Feedback After Good Versus Poor Trials Affects Intrinsic Motivation

Participation in sports can play many educational roles in students’ personal development. It provides opportunities for enjoyment, learning new motor skills, interactions with others, as well as leading a healthy life style (Hassandra, Goudas, & Chroni, 2003). However, studies have reported that interest and participation in physical education gradually declines with age (Papaioannou, 1997). Therefore, it is important to examine factors that affect students’ motivation for participation in sports and physical education. Students may engage in physical activity for a variety of reasons, including a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic motives (Weiss & Ferrer Caja, 2002). However, extrinsic motivators alone are often not sufficient. Individuals may stop playing when sponsors pull out or the prize money stops. Yet, intrinsic motivation will keep them interested in sports when extrinsic rewards are no longer available. Intrinsically motivated individuals experience lower levels of performance-related anxiety, and exert greater levels of effort and persistence relative to those with a more extrinsic motivational orientation (Scanlan & Lewthwaite, 1986; Vallerand & Losier, 1999; Weiss & Ferrer Caja, 2002). Given the benefits of engaging in activities for more intrinsic reasons, identifying factors related to the facilitation and development of intrinsically motivated behavior is an important research goal. A factor that may affect intrinsic motivation is physical educators’ behavior. A few studies have examined the influence of various instructional behaviors on students’ motivational orientation (e.g., Koka & Hein, 2003; Schunk, 1982). Much of this research took place under the umbrella of cognitive evaluation theory (CET). CET was formulated to explain the effect of external events such as rewards, feedback from significant others, or other external events on intrinsic motivation. CET focuses primarily on the fundamental needs for competence and autonomy or self-determination and implies that individuals are intrinsically motivated to pursue an activity when they feel competent and self-determined with regard to that activity. Consequently, the theory would argue that a physical educator’s actions that affect the student’s perceptions of competence or autonomy can ultimately impact the athlete’s intrinsic motivation (Ryan & Deci, 2000, 2002). Feltz (1992) suggested that participants determine their ability to perform a task through their cognitive appraisal of available information. A possible source of information is the feedback teachers provide (e.g., Schunk, 1991). Many researchers have demonstrated that feedback is an important source of competence information (Allen & Howe, 1998; Amorose & Horn, 2000). Specifically, these authors argued that positive information-based feedback given in response to students’ performance resulted in increased perception of competence. When students perceive they have demonstrated ability, their feelings of accomplishment are enhanced (Lee, 1997). From a cognitive mediational perspective, learners’ interpretation of their ability is important, not the ability itself. It is the learners’ interpretation of their ability that has been linked to concrete achievements (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Weiss, 1987). By providing learners with feedback about their strengths and weaknesses, physical educators may modify Feedback After Good Versus Poor Trials Affects Intrinsic Motivation