The influence of learning environments on intrinsic motivation in urban middle school physical education students

Obesity rates in the United States are increasing steadily. Because of this, life fitness goals are important for children to set and achieve. Physical educators must teach today's children to change their habits in order to stop this phenomenon from escalating. Intrinsic motivation can promote lifelong learning and teachers have the opportunity to encourage this mind set. The purpose of the present study was to determine if the intrinsic motivation levels in urban middle school physical education students are influenced by the physical education learning environment. Students attending an urban middle school in central California completed the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI) and tests of within-subjects contrasts provided estimates of the linear and curvilinear trends using the SPSS program. It was found that urban middle school students enjoy both traditional and non-traditional learning environments, but need the consistency of having only one style presented in a class.