Blended teaching: impact of teacher’s autonomy support on students perceived autonomy and physical activity

The COVID-۱۹ pandemic globally has altered the educational landscape. Almost a year after the outbreak of the disease, blended teaching, using face-to-face and distance teaching methods is now used to teach the physical education lessons. As a result of choosing a blended teaching, physical education teachers are facing a new challenge: Improving the quality of students motivation in physical education classes and increasing their physical activity.Self-determination theory is a prominent theory of motivation that has been applied to understand participation in physical activity. Autonomously-motivated individuals engage in physical activity out of interest, choice, and the sense of personal involvement. In particular, the focus on motivational ‘climate’ provided by the actions of teachers has been shown to be influential in developing autonomous motivation. Specifically, teacher’s autonomy-supportive behaviors such as provision of choice and support have been shown to promote autonomous motivation. Trans-Contextual Model outlines how teachers’ autonomy support for in-class activities in PE context transfers to autonomous motivation, and physical activity in an out-of-school setting.The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of physical education teachers’ autonomy support on student’s perceived autonomy and physical activity in the context of blended teaching of physical education.One hundred and twenty-five tenth and eleventh grade male students participated in this study. Participants were selected from two separate schools in Gonbad city. One school was randomly selected as the experimental group and the other school as the control group. Data were collected using a pre and posttest design. Students were asked to answer the Adolescent International Physical Activity Questionnaire and Perceived Autonomy Support-Learning Climate Questionnaire. After adjusting the effect of the covariate, analysis of covariance showed a significant difference between groups in terms of perceived autonomy support (P≤.۰۰۰۵, F(۱,۱۲۵)=۴۹.۸۷, Ŋ۲=.۲۸), but not for physical activity (P=.۰۸۲).The results showed that in the context of blended teaching, using approaches of supporting students autonomy can improve their perceived autonomy support. But in terms of physical activity, the difference between groups was not significant.

کلیدواژه ها:

Blended teaching ، autonomous motivation ، Physical activity