The Reasons And Motivation For Pre-Service Teachers Choosing To Specialise In Primary Physical Education Teacher Education

Oct 15, 2026

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This study explored the reasons pre-service teachers chose to specialise in primary physical education and how those choices shaped motivation. Pre-service teachers selecting this specialisation (n=248) completed the Attractors and Facilitators for Physical Education (AFPE) questionnaire and the Academic Motivation Scale (AMS). Key reasons included sport and physical activity, confident interpersonal service, and role models.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages26

Reading Time1 h 6 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Attractors and Facilitators

Motivation Predictors

Australian Journal of Teacher Education | Volume 39 | Issue 5 | Article 1 | | --- | --- | 2014 The Reasons And Motivation For Pre-Service Teachers Choosing To Specialise In Primary Physical Education Teacher Education Sharna Spittle Victoria University, [sharna.spittle@vu.edu.au](sharna.spittle@vu.edu.au) Michael Spittle Victoria University, [michael.spittle@vu.edu.au](michael.spittle@vu.edu.au) Recommended Citation Spittle, S., & Spittle, M. (2014). The Reasons And Motivation For Pre-Service Teachers Choosing To Specialise In Primary Physical Education Teacher Education. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 39 (5). Retrieved from [http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol39/iss5/1](http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol39/iss5/1) This Journal Article is posted at Research Online. [http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol39/iss5/1](http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol39/iss5/1) Australian Journal of Teacher Education The Reasons And Motivation For Pre-Service Teachers Choosing To Specialise In Primary Physical Education Teacher Education Sharna Spittle Michael Spittle Abstract: This study explored the reasons for pre-service teachers choosing to specialise in primary physical education and how these choices related to their motivation. Pre-service teachers who then elected to specialise in primary physical education (n = 248) completed the Attractors and Facilitators for Physical Education (AFPE) questionnaire and the Academic Motivation Scale (AMS). The main reasons for specialising in primary physical education were sport and physical activity, confident interpersonal service, and role models. Pre-service teachers who were also completing health as a teaching method reported lower perceived demand than pre service teachers who were completing other teaching methods. The strongest predictors of intrinsic motivation were choosing the specialisation because of confident interpersonal service, low perceived demand, and family reasons. The strongest predictors of extrinsic motivation were confident interpersonal service and low perceived demand reasons. The strongest predictors of amotivation were low perceived demand or low confident interpersonal service reasons. Introduction Previous research in teacher education has sought to identify the reasons people choose to become physical education teachers (e.g., Dewar & Lawson, 1984; Hutchinson, 1993; Pooley, 1972; Templin, Woodford, & Mulling, 1982) . These studies have focused largely on the socialisation process rather than motivation using an existing motivational model (Belka, Lawson, & Lipnickey, 1991; Dewar & Lawson, 1984; Moriera, Fox, & Sparkes, 2002; Richardson & Watt, 2006). Earlier socialisation studies have positioned the pre-service teacher in more passive ways, whereas more contemporary views have suggested that the pre-service teacher is more active in their socialisation into the profession (Stroot & Ko, 2006) . Socialisation studies have identified individual reasons for choosing to become a physical education teacher, rather than identifying common attractors and facilitators or underlying motivational constructs in choice of profession (Spittle, Jackson, & Casey, 2009) . These attractors to and facilitators of physical education career choice have been labelled as motives in the literature (Richardson & Watt, 2006) but provide a description of the choices rather than identifying the psychological mediators of behavioural outcomes. Relatively little attention has been given to the motivation of physical education teachers (Moreira, et al., 2002), or more importantly the determinants of physical education teachers’ motivation (Lindholm, 1997) . Existing motivational models could be included in a framework to explore the reasons for physical education career choice to provide for greater understanding of these choices. For example, self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985) could be applied as a motivational framework to expl

FAQs

What was the study’s main focus?

The study examined why pre-service teachers choose to specialise in primary physical education and how these choices relate to their motivation.

Which instruments did the researchers use to measure motivation and reasons?

Participants completed the Attractors and Facilitators for Physical Education (AFPE) questionnaire and the Academic Motivation Scale (AMS).

What were the strongest predictors of intrinsic motivation?

The strongest intrinsic motivation predictors were choosing the specialisation due to confident interpersonal service, low perceived demand, and family reasons.

Oct 15, 2026

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