Teachers' Support, Students' Motivation, and Motivational Outcomes in Physical Education

Background/Purpose: The expectancy-value model of achievement choice provides an appropriate theoretical framework for studying and understanding motivation and motivational outcomes in school physical education (PE; Xiang et al., 2005; Gao et al., 2008). Little research, however, has investigated the influence of social factors, such as PE teachers' support, on students' motivation and subsequent achievement behaviors such as effort and concentration in school PE from this perspective. Given the fact that students are more likely to engage in PE when they are motivated and when PE teachers create a supportive environment that enhances their choice, competence, and good interpersonal relations, it is important to investigate the relationships among these variables. The major aim of the present study, therefore, was to examine how teachers' support affects students' expectancy-value constructs, self-reported effort, and concentration in PE.

Method: Participants were 273 middle school students (130 boys, 143 girls; M _age= 12.4) enrolled in a southeastern suburban public school. They completed previously validated surveys assessing their perceived teachers' support for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, expectancy-related beliefs, subjective task values, self-reported effort, and concentration during their regular PE classes. Analysis/Results: Correlation analyses revealed a pattern of positive correlations among the variables (r's ranging from .16 to .75, p < .01). Two hierarchical regression analyses, entering the expectancy-value constructs in the first block, and PE teachers' support constructs in the second block, revealed that expectancy-related beliefs (b = .12, p< .05), subjective task values (b = .44, p< .01), and autonomy support (b = .20, p< .01) were positive predictors of effort (R² = 47.7 %). Significant predictors of concentration in PE (R² = 37.5 %) were expectancy-related beliefs, subjective task values, competence support, and autonomy support (b = .16, .33, .20, .21, respectively, all p< .01). Further, stepwise regressions indicated that competence support was a positive predictor of expectancy-related beliefs (R² = 5.1 %; b = .23, p< .01), and competence support and autonomy support were positive predictors of subjective task values (R² = 31.2 %; b = .36, .27, respectively, all p< .01).

Conclusions: The results of this study highlight the importance of teachers' competence support and autonomy support in fostering students' motivation and motivational behaviors in PE. This demonstrates that creating a supportive climate and enhancing students' high levels of expectancy-related beliefs and subjective task values are important areas in promoting students' engagement and learning in quality PE classes.