The Relationship Between Motivational Climate and a Student’s Effort and Experience in Physical Education
Purpose of Study
The authors of this study wanted to determine the effects of motivational climate on the affective and behavior responses of students in a physical education class. Is a student intrinsically motivated (self-determination theory) or is the student more apt to perform well because he/she wants to be the best in the class (achievement goal theory)? And how would either of these affect the effort exerted or level of enjoyment of the student?
What Was Done?
After creating an operational definition for enjoyment, the authors of the study decided to use two questionnaires to measure the effects of achievement goal and self-determination theories on PE students. The Motivational Climate in Physical Education Questionnaire was chosen to measure the effects of achievement goal and self-determination theories on Physical Education students. The Physical Education State Anxiety Scale was used to assess the effects of anxiety on a student’s participation in a lesson. Both questionnaires were completed by 338 students (163 females, 175 males) in the 6th grade (ages 11-12) who attended two different elementary schools in two Finnish cities.
What Was Found?
Once all the questionnaires were administered, descriptive analysis was used to determine the mean, standard deviation and reliability of results. From this data, the authors could draw several conclusions. First, a sense of autonomy, relatedness, and task-involving climate had moderate correlation in respect to each other and greater correlation when compared to effort and enjoyment. Second, ego-involving climates had low positive correlation with anxiety felt by students, but had little to no effect on enjoyment. Third, the study found there to be a moderate positive relationship between enjoyment and effort.
What Does the Study Mean?
According to the study, positive experiences in Physical Education can be a contributing factor in a student becoming involved in physical activity during leisure time. With this in mind, educators need to gain perspective on how students are motivated and how their experiences in PE can affect effort or enjoyment. This study shows that a student’s perception of competence, relatedness, and autonomy can have positive or negative implications on a student’s enjoyment and effort. By knowing this, teachers could create motivational appropriate climates that are catered to meet the needs of all students.
As previous studies have shown, a self-determine motivational climate can have positive implications on enjoyment. Task-oriented, autonomy-supportive environments may be the most successful at getting students motivated to be physically active. Students participating in this type of climate (task-involved) are more likely to exert more effort toward improvement than counterparts who only want to out-perform classmates. This is important to the teacher who wants to reiterate the idea that fitness is a personal concept. Overall, this study shows that a self-determination climate is more likely to produce students who experience low anxiety, high levels of effort and more enjoyment, which could then translate into more students who are willing to participate in physical activity outside the classroom.
Reference
Liukkonen, J., Barkoukis, V., Watt, A., Jaakkola, T. (2010). Motivational
Climate and Students’ Emotional Experiences and Effort in Physical
Education. The Journal of Educational Research, 103:295-308.
