ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
The relationship between teacher identity and learning engagement in Sports training students: the mediating role of learning motivation
Provisionally accepted
Hanzhen Ou1*
Ke Yang2- 1Central South University, Changsha, China
- 2Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China
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Introduction: In the current educational context, the professional identity of physical education teachers serves as an important indicator of how prepared sports training students to enter the teaching profession. Methods: This study used structural equation modeling to analyze questionnaire data from 588 sports training students from nine universities in China.The aim was to examine the relationship between physical education teacher identity, motivation, and commitment to learning. Results: The overall level of physical education teacher identity among sports training students was moderately to high. A positive correlation was found between physical education teacher identity, learning motivation, and learning engagement. Furthermore, Physical education teacher identity was a significant predictor of sports training students' academic engagement, with learning motivation acting as a mediator in this relationship. Discussion: These findings offer valuable insights into how educational institutions can foster the development of physical education teacher identity by adapting their training programs, providing practical strategies for enhance students' motivation and engagement in learning.
Keywords: Identity, Learning engagement, Learning motivation, Physical education teacher, pre-service teachers
Received: 31 Jul 2025; Accepted: 16 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Ou and Yang. 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: Hanzhen Ou
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