Are educator-created (dis)empowering climates equally associated with motivational experiences in physical education pre-service teachers as in foreign language pre-service teachers?

Abstract

Guided by self-determination theory, the objective of the present research was to examine the differences between physical education (PE) and foreign language (FL) pre-service teachers in terms of the associations between perceived educator-created (dis)empowering climates and need-based experiences and motivation. A convenience sample of 246 PE and 208 FL pre-service teachers (57.08% women, Mage=24.92, SD=4.07) participated in this cross-sectional research. All the participants came from eight Andalusian public universities: Almería (19.8%), Cádiz (5.7%), Córdoba (3.7%), Granada (32.2%), Huelva (3.5%), Jaén (4.8%), Málaga (16.1%) and Sevilla (14.1%). The participants completed the following scales: the Educator-Created Empowering and Disempowering Climate Questionnaire, the Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction Scale, the Psychological Needs Thwarting Scale, and the Academic Motivation Scale. The results showed that PE pre-service teachers scored significantly higher than FL pre-service teachers in disempowering climate, need satisfaction and amotivation. The results from the multi-group path analysis revealed that, overall, empowering and disempowering climates were differentially associated with the motivational outcomes between the PE and FL pre-service teachers. More specifically, FL pre-service teachers had slightly higher associations between empowering climates and need satisfaction, and between disempowering climates and need frustration. Conclusions: the findings underscore the importance not only of teacher educators creating empowering climates.