Teaching Style, Motivational Climate, and Physical Education: An Intervention Program for Enhancing Students’ Intention for Physical Activity

Abstract

Lifelong physical activity is one goal of physical education. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a 9-week designed intervention in physical education at promoting elementary school students’ intention for physical activity. The intervention was based on the creation of a task-oriented motivational climate during physical education via two teaching styles. The sample (n = 157) was assigned to control (n = 96) and two intervention (n = 39 and n = 22) groups. The intervention groups exhibited statistically significant greater intention for being physically active after the program. These findings indicate that an appropriate design of physical education could support students’ physical activity outside the educational framework.