THE SOCIAL CONTEXT AS 22
them through it. Sometimes you might have to bribe them to get them to do
something.
In summary, teachers’ perceptions of the students seem to play a major role in their
choice of motivational strategies. However, teachers’ motivational strategies may not be
appropriate if these perceptions are inaccurate. Consequently, it may be suitable for teachers
to be educated in identifying specific behaviors associated with various motivational states,
increasing the likelihood of choosing the appropriate motivational strategy.
The Students’ Physical Characteristics
As well as the students’ psychological characteristics, it seems that some of the
teachers in the present study are aware of the need for reducing body image concerns in PE,
especially among amotivated students (Ntoumanis, Pensgaard, Martin, & Pipe, 2004).
Specifically, in cases where students are overly conscious of their weight or skin ailments,
the teachers mentioned that they would acknowledge the students negative feeling more. For
example, Tim, head of PE at a state school explained:
It might be that he has got eczema on his legs and he might not like wearing
shorts. He likes taking part in sport but he feels intimidated because the kids
will laugh. So therefore he doesn't bring kit and doesn't take part. Then he gets
grief off the teacher. So (his) motivation (to) take part is decreased. Whereas
if he (the teacher) rung his parents up or chatted to him (the student) and got
to the root cause and allowed him to wear tracksuit bottoms he can then take
part and hopefully his motivation will start to improve.
The teachers in the present study referred only to male students’ body concerns. This
suggests that despite female body concerns receiving more attention in both the popular and
empirical literature (Stice & Whitenton, 2002), male body concerns are important and need
to be investigated.