The effects of initial school physical education experiences on motivational factors in higher education sport students

Abstract

This study examined whether university sports students' experiences of school physical education impacted upon their motivation and goal orientations in their study of higher education sport and physical education. This was found to be a key research area due to the increased importance of physical education because of the current economic and health problems. Participants (N = 117) included males (N = 49) and females (N = 68) from a range of sports courses volunteered to complete the Perception of Success Questionnaire (Roberts, Treasure, and Balague, 1998) which measured task and ego goal orientations and the Behaviour Regulation in Sport Questionnaire (Lonsdale, Hodge, and Rose, 2008) that measured motivation with an additional question which measured rating perceptions of school physical education. Descriptive analysis found high means scores for ego orientation and integrated regulation, and low mean score for intrinsic motivation to know. Results for Pearson‟s correlation analysis revealed ego and task was significantly positively related. Integrated regulation was more associated with intrinsic variables rather than extrinsic variables. Task was associated with self determined variables and negatively correlated with less self determined variables. Cluster analysis produced two physical education perception groups: positive (N = 102) and negative (N = 15) experiences of physical education, with the majority of the sample (87%) rating their experiences as positive. Independent t-test analysis revealed no significant differences between positive and negative school physical education experience on goal orientations or motivation variables. In conclusion the results indicate support for an extrinsic profile in physical education. Suggestions are offered for future studies to re-address goal orientation theories, provide more insight into integrated regulation in a physical education setting, and address the measurement limitations of assessing goal orientations and motivation in physical education.