LAUSR

Students' attitudes towards teaching and learning must be addressed with the same seriousness and effort as we address content. Establishing a personal connection and addressing our students' basic psychological needs will produce positive attitudes towards teaching and learning and develop life‐long learners. It will also promote constructive student‐teacher relationships that have a profound influence on our students' approach towards school. To begin this process, consider the major tenets of the Self‐Determination Theory. The Self‐Determination Theory of human motivation focuses on our students' innate psychological needs and the degree to which an individual's behavior is self‐motivated and self‐determined. Faculty can satisfy the innate psychological needs by addressing our students' desire for relatedness, competence and autonomy. Relatedness refers to our students' need to feel connected to others, to be a member of a group, to have a sense of communion and to develop close relationships with others. Competence is believing our students can succeed, challenging them to do so and imparting that belief in them. Autonomy involves considering the perspectives of the student and providing relevant information and opportunities for student choice and initiating and regulating their own behaviors. Establishing a personal connection and addressing our students' basic psychological needs will improve our teaching, inspire and engage our students and promote positive attitudes towards teaching and learning while reducing competition and increasing compassion. These are important goals because unless students are inspired and motivated and have positive attitudes towards teaching and learning our efforts will fail to meet their full potential. Anat Sci Educ 10: 503–507. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.