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An important pedagogical practice is the provision of structure (Farkas & Grolnick, 2010, Motiv. Emot., 34, 266). According to self‐determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985, Intrinsic motivation and self‐determination in human behavior, Plenum, New York, NY), structure allows students to develop perceived competence in different school subjects, which in turn facilitates the development of autonomous motivation towards these subjects and limits the development of controlled motivation.

In this study, we test a mediated moderation model that posits that teacher structure has a stronger positive effect on students’ autonomous motivation (and a negative effect on controlled motivation) in French class when differentiated instruction is used, and that this moderation effect is mediated by perceived competence.

To test this model, we used a sample of 27 elementary school teachers and …