The Relationships Between Perceived Teaching Behaviors and Motivation in Physical Education: A One-Year Longitudinal Study

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the direction of relationships between specific dimensions of perceived teaching behaviors and motivation in physical education over time among 330 secondary school students. Cross-lagged path-analytic models revealed that autonomous motivation was reciprocally related over time with perceived decision-making style, and positive feedback and that prior situation consideration, social support, and teaching behavior were related to a higher level of subsequent autonomous motivation and a lower level of controlled motivation; however, prior autonomous motivation was related to a higher level of subsequent positive nonverbal feedback. Results suggest that differences in the direction of relationships between various dimensions of perceived teaching behaviors and students' motivation in physical education are due to differences in the nature of the teacher-student interaction behind each teaching behavior.

Keywords:

• cross-lagged panel design
• intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
• path analysis
• self-determination theory
• significant other
• students

Acknowledgments

This study was financially supported by the Estonian Science Foundation (Grant nr 7100).

Notes

¹The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with eight dimensions of perceived teaching behaviors demonstrated that correlations, although strong and significant (correlation coefficients ranging from .32 to .95), among the LSPE and PTF constructs were all significantly different from the unity, supporting discriminant validity of the constructs. According to Bagozzi & Kimmel (1995), the discriminant validity of the constructs was supported when the difference between unity and the value of the correlation exceeded 1.96 multiplied by the standard error of the correlation. The CFA for eight-factor model exhibited good fit to the data: χ²(224) = 361.81, p = .001, χ²/df ratio = 1.62, CFI = .95, NNFI = .93, RMSEA = .035, 90% confidence interval (CI₉₀) for RMSEA range = .028 to .042. The eight-factor first-order CFA model was then compared with a second-order CFA model. This model was an extension of the first-order CFA model and specified two second-order latent factors. The first second-order latent factor accounted for the covariances between perceived teaching behaviors such as democratic behavior, teaching and instruction, situation consideration, social support, positive general verbal feedback, and positive nonverbal feedback as, according to Reeve and Jang (2006), specific components of autonomy-supportive teaching behaviors. The second second-order latent factor accounted for the covariances between perceived teaching behaviors, such as autocratic behavior and negative nonverbal feedback as specific components of controlling teaching behaviors (Reeve & Jang, 2006). This second-order CFA merely approached the criteria for satisfactory fit proposed by Hu and Bentler (1999): χ²(243) = 498.53, p = .001, χ²/df ratio = 2,05, CFI = .90, NNFI = .88, RMSEA = .056, CI₉₀ for RMSEA range = .045 to .060. Based on these results, it was deemed to be justified to test the direction of relationships between each dimension of perceived teaching behavior and students' different types of motivation separately.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Andre Koka

Andre Koka, Faculty of Exercise and Sport Science, University of Tartu.