Teachers' Psychological Needs Satisfaction and Thwarting: Can They Explain Students' Behavioural Engagement in Physical Education? A Multi-Level Analysis

The effect of perceived teachers' interpersonal behavior on students' learning in physical education: a systematic review

The primary purpose of this study was to conduct the first systematic review on teachers' interpersonal behaviors and students' learning within the physical education context. We searched the English literature in the EBSCOhost, Web of Science, SCOPUS and PubMed electronic databases and following screening, data extraction, quality assessment, 35 published articles were included in this review. The results showed that: perceived teachers' supportive behaviors have effect on autonomous motivation of students, and perceived teachers' controlling behaviors have effect on students' controlling motivation and amotivation, the influencing mechanism may be that teachers' interpersonal teaching behaviors make students' basic psychological needs satisfaction or frustration; perceived teachers' international behaviors have effect on PE learning emotion of students, and perceiving teachers' supportive behaviors can trigger students' positive learning emotion, on the contrary, perceiving teachers' controlling behaviors can stimulate students' negative learning emotion; teachers' interpersonal behaviors have effect on students' psychological well-being and physical activity levels in class with the evidence insufficient, and more evidence are needed. It is extremely necessary to expand such study direction and strengthen better quality study to explore the effect of teachers' interpersonal behaviors on learning process and learning outcome in physical education class, and examine the indirect influence mechanism through that the relationship is connected. The present review provides preliminary evidence to enhance the quality of physical education teaching in class, promote students' academic performance by intervening teachers' interpersonal behaviors.

Multidimensional Motivational Climate Questionnaire in Physical Education at the Situational Level of Generality (MUMOC-PES)

The main aim of this study was to investigate the construct validity of a new MUltidimensional MOtivational Climate questionnaire in Physical Education (PE) at the Situational level of generality (MUMOC-PES), capturing four dimensions of empowering (autonomy support, task-involvement, relatedness support, structure) and three dimensions of disempowering (controlling, relatedness thwarting, ego-involvement) climate. Nine hundred and fifty-six adolescent students completed the new measure alongside measures of mastery and performance approach/avoidance climate and satisfaction. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the construct validity of the MUMOC-PES. Student satisfaction in PE corresponded positively to empowering and negatively to disempowering climate dimensions. Controlling for age, gender and within-class individual differences in perceived empowering and disempowering dimensions, class average scores on perceived empowering climate had significant effects on student satisfaction, implying predictive validity for the MUMOC-PES. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) suggested that perceived autonomy support and relatedness thwarting had direct positive and negative effects on satisfaction respectively. Moreover, effects of perceived structure and thwarting relationships on satisfaction were mediated through a mastery climate construct capturing the linkage between perception and mastery goal. The results are discussed in relation to existing measures and literature on motivational climate and the future use of MUMOC-PES in research and PE teachers' training.

Understanding physical education teachers' motivational outcomes and feasibility beliefs to implement motivational strategies: The role of perceived pressures from a variable- and person-centered approach

Work-related pressures perceived by PE teachers have been suggested to affect their motivation and behaviour. This study aims to contribute to the existing literature on this topic. Through two different objectives. First, the role of perceived pressures in the prediction of teachers' motivation and, in turn, on their feasibility beliefs to implement motivational strategies is tested through a SEM. Secondly, PE teachers' profiles according to the different types of perceived pressures are established and compared in terms of motivational outcomes and feasibility beliefs. A total of 217 PE teachers completed validated questionnaires. Results showed that, as hypothesized, pressures negatively predicted needs satisfaction, which, in turn, positively predicted feasibility beliefs. Three profiles emerged in the cluster analysis. Regarding to these profiles, teachers who were low on perceived pressures displayed the most adaptive pattern; teachers who reported high time constraints pressures underline the detrimental role that this type of pressure plays on both teacher and teaching outcomes. Implications for educational policy and practice are discussed.

The Relationship between Future Anxiety Due to COVID-19 and Vigilance: The Role of Message Fatigue and Autonomy Satisfaction

How does future anxiety caused by the COVID-19 pandemic relate to people’s willingness to remain vigilant and adhere to preventive measures? We examined the mediating role of message fatigue and the moderating role of autonomy satisfaction in the relationship between future anxiety due to COVID-19 and willingness to remain vigilant. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted with adults residing in the United States in June 2021 when numerous U.S. states re-opened following the CDC’s relaxed guidelines for fully vaccinated individuals. Our data showed that message fatigue mediated the relationship between future anxiety due to the pandemic and willingness to remain vigilant. The data further revealed that autonomy satisfaction significantly moderated the mediation. Namely, the role of message fatigue in the indirect relationship between future anxiety and willingness to remain vigilant was significant only among people low to moderate in autonomy satisfaction; its role in the indirect path was not significant for those high in autonomy satisfaction. Notably, independent of the mechanism involving message fatigue, future anxiety was directly and positively associated with willingness to remain vigilant regardless of the levels of autonomy satisfaction. Implications of these findings are discussed in light of psychological and behavioral responses to the current pandemic and policy directions.

Do Observed Teaching Behaviors Relate to Students' Engagement in Physical Education?

Teachers' behaviors can affect students' engagement in the Physical Education (PE) setting. According to self-determination theory, teachers can rely on either a need-supportive or a controlling teaching behavior, and these behaviors will differently affect students' outcomes. The main objective of this research was to analyse how teaching behaviors and some contextual variables influence students' engagement in PE classes. The present study adds to the existing literature through an observation-based design in which real-life examples of need-supportive and thwarting teaching behaviors, as well as students' engagement behaviors, have been identified. Thirty-seven different PE lessons were coded for 5-min intervals to assess the occurrence of 36 teaching behaviors and five students' behaviors. Stepwise regression revealed that both structure during activity and relatedness support could predict student engagement in a positive way. Surprisingly, cold teaching also emerged as a direct predictor in the last step of the analysis. On the other hand, controlling and structure before activity behaviors inversely predicted students' engagement. These four variables explained 39% of the variance in student engagement, whereas autonomy support did not correlate with student engagement. These new findings in the field not only confirm the known relevance of teaching behavior for students' outcomes but also suggest an unexpected lack of influence of autonomy support on students' engagement as well as an association between cold teaching and students' engagement. Results are discussed in the light of new approaches, and some practical implications are provided.