Increasing physical activity among all individuals has always been a passion of mine. There are overwhelming positive physical and health benefits associated with maintaining an active lifestyle, however, as I look back on my experience within a physical activity setting, I’ve noticed that fewer high school students are choosing to participate.
With this idea in mind, I wanted to gear my question towards motivation and how to inspire those non-athletic or unmotivated students to participate in physical activity. As I was sitting in one of my pedagogy classes the topic of motivation was discussed, specifically ways to promote intrinsic motivation. Intrinsically motivated activities are “ones for which there is no apparent reward except the activity itself” (Standage, 2005). People seem to engage in the activities for their own sake and not because they lead to an extrinsic reward. This discussion made me reflect upon the physical education class and the reasons why some students participate and others do not. One of the primary reasons a student will participate in physical activity and sport is for the sheer enjoyment they experience while moving and interacting with their peers (Hall, 2015). I believe that young students have this innate desire to be active, and it should be the responsibility of the physical education specialist within a school environment to fuel these desires.
With that being said, not all students are going to be motivated to participate and engage in the lesson content. As I dug deeper into the topic of motivation, a theory was introduced in Child and Adolescent Development, which looks at the effects of social environments on intrinsic motivation. The Self-Determination Theory “considers humans to be actively seeking optimal challenges and new experiences to master and integrate” (Deci & Ryan, 1991).When autonomy, competency and relatedness are satisfied, the result is self-determined motivation. (Deci & Ryan 1991).
During my short practicum, I observed many students’ sitting on the sidelines or not fully engaged in the activities that were being taught. It was these students who sparked the idea of incorporating the self-determination theory into a physical education environment. I recognize that this theory will not bring a solution or a quick fix to Physical Education but I believe it provides a framework that educators can impalement within their classrooms to help increase motivation.