Autonomy, competence and relatedness perceived by teacher candidates: A self-determination practice using creative drama

The aim of this study is to provide prospective classroom teachers with exemplary experiences about psychological needs based on self-determination theory and to positively improve the perceived autonomy, competence and relevance of pre-service teachers. It is considered as a secondary objective to ensure that the needs of autonomy, competence and relevance that are saturated in this way will bring about the olma goodness inde. In order to achieve these objectives, a 12-week action plan consisting of workshops based on self-determination theory was implemented. The method of this research is a qualitative research method which is one of the scientific research methods and it is designed according to the action research. The study group of the research consists of 13th grade students studying in Erzincan Binali Yıldırım University Classroom Teaching Department in 2017-2018 academic year. In the study, semi-structured interview form questions and diaries were used as data collection tools. Content analysis was used to analyze the data. When the findings of the study were analyzed, the following conclusions were reached: It was concluded that pre-service teachers took responsibility when they felt "belonging" about their own behaviors, that is, they assumed responsibility, but did not assume responsibility when they were subjected to external intervention. It was seen that teacher trainees had the opportunity to explore their talents through drama workshops and developed a self-confidence in defining themselves in terms of their personal characteristics. When the process was evaluated in general, it was concluded that the ability to cooperate with the group was improved among the prospective teachers. Keywords: Creative Drama, Self-Determination Theory, Autonomy, Competence, Relation