Peter Åström

Teachers' Discursive Representations of Pupils "low motivated" for Physical Education and Health

Abstract This inquiry draws on interviews, focus group discussions and dialogues with fourteen teachers of Physical Education and Health (PEH) in Sweden. The aim was to study what discursive beliefs these teachers hold regarding important learning objectives and general aims for the subject and how these can be understood. Furthermore, what implications do the discursive beliefs have and how do they conduct their teaching in order to reach all pupils? The results show that the type of learning objectives teachers consider and find essential in PEH create certain pupils who get labeled as low motivated for the subject. Norms and values from sports contexts outside school affect teachers’ perceptions of important learning objectives, and pupils not involved in sports outside school are likely to be low motivated for PEH according to the teachers. Teachers refer the problem with motivation to the individual (the pupil) or the contextual level (social background, parents etc.) rather than to the situational level – their own teaching in the class.

Cross-cultural Comparison of Motivation to Learn in Physical Education : Japanese vs Swedish Schoolchildren

The present study compared differences between Japanese and Swedish schoolchildren in learning motivation-related variables in physical education. The subjects were 1,562 Japanese fifth and sixth graders (776 boys and 786 girls) ranging in age from 10 to 12 years and 573 Swedish fifth graders (306 boys and 267 girls) from 10 to 13 years (M = 11.4, SD = 0.5). They completed three questionnaires to evaluate the childrens learning motivation, factors supporting motivation to learn, and preferences of learning behavior. The questionnaires were taken from Nishidas Diagnosis of Learning Motivation in Physical Education Test, a multidimensional and comprehensive test that measures learning motivation. A 2 times 2 (country by sex) multivariate analysis of variance indicated both Swedish boys and girls scored significantly higher than the Japanese children on most subscales. Results were discussed in relation to differences in the sports environment and culture of the two countries.