TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title
Page- - - - - - - - i
Certification- - - - - - - - iii
Dedication- - - - - - -- - iv
Acknowledgement- - - - - - - v
Abstract- - - - - - - - viii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background
to the Study- - - - - - 1
Statement
of problem- - - - - - - 10
Purpose
of the Study- - - - - - - 11
Research
Questions- - - - - - - 12
Scope
of the Study- - - - - - - 13
Limitation
of the Study - - - - - - 13
Significance
of the Study - - - - - 13
Definition
of Terms- - - - - - - 13
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED
LITERATURE
Concept
of Motivation- - - - - - 14
Motivational
Techniques- -- - - - - 16
Motives
and Sport Participation- - - - - 28
Motivation
and female participation n sports- - - 36
Motivation
and sports improvement in secondary schools- - 39
Summary
of literature review- - - - - 50
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY
Research
Design of the study - - - - - 52
Population
of the study- - - - - - 53
Sample
and Sampling Technique- - - - - 53
Research
Instrument- - - - - - - 54
Validity
- - - - - - - - 54
Reliability- - - - - - - - 54
Method of Data Collection - - - - - - 55
Method
of Data analysis - - - - - - 56
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS AND
DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
Discussion
of Findings - - - - - 57
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary - - - - - - - 69
Conclusion- - - - - - - - 71
Recommendations
- - - - - - - 72
REFERENCES- - - - - - - 73
Appendix- - - - - - - - 77
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to assess the perceived influence of motivation
strategies in enhancing sport performance among secondary school students in
Esan west local government area of Edo state. The study made use of the
descriptive survey research method was used in carrying out this study. The
population for the study comprised of public secondary school students. A total
of hundred (200) students from five public secondary schools were selected
through stratified random sampling technique. A self-structured questionnaire
was used to obtain information from the respondents. Section A consisted of
demographic data of respondents while Section B consisted of items drawn from
the variables of the study. The four point Rennis-Likert scale of strongly
agree, agree, disagree and strongly disagree was adopted as options to the
items. A self developed and structured questionnaire was submitted to the
project supervisor for vetting, correction and approval before distributing it
to the respondents to ensure its validity. Reliability of the instrument was
ensured through a test re-test method in which the questionnaire was
administered on participants twice. Results
from the reliability test shows that the Guttman Split Half Coefficient value
of 0.779 indicates the instrument was reliable and was hence it was adopted for
data collection. In analyzing the data, descriptive statistics of frequency counts
and percentages was used to analyze the demographic data while inferential
statistics of Chi-square (X2) was used to test all hypotheses at a
0.05 level of significance. The findings are as follows; Motivational
strategies significantly encourage the participation of sports among secondary
school students. Motivation strategies significantly encourage more participation
of sport by female students in secondary schools. Motivational strategies
significantly enhance the overall success of the school sport teams.
Motivational strategies significantly enhance progressive improvement in the
performance of the school athletes.
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background
of the study
Sports are all forms of competitive
physical activities which, through casual or organized participation, aim to
use, or improve physical activities or skills while providing entertainment to
participants and, in some case spectators. Sports participation is the act of,
actively, engaging in organized or competitive physical activities for the
purpose of skill acquisition, health improvement and recreation or
entertainment.
Motivation
Motivation
is a psychological feature that arouses an organism to act towards a desired
goal and elicits, controls, and sustains certain goal directed behaviors. It
can be considered a driving force; a psychological drive that compels or
reinforces an action toward a desired goal. For example, hunger is a motivation
that elicits a desire to eat. Motivation has been shown to have roots in
physiological, behavioral, cognitive, and social areas (Boyo and Ekpon, 2012).
Motivation is necessary for developing and
performing athletic skills, it is the bedrock of successful sports
participation regardless of race and background. It is what drives the athlete
to successfully acquire a skill through long and arduous practices. The
definition of a motive, associated with motivation, is stated in Webster's New
World Dictionary as "some inner drive, impulse, intention, etc. that
causes a person to do something or act in a certain way. High school coaches
often find that motivating adolescent males and females can be particularly challenging
(Robert, 2012). Although motivation can be sometimes difficult to achieve,
attention to social influences and using techniques of reinforcement, feedback,
and goal setting are ways that can instill motivation in the adolescent
athlete.
Adolescents are influenced by their peers,
parents, and the social factors that surround them. These aspects shape the
behavior of these youths and affect their motivation towards athletics. In a
study by Rychman & Hamel (2013) some of the main reasons why female adolescents
engaged in sports activities were to make friends, keep existing friends, or a
combination of both. However, it is important to note that the athletes who had
a greater history of sports participation were more strongly oriented towards
their performance. These athletes also required less support and reinforcement
from coaches and team mates than did athletes from a less sports oriented
background. This study indicates that less experienced players require extra
encouragement and support than do more experienced players. Therefore, some
emphasis on the social aspects of being on a team should be encouraged. Coaches
must also be perceived by the athletes as honest and caring (Petronio, Martin,
& Littlefield, 2011; Westre & Weiss, 2012). These characteristics help
and support athletes in practice and competition, also, athletes will work
successfully with someone they like. Students may volunteer for high school
sports teams because of several factors. Parental or peer pressure may have
encouraged them, or perhaps they want something to be identified with.
Unfortunately for the coach, the former reason can be difficult to deal with.
It can be quite challenging to make someone enjoy himself or herself or to want
to participate. However, certain yet-to-be-discussed motivational techniques
can be helpful. Also, with patience, learning about the required skill can result
in motivation (Magill, 2014). In regard to the social factors and peer or
parental pressure that affect adolescent motivation, emphasizing social
interaction with other athletes, providing support and encouragement to
new-comers, having the athletes believe in their coach as honest and caring,
and patience will help in motivating these youths. Using positive reinforcement
can be a part of motivating the adolescent athlete. Black & Weiss (2015)
researched this technique in a study involving swimmers in three age groups;
ten to eleven year olds, twelve to fourteen year olds, and fifteen to eighteen
year olds. In the last two age groups, (twelve to eighteen year olds inclusive)
verbal positive reinforcement and encouragement played a significant role in
motivating the athletes. Reinforcement gives some indication of the knowledge
of results in practice, but it does depend on whether or not the skill is being
performed correctly. This knowledge is then applied to learning so that the
athlete can improve on the required actions (Skinner, 1969). If the athlete is
not improving, reinforcement can still motivate because it becomes a type of
reward. This type of reward can be classified as an extrinsic motivator.
Similar types of reinforcement do not work
in the same way for all athletes (Llewelyn & Blucker, 2007). Visual
reinforcement (video analysis and comparison) may motivate one athlete, but
discourage another. This is also true for verbal reinforcement. Negative
criticism, on the other hand, detrimentally affects youth motivation levels.
The study by Black & Weiss (2010), which was previously discussed, found
that when adolescent swimmers were exposed to such criticism, their motivation
dropped. This may happen because the athlete becomes angry, confused, hurt, or
a combination of all three (Jones, 2002).
Positive reinforcement and encouragement
both help youth athletes become motivated to practice and perform well. Every
athlete responds differently to different types of reinforcement and
encouragement. What may motivate one athlete may discourage another. Negative
criticism should be avoided as this tends to discourage the athletes. Feedback,
or knowledge of results, is similar to reinforcement but it provides much more
relevant information to the athlete. Research has indicated that knowledge of
results is essential to proper skill acquisition (Bilodeau, Bilodeau, &
Schumsky, 2013). Black and Weiss also studied the correlation between the use
of feedback and motivation. Their results showed that when information was
given with encouragement, the athlete's motivation and self-perception of
ability rose. It is interesting to note that the females who participated in
this study depended less on the comparison with their peers and more on the
feedback provided from the adults. In regard to the format of feedback, visual
feedback was much more instructional and useful than verbal feedback (Llewellyn
& Blucker, 2015). This was especially true for beginners who had not yet
mastered the technical aspects of the skills they were performing. In
application, when verbal feedback is used, preferably after visual feedback, it
must be precise and effectively communicated. Feedback is essential to improve
the performance of a skill. Knowledge of what can be done to perform better
through visual and verbal aids help to improve motivation in adolescent
athletes. Goal setting can be the best motivator of all the previously
mentioned techniques. Setting goals provides a step-by-step approach for
adolescents to achieve their desired level of performance. Also, setting goals
can help to intrinsically motivate these athletes to exercise, as documented by
(Tappe, Duda, & Menges-Ehrnwald, 2011). This study found that adolescents
were intrinsically motivated to reach their fitness goals and consequently
exerted more effort towards that goal. With respect to gender, male athletes
were more oriented towards winning and competition than females who tended
towards personal best efforts and developing social and physical aspects
(Rychman & Hamel, 2012). However, it is important to remember that this is
a general statement and that every athlete is an individual. Another study of
male, secondary school basketball players executed by Seifriz, Duda & Chi (2012)
reported that goal orientation helped in intrinsic motivation. This research
supports the idea that setting goals helps in motivation, but it is also
important to include the athletes and interact with them in the goal creation
process. McKenzie &Rushall in (2014) studied this in an experiment
involving swimmers and recording performance. The results showed that when the
adolescent swimmers were included in the recording and establishment of goals,
their motivation increased. Consequently, as their motivation increased, their
athletic performance also increased.
Goals can be either extrinsically motivated,
(such as winning a trophy), or intrinsically motivated (such as a desire to improve
technique). Adolescents are constantly being reinforced with extrinsic
motivation rather than intrinsic motivation (Llewellyn & Blucker, 2009).
This is somewhat unfortunate because coaches must constantly offer material
objects to motivate their athletes rather than promote the idea of personal
satisfaction from physical activity. Goal setting is very valuable in
motivating teen-aged athletes. Establishing goals helps athletes to work
harder, and having them interact with their goals results in higher motivation
levels. More emphasis on the intrinsic motivation of young athletes may help to
curb the strong tendency to respond to the extrinsic motivation of material
gain rather than personal improvement. Although motivation is important to the
athletic performance of adolescent athletes, one motivational technique is not
better than any other (Llewellyn and Blucker, 2011). Providing such incentive
can sometimes be a challenge to the coach, but it can be made easier if the
coach pays attention to certain aspects that help in motivation. Parental and
peer pressure and social factors can be dealt with by the coach by emphasizing
social interaction, encouraging the less experienced players, and being honest,
caring and patient. The amount of positive reinforcement and feedback is
essential to motivating the athlete and to improving his or her athletic
performance. Setting goals and involving the athlete in this process is also an
effective motivator for these youths.
Statement of Problem
Motivation is the foundation of all athletic effort and
accomplishment. Without your desire and determination to improve your sports performances, all of the other
mental factors, confidence, intensity, focus, and emotions, are meaningless. To
become the best athlete you must be motivated to do what it takes to maximize
your ability and achieve your goals. It is worthy of note that there has been
low representation and dwindling participation in sports among secondary school
students in Esan west local government area in sports at the state level due to lack of motivation. Student who used
to be interested in sports are no longer interested instead they prefer to do
other things during their game time. It appears that this problem of poor
participation is more of lack of motivation than lack of talent. This problem
therefore necessitates the examination of factors inhibiting the motivational
level of students towards sports participation in Esan West Local Government
Area.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to motivational
factors influencing sports performance among secondary school students in Esan
West Local Government Area of Edo State. Specifically the study aims at;
·
Examining the factors that influence
participation in sports among secondary school students.
·
Examining the various strategies for
influencing the level of sports participation among secondary school students.
·
assessing the effect of motivation on
the overall success of the school sports
Research
questions
·
Will motivation strategies encourage
sports participation among students?
·
Will motivation strategies encourage
more participation of sport by female secondary school students?
·
Will motivational strategies enhance the
overall success of the school sport teams?
·
Will motivational strategies enhance
progressive improvement in the performance of the school athletes?
Significance
of the study
It
is expected that the findings of this study will be beneficial:
·
To
talented children who may otherwise ignore their talent because of lack of motivation.
·
To
coaches and physical education teachers who are finding it difficult to get
their students actively and continuously involved in sports and not just during
inter-house sports competitions.
·
And
finally to the local government as a whole, as there would be better
representation in sports competitions at the state level and beyond.
Scope
of the Study
This study is delimited
to secondary school students in Esan West Local Government Area of Edo State. The
study concerns itself, only, with the effect of motivational techniques on
sports participation among secondary school students.
Limitation
of the study
The researcher
envisages some likely problems in the course of this study such as: Inability to get the appropriate information
from respondents, Failure, of respondents to return all administered
questionnaire, and Irregular
completion of the questionnaires which may lead to rejection.
Definition
of terms
Confidence: Trust
or belief in someone’s ability
Desire: A
wish or longing
Extrinsic: The
act of developing an urge or desire to do something because of a reward
Intrinsic: An
inward or inborn urge that spurs an individual into action
Motivator: A
person or something responsible for spurring a person into action
Peak: To
reach highest, greatest, best, busiest etc.
Sport: Games
or competition involving physical activities
Skill: Cleverness
at doing something, resulting either from practice or from natural ability
Tactical: The
act of strategic planning
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