A Sport Education Intervention
concept has been defined as the degree to which one chooses to participate in an
activity for its inherent pleasure rather than for any valued outcomes associated
with it (Deci & Ryan, 1985). Deci and Ryan (1985) theorize that when students are
intrinsically motivated, they show interest in an activity; they experience enjoy-
ment and feelings of competence and control.
Research in sport (Pelletier, Fortier, Vallerand, et al., 1995) and physical
education (Ntoumanis, 2001) has shown that intrinsic motivation is positively re-
lated to students feeling less bored, reporting greater self-effort, and being more
intent on future participation in physical activity. As such, fostering tasks in physi-
cal education that increase student perceptions of optimal challenge, personal con-
trol, and self-competence will enhance intrinsic motivation and develop a number
of positive adaptive student motivational responses (Deci & Ryan, 1985).
During the last two decades, researchers have employed achievement goal
theory to explain student motivational responses to learning, such as enjoyment
and effort (Nicholls, 1989). Those using this perspective are concerned with rea-
sons for motivated behavior (Chen, 2001). Two primary achievement goals have
been identified in student motivated behaviors. The first goal is to demonstrate
superior ability relative to peers; it is called ego goal orientation. The other goal is
to develop self-referenced competence or gain mastery of a task; it is labeled task
goal orientation (Dweck & Leggett, 1988). Research in the physical education
domain (Treasure & Roberts, 2001) has shown that the two goal orientations relate
to different behavioral and affective student motivational responses, such as choice
of task difficulty, satisfaction, and enjoyment. Students with a high task orienta-
tion use individual improvement and effort to define success. They choose chal-
lenging tasks and report higher levels of enjoyment. In contrast, students with a
high ego orientation tend to avoid learning difficult tasks, which might jeopardize
their normative conceptions of ability. They attribute success or failure to norma-
tive ability.
Achievement goal orientations are purported to explain student motivation
at the individual level. At the situational level, achievement goal theorists (e.g.,
Ames, 1992) have suggested that students may percieve different instructional
structures as fostering different achievement goals. Epstein (1989) coined the ac-
ronym TARGET to represent six structures of the achievement context which in-
fluence student motivation in the classroom: Task, Authority, Reward, Grouping,
Evaluation, and Time. Ames contended that the way teachers operationalize these
structures determines, to a great extent, children’s motivational responses. For
example, an instructional structure that offers task variety, involves students in the
decision-making, promotes work in mixed-ability groups, and emphasizes self-
referenced criteria for evaluation and recognition would promote a high task-in-
volving motivational climate. In contrast, in an ego-involving climate the emphasis
is on demonstrating superior performance and normative ability, with besting oth-
ers being the primary indicator of success. In such a climate teachers dictate the
tasks, student initiative is not encouraged, and rewards are based on peer compari-
son and normative success.
Consistent with research in the classroom settings (Ames & Archer, 1988),
research in physical education has revealed high student satisfaction with engage-
ment in learning when a task-involving motivational climate is perceived (Trea-
sure, 1997). Other positive motivational outcomes associated with a task-involved
climate include increases in student intrinsic motivation (Mitchell, 1996) and the