Lesson Plan: Motivation in Sport C.

Johnson

Lesson Plan
Course: Psychological Perspectives of Sport
Lesson: Motivation in Sport

Learning Objectives

As a result of this lesson, I wanted students to be able to:

1. Define motivation, which is a relatively vague term, particularly in a way that relates to sport and
performance
2. Describe the categories of motivation
3. Explain the three different approaches to studying motivation
4. Explain and apply the four motivational theories that are most commonly used in sport
psychology

These lesson-specific objectives were intended to help students work towards the following broader
course objectives:

The course aims to:

o Establish a basic understanding of psychological theories and research applicable to sport
and exercise.
o Increase understanding of how psychological factors (i.e. personality, motivation,
arousal) impact involvement, enjoyment, and performance in sport and physical activity.
o Help students acquire sport and exercise psychology knowledge and skills that can be
applied to coaches, teachers, observers, and/or participants.

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

o Distinguish the psychological factors that affect those involved in the sport domain.
o Explain the factors influencing sport and exercise performance from multiple theoretical
and contextual perspectives.
o Discuss the topics of personality, motivation, cognition, behavior, social interactions,
psychological development, health, and well-being as they relate to sport participation.

Methods & Techniques from Course

In this class meeting, I integrated various methods and techniques that I learned, or learned more
about, from this course. To begin, despite some technological challenges, I began with an activity that I
posted for the students online—it was a link to a values-sort activity. This was posted on eCampus in a
section titled “In Class,” where students can easily find any additional activities I post that we will be
doing in class that day (Nilson, Chapter 4, p. 49). The activity itself was geared towards students
identifying their personal values to be able to connect it to the topic we were covering that day:
motivation. My hope was, ironically, that this would also help build some intrinsic motivation in my
students as it helped to connect the dots between the subject matter and their own lives (Nilson, Chapter
8).
I also had students work in small groups, collaborating with each other to come up with
examples and answers related to the material (Davidson & Major, 2014). When I had students work in
Lesson Plan: Motivation in Sport C. Johnson

small groups, I did not assign roles or have them critique each other because it was such short group
interactions. However, I did hold individuals accountable by calling on one individual from the groups
to provide an answer—the students have gotten used to this over the course of the semester, which I
believe leads them to be more prepared and put in more work to understand the content and develop
solid answers (Huang, 2014). We have discussed group work in various ways in class, and I think I
made good use of it during the class meeting.
I was also flexible in various ways over the course of this class—as Leblanc writes in “Good
Teaching: The Top 10 Requirements,” good teaching is about “…having the confidence to react and
adjust to changing circumstances” (Leblanc, n.d.). During this class, I readjusted when the technology
was not cooperating and also when I felt the lecture was ineffective. At that point, I shifted to having
the students apply the information using a handout as a tool and taking control of their learning—a shift
to more of the learning paradigm rather than the teaching paradigm (Barr & Tagg, 1995). This
“[ended] the lecture’s privileged position,” as the learning paradigm does according to Barr and Tagg,
and allowed students to construct their own learning to a large extent. Finally, the handout provided an
outline of each of the four models we were discussing. While not exactly the “frame” discussed by BX
in which there are sentences with blanks for the students to fill in (Barkley, 2010, p. 191), this provided
a visual frame for the students to fill in with examples so they were not completely on their own and had
some guidance.

Teaching & Learning Strategies

1. Values Sort—Reflective Individual Activity . I had students complete a values sort activity in
which they started by developing a substantial list of their personal values. Then, in stages,
students were asked to eliminate the values that were least important to them on their list, until
they had only one or two core values left. This was intended to help prompt students to think
about what motivates them, thus creating a personal connection to the lesson content before we
even began the lesson.
2. Small Group Discussions. Students were provided question prompts or problems to solve based
on lecture information, and asked to discuss their unique perspectives with one another or to
work together to solve the problem posed.
3. Class Discussion. As a class, typically once students had a chance to discuss in small groups or
pairs, I ask them to share their perspectives or the solutions that they came up with. I kept this
discussion pretty open, paraphrasing what students shared or building off of what they shared,
and allowing other students to jump in and build and share as well.
4. Lecture. While I try to keep lectures relatively short, I use them in order to get information
across to the students for the first time and to support it with some “expertise” and examples.
This lesson was focused on theories of motivation, which can be pretty complicated to learn
initially so my lecture was focused on breaking these down simply and briefly.
5. Handout to Practice Application. In the case of the more complex motivational theories, it can
be easier to develop an understanding by working backwards by beginning with application of
the theories to life/stories/examples by plugging these into the models that represent the theories.
Students were given handouts with space to draw and fill in the models with examples. This
allows students to interact with the information and think about it in relation to their own lives or
knowledge, thus helping to solidify the information.
Lesson Plan: Motivation in Sport C. Johnson

Assessment Methods

1. Question the Class. As a formative assessment, I posed questions to the class throughout the
lecture to assess for understanding regarding motivation—defining motivation, categories of
motivation, and approaches to thinking about motivation. These were not super planned, but
rather questions that came to mind throughout the lecture as I was teaching to gage the students’
abilities to connect course content to real-life examples. When they were able to make these
connections, it showed me that at the very least the information was getting across and being
understood by some of the students. And for those who may not be understanding, this way they
were able to hear more examples given by their peers (corrected by me if necessary).
2. Circulate and Discuss with Groups/Individuals. I also circulated the classroom while the
students were working on the handouts that I gave them (and allowed them to keep as a study
tool). Since I did not collect the handouts and could not assess the students’ understanding that
way, I instead asked them questions about the examples they were applying using the handouts.
This way, the handouts served as a tool for formative assessment and I could course-correct if
students were off track.
3. Brief Group Presentations. As another formative assessment, I asked students to share, in
groups or as individuals, one of the examples that they came up with as they completed the
handout of motivational theories. In a class of 60 students, I was not able to have in-depth
discussion with each group as a circulated earlier, so this provided more opportunity for me to
assess the students’ understandings and again to make suggestions or course-corrections as they
shared with the class. This was also another opportunity for students to hear various examples of
how to apply the theories of motivation, in order to develop their understandings of the material
while I also assessed the understanding in the room.
4. Exit Ticket. Students were asked earlier in the class to write down their own definition of
motivation before we officially covered the definition in lecture, and were asked to turn this in as
they exited the classroom. While not a traditional “exit ticket” that checked for comprehension,
it was still a requirement to turn in before they left the room and allowed me to assess their
effort, engagement, and understanding of motivation before the lesson that day.

Reflection on Effectiveness of Lesson

The lesson on motivation and the motivational theories is a notoriously challenging lesson to
teach within the context of this course, so I was interested to see how it would go both from my
perspective and that of my observer. To begin, I think I gave the class a good idea of the logistics of the
next couple class periods—something that was important to me, as I like to keep them as informed as
possible and I had to have a guest lecturer come in the following class (right before their next exam). As
we began to transition into the teaching and learning component of the class, a couple of students
brought to my attention that eCampus was down and so they did not have access to the slides that I
typically provide to them before class. I sort of see this as a blessing in disguise, as it forces them to
take notes the old-school way—on paper—as opposed to being immersed in laptops. However, on this
Lesson Plan: Motivation in Sport C. Johnson

particular day I had a values sort activity set up on eCampus as a lead-in/introduction to the lesson on
motivation. With eCampus being down, the students were unable to access the link to the website that I
had planned on using, so I quickly improvised and had them do the activity on paper as I quickly pulled
a list of values off the internet so they had something to reference. This activity took a bit longer than
planned, and when I asked the class why they thought I had started this class with a values activity, I
received little response. I then asked them to provide their own definitions of motivation, but did not
receive any responses. I believed that they did have some thoughts about this, but as can sometimes be
the case, did not seem comfortable sharing in front of the class at this point. Instead, I asked them to
take out a piece of paper and write down their responses to this question to be turned in at the end of
class. I think I read the classroom well and improvised well by having them write their thoughts down
to get them to think about the question posed and still get some of their ideas out. It has often been my
experience that many students have great ideas and a good understanding of information when they
write it down, but when asked to share in front of a class of ~60 students, they do not and therefore
appear to not have anything to say. This is not necessarily the case at all. Because the introduction took
so long (longer than it should have), I shifted straight into the lecture and did not remember to preview
what we were covering in the lesson that day. I wish I would have done this, but do not necessarily
think it made a big difference in the effectiveness of the lesson.
Transitioning into the lecture, I moved through the basics of motivation smoothly and swiftly.
The information is fairly straightforward, and at various points I asked the students to provide simple
examples to keep them engaged and actively thinking about the topic. For instance, after providing the
definitions of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, I asked the class for examples of each. The feedback
from my evaluator suggests that the examples that I provided throughout the lecture were very relatable
for the students; I try to make the examples as relatable and/or as relevant within the world of current
sporting events as possible so they stick in the students’ memories a bit more. I will also use examples
from my own life on occasion to help get the information across, and to model for students how to apply
the information to their own lives. The challenge in this fairly short lecture was addressing the four
theories of motivation, which often are very difficult for students to comprehend upon first learning
them (especially all at once, but the schedule does not allow time for spreading them out over the course
of multiple classes). In preparing for this particular class meeting, I decided I would spend a few
minutes briefly explaining each of the theories, throwing in some examples as well, before giving
students the handout in which they would complete the models of each theory. Whether this was a
Lesson Plan: Motivation in Sport C. Johnson

conceited approach, by assuming that my understanding and ability to explain the theories would
contribute to their learning, or simply an unsuccessful attempt at getting information across, I could
sense after explaining a couple of theories that it was not making sense to the students and they had
questions about them. So, I quickly readjusted and decided to give the students the handouts to work
through the theories themselves one at a time. I also gave them the option to work individually or in
groups. I usually opt for one or another, but with this information being so challenging to take in
initially, I decided I would let each student work in the way that they felt was best for them and their
learning.
I was very happy with this adjustment, as I think it was much more beneficial to give the
students the space and resources to think and work through each theory themselves with my guidance as
opposed to me putting more information out there that they simply could not take in effectively all at
once. The conversations that I had with the students about the theories were some of the best we have
had all semester, as they struggled through the process but were putting in a concerted effort to
understand and come up with accurate examples. I then had them share some of their examples out loud
with the class, which they were generally more confident in sharing because I had given them feedback
throughout the process and pointed out where they were off track when necessary. I believe this was a
great learning opportunity for the class to go through as a whole, but all of this work on the theories
meant that we ran right up until the last minute of class. I did not get to wrap up what we had covered,
which I typically like to do and class feels incomplete to me without it. However, in this case, I think it
was okay to take all of that time to allow the students the time to work through the learning process
themselves using the handouts, which turned out to be a really effective resource. Overall, this class was
challenging to teach not only because the information can be overwhelming, but also because it felt like
so much of the students’ learning was placed in their own hands. Ultimately I think this was really good
for me to experience, and it ended up being a very powerful learning and teaching experience.
Lesson Plan: Motivation in Sport C. Johnson

References
Barkley, E. F. (2010). Student engagement techniques: A handbook for college faculty. San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Barr, R., & Tagg, J. (1995). From teaching to learning—a new paradigm for undergraduate education.
Change, p. 13-25.
Davidson, N., & Major, C. H. (2014). Boundary crossings: Cooperative learning, collaborative
learning, and problem-based learning. Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 25.
Huang, L. (2014). Students riding on coattails during group work? Five simple ideas to try. Faculty
Focus. Retrieved from: http://www. facultyfocus.com/articles/effective-teaching-
strategies/students-ridingcoattails-group-work-five-simple-ideas-try/.
Leblanc, R. (n.d.). “Good Teaching: The Top 10 Requirements.”
Nilson, L. B. (2016). Teaching At Its Best. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.