Effects of cooperative games on enjoyment in physical education—How to increase positive experiences in students?

Abstract

Enjoyment is one of the most important factors for the maintenance of regular physical activity. The present study investigated if cooperative games in physical education classes (grades 6–9) can increase students’ enjoyment of physical activity. Data were collected in a quasi-experimental study employing a two-group design with repeated measures and randomization of classes to conditions. The total sample consisted of N = 285 students from regular schools in Germany aged 10 to 16 years (Mage = 12.67 years, SD = 1.10; 48.4% female). We found that cooperative games led to a higher perceived enjoyment in physical education classes (F(1) = 3.49, p = .063, ηp2 = .012), increased the feeling of how strong students felt related to each other (F(1) = 4.38, p = .037, ηp2 = .016), and facilitated feelings of perceived competence in physical education class (F(1) = 6.31, p = .013, ηp2 = .022). In addition, social relatedness and perceived competence partly mediated the effect of cooperative games on enjoyment. The findings indicate that systematically designed cooperative games can help foster enjoyment in physical education classes.

The Effect of Teacher Autonomy Support on Leisure-Time Physical Activity via Cognitive Appraisals and Achievement Emotions: A Mediation Analysis Based on the Control-Value Theory

“…Both results align with previous findings. Whereas enjoyment was consistently identified as a powerful trigger for PA [56,59,[97][98][99][100], ambiguous findings were shown for anxiety [61,62,92]. In the present study, almost one quarter of the variance in leisure-time PA was explained by enjoyment in PE.…”

“…Engagement in regular PA can be seen as a performance-related achievement outcome of PE. In line with the theoretical assumptions of the CVT, studies conducted in the context of PE indicate that the experience of enjoyment in PE is related with PA engagement both in PE [ 56 , 57 ] and during leisure time [ 56 , 58 , 59 ]. With regard to the age effect underlying the development of PA behavior in childhood and adolescence [ 5 , 60 ], enjoyment has been found to delay or even prevent the decline of motivation for PA [ 61 ].…”

Having a Positive Relationship to Physical Activity: Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Age as Predictors for Students’ Enjoyment in Physical Education

“…According to our results, while competence is most highly weighted, followed by autonomy and social belonging, the satisfaction of all three basic psychological needs combined predicts enjoyment whereby up to 64.00% of the variance of student enjoyment in PE can be explained. Therefore, we recommend that PE teachers employ measures that foster an environment where students can fulfil all three basic psychological needs together, instead of employing PE content that favours only one basic psychological need separately, for example, using cooperative games to satisfy social belonging and positively influence enjoyment in PE [ 40 ].…”

“…Based on our results, we recommend that PE teachers should support students by fostering their autonomy. This can be realized by adopting different autonomy-supportive teaching styles [ 11 ] or including targeted PE content designed to satisfy basic psychological needs [ 13 , 14 , 40 ]. In this way, teachers can help fulfil a student’s basic psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and social belonging, and increase their enjoyment in PE.…”

The Effect of TGT Model on Student Cognitive Learning Outcomes: The Concept of Relay Running

“…In adolescence, a decrease in physical activity has become noticeable. For example, 12% of girls and 19.1% of boys aged 11 to 15 in Germany achieve a level of physical activity of 60 minutes per day (Engels & Freund, 2020). Exercise during childhood has many benefits on physical and mental health and motor and cognitive development (Timmons et al, 2012;WHO, 2016).…”