The major goal of school physical education (PE) is to develop physically educated individuals with the necessary knowledge, skills, and disposition (Ennis, 2010). Students’ motivation for learning plays an important role in this effort. It is well-documented that expectancy beliefs in success and task values are effective motivators impacting students’ various outcomes in PE, including intention, performance, and physical activity (Xiang et al., 2003; Chen & Chen, 2012). Furthermore, the importance of gaining the necessary PE knowledge is also emphasized by national organization (NASPE, 2004), but little evidence is available to support how motivation in PE influences this learning outcome. This study was designed to examine the expectancy-value constructs (Eccles et al., 1983) on elementary students’ intention for future participation and PE knowledge.
Method: Participants were 584 Chinese students (281 girls, 303 boys) recruited from six elementary schools (301 4th graders, 283 5thgraders) in Shanghai, China. During the regular PE classes students completed previously validated questionnaires measuring their expectancy beliefs, task values, and intention for future participation (Xiang et al., 2003). PE knowledge was measured by PE Metrics (NASPE, 2010).
Analysis/Results:
Correlational analyses revealed that expectancy beliefs were positively related to importance, interest, and usefulness values (r = .31, r = .26, r = .28; respectively, all p < .01). Both expectancy beliefs and task values were positively associated with intention. Multiple regression analyses indicated that the importance, interest and usefulness values were significant predictors of intention for future participation (R2 = 42.9 %; β = .33, p < .01; β = .27, p < .01; β = .11, p < .05). Expectancy beliefs (β = .14) and usefulness value (β = .31) were positive predictors of students’ PE knowledge, but importance and interest values emerged as the negative predictors of students’ PE knowledge (β = -.16, β = -.21; respectively), which accounted for 7.2% of the variance.
Conclusions:
The findings supported the predictive utility of expectancy-value constructs on Chinese elementary students’ achievement outcomes in PE. The results confirmed that students who view PE as important, interest and useful are more likely to take PE in the future. The findings also provided a promising picture about the influence of expectancy-value constructs on Chinese elementary school students’ PE knowledge. Physical educators should create motivational environments that enhance students’ expectancy beliefs and useful value in order to successfully develop physically educated individuals in the high quality PE programs.