Self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985) has proven salient for examining motivation, and posits that intrinsic, extrinsic, and amotivated behavior stems from three innate psychological needs of self-determination: the need for competence, relatedness, and autonomy. Considerable amount of research using this theoretical approach has been generated in the sport, exercise, and education settings (see Deci & Ryan, 1994; Vallerand & Fortier, 1998 for review), however none have addressed this relationship in physical education. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine whether physical educators' perceived competence, relatedness, and autonomy affects their type of motivation, as defined by self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985). In addition, the relationship between certain personal, professional, and environmental factors among physical education teachers and their perceived competence, relatedness, and autonomy was investigated. Two hundred and forty seven physical education teachers participated in this study. The teachers were surveyed using questionnaires to assess perceived type of teaching motivation (a modified version of the Sport Motivation Scale, Pelletier, Fortier, Vallerand, Tuson, Briere, & Blais, 1995), perceived teacher competence (the Teacher Efficacy Scale in Physical Education, Chase & Lirgg, 2001), relatedness (a revised affiliation subscale from the Work Motivation Inventory, Braskamp & Maehr, 1996), and autonomy levels (created from autonomy concepts, Ryan, Deci & Grolnick, 1995). A demographic questionnaire was used to assess personal (i.e., level of education), professional (i.e., conference attendance), and environmental factors (i.e., administration support). Physical education teachers randomly selected from the Mid-West were sent questionnaires and asked to return them by mail. Of the 247 physical educators, 117 were females and 130 males, between the ages of 23 to 65 years. The teachers represented a distribution of 82 elementary, 82 middle, and 83 high school level physical educators, and averaged 17 years of teaching experience. Results of a multivariate multiple regression analyses indicated that physical educator's needs for competence, relatedness, and autonomy were related to their type of motivation. The relationship between personal factors and physical educators' needs for competence, relatedness and autonomy was not significant, however some professional and environmental factors were found to contribute significantly to the relationship. Overall, individual teachers, school administrators, and the community should work together to enhance physical educator's beliefs about their ability to teach effectively, feeling connected to their school, and perceptions that they have control of their classes as a means to increase motivation. Practical and theoretical implications will be outlined for future research. Keyword(s): . NA