TARGETing secondary school students’ motivation towards physical education: The role of student-perceived mastery climate teaching strategies

of grouping students), evaluation (a system or strategies for evaluating students learning) and time (pace of instruction and learning). A meta-analysis of 22 motivational climate interven- tion studies in PE employing the TARGET framework of Braithwaite et al. [12], showed adap- tive outcomes for students experiencing a mastery climate and maladaptive outcomes for students experiencing a performance climate. More recent intervention studies confirmed this conclusion. [22] reported an increase in secondary school students’ intrinsic motivation, iden- tified regulation and introjected regulation, and a decrease in external regulation and amotiva- tion when a mastery climate was created by applying TARGET-based teaching strategies in PE. In the study of [23] among Italian female secondary school students, the TARGET struc- tures were manipulated to create either a mastery climate or a performance climate. The results showed that the mastery climate conditions correlated positively with pleasant/functional psy- chobiosocial (PBS) states, intrinsic motivation and identified regulation. In contrast, the per- formance climate conditions were positively related to unpleasant/dysfunctional PBS states, external regulations and amotivation. Based on these studies, the TARGET framework can be considered valuable for teachers to identify, manage and manipulate dimensions within the learning climate that impact on stu- dent experiences and motivation within PE. However, to support PE teachers in positively

impacting student motivation through the design of optimal learning environments, it is cru- cial to translate the TARGET structures into practical teaching strategies to establish a mastery climate, rather than a performance climate. Therefore, various authors have provided guide- lines for effective teaching strategies based on the TARGET structures [22, 24–26]. Designing PE lessons based on these guidelines should theoretically enable teachers to realise a more mas- tery-oriented learning environment, which in turn should impact positively on student moti- vation. These guidelines, however, may not always be applicable in the same way, to every PE context. For example, strategies pertaining to student authority can be expected to be enacted differently in primary education compared to secondary education. Based on national PE stan- dards, local school policies and guidelines, and school population, there is always a need for adaptation of these guidelines to the specific and unique context in which PE teachers find themselves. In line with this reasoning, previous research showed that the impact of TARGET teaching strategies on student perceptions of the motivational climate varies according to con- text [18, 27]. In order to effectively intervene and modify the learning environment, it is there- fore suggested by several scholars [27, 28] to further examine the unique contribution of each TARGET structure within specific learning environments, and to identify which structures have the greatest impact on students’ PE experiences and motivation.

Accordingly, the aim of the present study was to extend motivational climate research by exploring the impact of TARGET-based teaching strategies on students’ motivation in a Dutch secondary school PE context. We examined to what extent the mastery climate teaching strate- gies perceived by students, independently or interactively correlate with and explain variability in students’ motivation towards PE. Based on previous motivational climate research we hypothesised that higher levels of perceived mastery climate teaching strategies would relate positively to autonomous forms of motivation, whereas lower levels would primarily relate to controlled forms of motivation (i.e., introjected and external regulation) and amotivation. Methods Participants and procedures Ethical approval was obtained by the Ethical Research Committee of Fontys University. For all participating students written informed parental/legal guardian consent and participant assent was obtained after they had received an information letter explaining the purpose of the study, PLOS ONE Impact of perceived teaching strategies on student motivation in secondary physical education PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274964 September 22, 2022 3 / 14