The impact of student goal orientation in physical education classes

The theory of achievement motivation suggests that students whose goals are related to the mastery of a task are more likely to engage in adaptive patterns of behavior such as choosing challenging tasks and focusing on effort. Students whose goal orientations are ego-involved are more apt to avoid challenge and be unwilling to expend effort. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact that goal perspective has in physical education classes. Subjects (N = 90) were college students in beginning tennis classes. They completed a skill pretest and the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (Duda, 1992). A system of contract grading was employed to yield an indication of students' selection of challenging tasks. The points earned toward the contracts were used as an indicant of in-class behavior. At the end of the semester, students completed a skill posttest and a cognitive processes questionnaire. A task-involved goal perspective was associated with the selection of more challenging tasks and positive scores on the questionnaire. Those two variables, in turn, were significant predictors of student achievement. The results suggest that goal perspective could be an important influence on students' thought and action in physical education classes.