Examining the Longitudinal Effects of the PE Class' Climate on Students' Goal Orientations and Intrinsic Motivation to be Physically Active

Abstract

Nicholls' Achievement Goal Perspective Theory (AGPT) research has been examined within the PE and sport domains (Roberts & Treasure, 2012). However, very limited longitudinal research has been conducted, particularly with youth and adolescents. Research is needed to examine the impact of the PE motivational class climate on students' goal orientations toward PE and intrinsic motivation to be physically active. The first study assessed a professional development (PD) session with a school district's PE teachers focused on maximizing their development of a caring and task-involving climate. The effect of this session was assessed by comparing the secondary students' perceptions of the motivational climate for two semesters prior to the PD with student perceptions the semester immediately after the PD. Three important findings were revealed by analyzing each teacher's (N=8) multi-group SEM: a) significant effects from the PD were not found, b) experienced, individual PE teacher's motivational climate development is very consistent over time, and c) 75% of the teachers' models showed no significant correlation between intrinsic motivation and ego-involving climate perceptions. Together these results suggest that future PD for current PE teachers should emphasize ways to enhance the caring and task-involving climate, because these aspects were consistently correlated with the students' reported intrinsic motivation to be physically active. The second study tracked sixth grade students into their first seventh grade semester. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of the seventh grade PE class climate on students' goal orientations, competence, and effort in PE. Enrolled PE students (N=376) were surveyed twice in sixth grade, and twice the following fall semester (N=216). Importantly, significant, positive within time correlations were found between the students' perceptions of the caring climate and their PE competence, effort, and task goal orientation adoption. The majority of the within time correlations were constrainable across the four time-points. This preliminary finding suggests that when students perceive a caring climate, they are also more likely to report greater competence, effort, and task orientation in PE. The findings support that these outcome variables are uniquely related to caring climate above and beyond their relationships with the task-involving climate.