ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Teacher Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1656711
This article is part of the Research TopicPhysical Education, Health and Education Innovation-Vol IIIView all 23 articles
COMIENDOP: A protocol to improve the motivational styles of Pre-service primary Physical Education teachers
Provisionally accepted
- University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Pre-service primary teachers, especially primary Physical Education (PE) teachers, must acquire core teaching skills and effective classroom management strategies. The acquisition of motivating teaching styles in PE lessons has positive consequences for both teachers and students. Grounded in Self-Determination Theory and the Circumplex Model, the present study presents the first intervention program designed to foster motivating teaching styles (i.e., autonomy support and structure) and prevent (de)motivating teaching styles (i.e., control and chaos) among pre-service primary PE teachers. The training program also strives to improve pre-service primary PE teachers' competence and motivation, which might increase motivation for PE and physical activity engagement in the students later under their charge. A quasi-experimental design was employed that took a mixed-methods approach. A total of 370 participants from the [anonymized peer review process] will participate in the study. Participants were divided into control and experimental groups. The intervention program is structured into two main phases (i.e., general and specific phases) and will last a total of 35 hours. Theoretical and practical face-to-face sessions will be conducted by university PE specialist professors. Following the training program, participants will complete school placements to apply what they have learned. Pre-service primary PE teachers will learn to effectively use motivational strategies and teaching skills, whilst also adopting motivating teaching styles during practical sessions. Motivation, (de)motivating teaching styles, and perceptions of efficacy and competence will be assessed via questionnaires and focus groups. Findings represent an important first step towards improving motivational training programs for pre-service primary PE teachers and improving the quality of university teaching.
Keywords: strategies, Teaching, self-determination theory, circumplex model, Program
Received: 15 Jul 2025; Accepted: 02 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sanz-Remacha, Julián-Clemente and Aibar. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: María Sanz-Remacha, msanzr@unizar.es
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.