Effects of Teacher Autonomy Support and Students' Autonomous Motivation on Learning in Physical Education

Abstract

This study applied self-determination theory to investigate the effects of students' autonomous motivation and their perceptions of teacher autonomy support on need satisfaction adjustment, learning achievement, and cardiorespiratory fitness over a 4-month personal conditioning unit. Participants were 253 urban adolescents (121 girls and 132 boys, ages = 12-14 years). Based on a series of multiple regression analyses, perceived autonomy support by teachers significantly predicted students'need satisfaction adjustment and led to learning achievement, especially for students who were not autonomously motivated to learn in physical education. In turn, being more autonomous was directly associated with cardiorespiratory fitness enhancement. The findings suggest that shifts in teaching approaches toward providing more support for students' autonomy and active involvement hold promise for enhancing learning.

A Pedagogical Understanding of the Self-Determination Theory in Physical Education

“…An autonomy-supportive environment provides students with choices and opportunities for self-direction (Shen, McCaughtry, Martin, & Fahlman, 2009) and positive informational feedback and a context in which the students' opinion is considered (Ryan & Deci, 2000b). An autonomy-supportive teacher would create an environment with a minimal amount of pressured evaluations, imposed goals, and demands and provide students with necessary information while encouraging them to use the information to solve a problem in their own way (Shen et al, 2009). In a quasi-experimental study, Black and Deci (2000) examined the hypotheses that autonomy-support would lead to greater perceived competence, less course-related anxiety and grade orientation, and more self-determined motivation.…”

“…Furthermore, the findings indicated that students who perceived more autonomy support from their leaders performed better in the course. Shen, McCaughtry, Martin, and Fahlman (2009) investigated the effects of teacher's autonomy support on students' self-determined motivation, learning achievement, and cardio-respiratory fitness with 253 urban adolescents in physical education. A 4-month personal conditioning unit was designed to enhance students' cardio-respiratory fitness knowledge and cardio-respiratory fitness.…”

Effect of a Multi-Dimensional Intervention Programme on the Motivation of Physical Education Students

“…Initially, these studies focused more on fostering support to the students' autonomy during classes [6], [15], [39], [44], as previous studies showed a positive relationship between granting autonomy and motivating students during physical education classes [29], [30], [41], [43].…”

A systematic review on self‐determination theory in physical education

“…Two studies (7.1%) measured the physical activity through steps count with pedometers, two studies (7.1%) with HR monitors . The rest of the studies (42.9%, n = 10) measured the physical activities with various methods, for example, skill tests, cardiorespiratory tests, PA questionnaires, that we qualified as “others” in Table …”

“…To experience self‐determined motivation, basic psychological needs must be satisfied. In some studies, intrinsic, identified, and introjected motivations are clustered in one parameter called autonomous motivation . Moreover, Aelterman et al also merged the introjected and external regulations under the controlled motivation and contrasted these two types with the amotivation.…”