College and university instructional physical activity programs (C/UIPAPs) offer a great opportunity for college and university students to engage and participate in various physical activities on a regular basis. Specifically, the courses provide vast opportunities for students to develop motor skills and technique, sport related skills and habits that will contribute to a healthy lifestyle. Student motivation to enroll and participate in C/UIPAPs is a key component to its effectiveness. The instructional climate, including students’ perceived autonomy and perceived instructor autonomy support was found to be related to the participant motivation to participate and engage in the instructional physical activity course content.
Method:
Two-hundred and seventeen (n = 217) undergraduate students enrolled in cardio and fitness courses participated in this study, completing a demographic survey, pre and post questionnaires, including the Learning and Performance Orientations in Physical Education Classes Questionnaire (LAPOPECQ) and the Learning Climates Questionnaire (LCQ). The participants also participated in semi-interviews and focus groups to gain further insight into their source of motivation.
Analysis/Results:
The top three reasons for participants’ enrollment were 1) improvement of health (58%), 2) interest in the Activity (26%) and 3) improvement of their grade point average (16%). The pre and post LAPOPECQ and LCQ results indicated that significant number participants perceived their course to be beneficial to the development of their motor skills. The results also indicated that the participants perceived the instructional climate to be supportive of their autonomy and competence. However, there were no significant changes in the participants’ questionnaire responses over the progress of the semester. The participant responses to the pre- and post- interviews, focus groups, questionnaires gave deeper insight into the participants’ perceptions and motivations toward their participation and engagement in the courses.
Conclusions:
The findings indicate that clarification of students’ perceptions and source of motivations, as well as an instructional climate that promotes autonomy and perceived competence is beneficial for instructors of C/UIPAPs in the development of fitness goals and objectives for their students. This research provides insight into college/university students’ motivations towards enrollment in physical activity courses, their value of the importance health and fitness, as well as their perception of their respective instructors approach to teaching.