Motivation towards dance within physical education according to teaching technique and gender

Abstract

This is qualitative study with the objective to analyse motivation towards dance by comparing two teaching methodologies within the education context, depending on gender. The self-report technique was applied with 47 students (29 girls and 18 boys) aged 14 to 16 years (14.84±0.48) from a secondary school in Extremadura (Spain) to explore the reasons that engage them in dance classes during Physical Education (PE) classes. Twelve dance-teaching sessions of 50 minutes, distributed across two days a week, were presented to each group. Twenty (20) students received the lessons that applied the Direct Instruction Technique and 27 students received instruction by means of the creative inquiry technique. Self-reporting was applied at three different assessments (sessions 4, 8 and 12), of the intervention with both groups. The results show important gender differences in the students' motivation towards participation in dance in the PE context when different teaching techniques were used. This suggests that teachers may need to apply a different treatment depending on gender.

Key words: Motivation; Teaching methodology; Gender; Dance; Physical Education.