Background/Purpose
According to the hierarchical model of motivation, the forms of motivation could be conceptualized as operating at three levels of generality: global, contextual, and specific. There is a cross-level interplay of the three levels and contextual factors influence the interplay. The purpose of this study was to explore the extent to which autonomy-supportive motivational climate created by teachers moderate the relation between general physical self-concept and perceived competence in physical education.
Method
Data were obtained from 1025 students and 18 teachers from 14 high schools. Because the nesting of students within classrooms raised the possibility of dependencies in the data, hierarchical linear modeling was chosen. Particularly, the mean of students' individual perceptions of the autonomy supportive nature of the climate was calculated in each classroom. This index was used as a contextual variable describing the motivational climate at the classroom level.
Analysis/Results
The intraclass correlation was .13. General physical self-concept and classroom autonomy-supportive climate both significantly predicted perceived competence (β >.15 p< .01). There was an interaction between classroom autonomy-supportive climate and general physical self-concept (β=.10, p<.01), suggesting that general physical self-concept on perceived competence in physical education vary depending on the autonomy-supportive level of classroom motivational climate. The relation was weaker when the classroom motivational climate was high in autonomy support.
Conclusions
The findings support the hierarchical nature of motivation in physical domain. However, physical education teachers may avoid negative consequences of low general physical concept by being responsive, supportive, flexible, and motivate through interest in teaching.
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