The Teacher Care Project: Enhancing motivation, engagement and effort of a-motivated students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of different relatedness supportive settings on the motivation, engagement and effort of a-motivated students in secondary physical education. 147 a-motivated students from 5 schools were taught in a setting that was either high or low in support for their need of relatedness. Data were collected using a pretest and posttest design to examine a-motivated student’s level of motivation, engagement and effort. Repeated measures ANOVA’s with follow-up comparisons were utilized to analyze the data. Results indicated that students engaged in the high supportive setting significantly increased their levels of motivation, engagement and effort compared with students in the low support group. Findings from this study provide the first empirical evidence that supporting relatedness can positively influence the affective aspects of students with low motivation.