Prediction of the feasibility of using motivational strategies in Physical Education: The role of psychological need thwarting and burnout in teachers

Abstract

In the Physical Education (PE) context, teachers are the main responsible to implement strategies aiming to improve learning processes. It explains the existence of a research line focused on the study of factors determining teachers behaviors during their professional practice (e.g., Aelterman, Vansteenkiste, Van Keer, & Haerens, 2016). The aim of this study was to test a predictive model of feasibility perceived by teachers to implement certain motivational variables through psychological needs thwarting and burnout experienced by school as, to the best of our knowledge, there are no previous works attempting to do that. The sample was comprised of 190 PE teachers from four different Latin American countries (Argentina, Colombia, Chile and Spain). The sample included 105 males and 85 females ranging from 23 to 62 years of age (M = 39.04 years, SD = 10.12 years). Findings suggest that need thwarting can explain a large amount of the variance in burnout. In addition, the current findings extend the model by including the feasibility of using motivational strategies as an outcome influenced by the burnout experienced by teachers. Teachers perceptions of how viable motivational strategies are to be carried out, might be affected by their own needs thwarting and mediated by the experience of burnout.