that as engagement increases, adjustments optimize as expectations become adaptive, choices become rational, actions become efficient, and results become successful. Proposition 3 claims that with this optimization of adjustments, engagement persists, and control over learning maximizes. Proposition 4, which is a deduction from propositions 1–3, claims that because opportunities affect adjustments and adjustments affect engagement, control, and learning, opportunities also affect engagement, control, and learning. In other words, as opportunities optimize, engagement, control, and learning maximize.
