Factors Impacting Physical Education Teachers’ Abilities to Motivate Secondary School Students to be More Physically Active

Abstract

Physical movement is an essential part of human life. Without it, we would not be able to move objects, move ourselves, or engage in activities or sports that we love to play. However, analysis of previous research has shown that secondary school students have become more sedentary and their engagement in physical activity over the past decades has decreased. Physical educators have the opportunity to introduce, instruct, and engage students in physical activity from their first days in school all the way up until they graduate from high school. The goal is to not only engage students in physical activity while they are in school but also to build lifelong healthy habits that these students can engage in, far after graduation. Helping students to find the motivation within students to be physically active may be difficult, but physical educators have a great opportunity to accomplish this goal. The purpose of this synthesis project, then, is to review the literature on the different methods by which high school physical education teachers can motivate secondary students to be more physically active