Motivational climate of teaching physical education: Could it affect student grades?

Abstract

The aim of the study was to analyze the relationship between motivational variables, and academic grades in a unit of physical education. Two hundred and twenty-four students, of eight classes, aged between 12 and 14 years (M = 12.37, SD = 0.64) were involved in 10 skipping rope lessons. The instruments measured the perception of the students' motivational climate, basic psychological needs (BPNES), type of motivation (SIMS-14) and the affective consequences of enjoyment and boredom (SSI-EF) in the last session of the unit. The grade at unit was assessed with a score that could range from 0 to 10. The results showed that task motivational climate, basic psychological needs, self-determined motivation and enjoyment were related significantly positively with the academic grade, being the task motivational climate which showed the greatest predictive effect (35% of variance explained). Conversely, the ego motivational climate, amotivation and boredom were related significantly negative with the academic grade. This fact highlights the importance of the PE teachers on the students' academic grades when a task motivational climate task is emphasized.