The chapter regarding SDT in educational settings has a section in which the reasons behind teachers acting controlling toward their students are discussed. To summarize:

• the job itself focuses on behavior modification and has trouble showing teachers how to encourage autonomy in students
• teachers are stuck in inflexible conditions, not being able to exercise independent teaching behavior as well as potentially dealing with disinterested students
• extrinsic motivation is often considered to be greater than intrinsic motivation and it is believed that students rarely possess intrinsic motives (which is untrue)
• teachers are considered to be in charge of students and that this is the best method of teaching, to be authoritative (also untrue)
• teachers disregard findings by researchers about motivation, SDT, etc.