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Creating an Autonomy-Supportive Physical Education (PE) Learning Environment

  • Chapter
Building Autonomous Learners

Abstract

Physical activity (PA) has beneficial effects on many bodily systems, with strong epidemiological evidence showing that healthy PA habits developed early in life are associated with reduced risk of obesity-related and other chronic diseases later in life. However, research has also shown that as children grow older into adolescents, their level of PA decreases. In view of the age of this identified cohort, it should come as no surprise that physical education (PE) has been advanced as an avenue in which to mitigate the reported decreases in PA participation. PE teachers’ motivational styles have a substantial impact on students’ engagement in learning and can influence children to adopt physically active lifestyles. The self-determination theory (SDT) is a motivational theory that presents a highly practical framework for examining and understanding of what drives people to do what they do. Central to SDT, three basic psychological needs must be supported (the needs for autonomy, competency and relatedness) to enhance intrinsic motivation. Autonomy support refers to the subjective experience of autonomy. In PE, evidence shows that the degree to which teachers are autonomy supportive is linked with students’ need satisfaction, motivation and increased PA behaviour. This chapter seeks to present a strong case for an autonomy-supportive PE classroom through research-based evidence. Additionally, this chapter also aims to provide practical suggestions to enable PE teachers to implement an autonomy-supportive style in their teaching of PE.

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  1. National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    Yew Meng How & John Chee Keng Wang

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  1. Yew Meng How
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Correspondence to Yew Meng How .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. National Inst of Edu, Singapore, Singapore

    Woon Chia Liu

  2. National Inst of Edu, Singapore, Singapore

    John Chee Keng Wang

  3. Institute for Positive Psychology and Education, Faculty of Health Sciences, Australian Catholic University, Strathfield, New South Wales, Australia

    Richard M. Ryan

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How, Y.M., Wang, J.C.K. (2016). Creating an Autonomy-Supportive Physical Education (PE) Learning Environment. In: Liu, W., Wang, J., Ryan, R. (eds) Building Autonomous Learners. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-630-0_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-630-0_11

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