As children grow older, the desire to please
to please the teacher is accompanied (in some cases apparently replaced) by a desire to please their peers. The atrention and respect of their friends become an important factor in understanding the motivation of intermediate-grade children. The opportunity to work in groups to design activities or solve problems is often motivating for fifth graders who are so interested in peer interaction. They are motivated by the chance to design a game, dance, or movement sequence and then show it to their classmates.
In addition to these age- related differences in children, skill level also influences the type of support that is effective. Poorly skilled children, who can be only minimally successful even when tasks are adjusted for them, need lots of praise and encouragement from the teacher to continue to work hard and to try. The highly skilled child, who receives satisfaction from succeeding at the various tasks, seems to be motivated by praise focusing on the way the task is done (sometimes the results) rather than by the fact that they are simply working hard. In fact, when a teacher continually praises a highly skilled child for succeeding at a task that is relatively easy for that child, she may inadvertently give the impression that P.E. is really for the poorly skilled child. I believe that this is true of many athletes who were not challenged in physical education classes. They received high amounts of praise for accomplishments that were much better than those of others in the class but that represented a relatively minimal effort on the athletes'part.
The Council on Physical Education for Children (COPEC) recently developed a position statement describing both developmentally appropriate and inappropriate practices in children's physical education. It can be obtained by writing to: COPEC, 1900 Association Dr., Reston, VA 22091.
Six techniques for motivating children
There are a variety of different techniques that teachers use to motivate children in attempting to create a learning environment that provides for high rates of success, avoids comparisons among children, and accommodates individual differences. Included among these techniques are: teaching by invitation; intratask veriation; task sheets; stations or learning centers; child-designed activities; and students' use of videotape.