The intervention was conducted in separate rooms at the different schools. A number of the
schools had special computer rooms available for the task, which meant that all the
students were able to work on the task at the same time. In other schools, the students had to work during different sessions. The intervention was conducted during a single session
and took approximately 1.5 h for each learner. An experimenter explained the task at the
beginning of the session. The teacher was present but played no active role. The students
completed the task independently and were not allowed to work together. Students were
allowed to ask questions but were only given minimal help. Teachers were not allowed to
give instructions. At the end of the task, each student filled out a questionnaire concerning
the extent to which he or she had been motivated to complete the task and the degree of
autonomy and competence that he or she had experienced.