Blog Post 1 – Motivating participants to get involved

In our second session, we attempted to combine different gymnastic elements that we had taught. The aim was to come up with a simple routine, involving all of the elements they had previously learned. The teacher also wanted us to use the climbing frame, so we set up three stations. Two stations were for groups to come up with and practice routines, the other was the climbing frame. We split the class in to three groups and had one group on each station, rotating every 10 minutes.

Before we started, we explained each station and was excited to go on the climbing frame. However, when they weren’t on the frame, they didn’t put in any effort as they weren’t interested in that part of the session. For this reason, we decided to use the frame as a reward; we told the participants they would only go on the frame if they did well. Using In-action reflection, this seemed like a good idea. However, looking back at the session on-action, I’ve realised that rather than creating extrinsic motivation, we should have created intrinsic motivation so the children who had been on the frame weren’t bored of the routines having already been on the frame, and the groups who were yet to go on were more focused on the routines.

To create intrinsic motivation I could add a scoring system for the routines. This links to self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000) as the participants have autonomy by being able to create their own routines and relatedness by doing this in groups, but adding that points system would give them competence because getting a good score would show them they can do gymnastics. This is supported by the theory of self-efficacy (Bandura, 1977) which states that performance accomplishment is one of four factors needed for a participant to feel self-efficacy.

References:

Bandura, A. (1977) ‘Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change’, Psychological Review, (2), p. 191. Available at: http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsovi&AN=edsovi.00006832.197703000.00002&site=eds-live&scope=site (Accessed: 4 March 2020).

Ryan, R. M. and Deci, E. L. (2000) ‘Self-Determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation, Social Development, and Well-Being’, The American Psychologist, (1). Available at: http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsbig&AN=edsbig.A63492306&site=eds-live&scope=site (Accessed: 10 December 2019).