Using context personalization approach to promote students’ long-term engagement with physical activity: An exploratory study in physical education

Abstract

Individual interest which refers to individual’s personal preferences is a key in promoting students’ long-term engagement towards physical activity. Capitalizing on the positive effects of individual interest on the regulation of person-in-context experiences, researchers have used teaching strategies based on a fit between the content taught and the learners’ individual interests. One of the promising ways to facilitate this fit is the context personalization approach which refers to matching content with characters, objects, and themes of students’ out-of-school interests. The goal of this exploratory study was to investigate the potential of this approach in physical education to promote students’ long-term engagement towards physical activity. Participants were 184 secondary school students (Mage = 13.9; SD = 1.7; 54.9% boys) randomly separated in an experimental (n=113) or a control (n=71) group. All the students participated in a handball unit of six lessons (nine hours). Video games principles (e.g., characters and content to unlock, experience points to earn) related to students’ out-of-school interest were used to design the unit for the experimental group. During the experimentation, students completed three scales developed in physical education : individual interest, situational interest and perceived competence. Results revealed higher scores for the experimental group compared to the control group in (1) triggering and maintaining situational interest, (2) individual interest at the end of the unit and, (3) perceived competence. These results are discussed in relation to the impact of a context personalization approach on students’ interest in physical education. This exploratory study draws some opportunities for researchers and physical education teachers to tackle together the 21st century challenge of promoting students’ long-term engagement towards physical activity through physical education