Teachers’ behaviors can affect students’ engagement in the Physical Education (PE) setting. According to self-determination theory, teachers can rely on either a need-supportive or a controlling teaching behavior, and these behaviors will differently affect students’ outcomes. The main objective of this research was to analyse how teaching behaviors and some contextual variables influence students’ engagement in PE classes. The present study adds to the existing literature through an observation-based design in which real-life examples of need-supportive and thwarting teaching behaviors, as well as students’ engagement behaviors, have been identified. Thirty-seven different PE lessons were coded for 5-min intervals to assess the occurrence of 36 teaching behaviors and five students’ behaviors. Stepwise regression revealed that both structure during activity and relatedness support could predict student engagement in a positive way. Surprisingly, cold teaching also emerged as a direct predictor in the last step of the analysis. On the other hand, controlling and structure before activity behaviors inversely predicted students’ engagement. These four variables explained 39% of the variance in student engagement, whereas autonomy support did not correlate with student engagement. These new findings in the field not only confirm the known relevance of teaching behavior for students’ outcomes but also suggest an unexpected lack of influence of autonomy support on students’ engagement as well as an association between cold teaching and students’ engagement. Results are discussed in the light of new approaches, and some practical implications are provided.

The present study investigated how challenge-based learning (CBL) in physical education (PE) may affect students’ basic psychological needs (BPNs), motivational regulations, engagement, and learning in comparison with a traditional teaching (TT) methodology. A quasiexperimental study with experimental and control groups was carried out. In total, 50 participants (16 boys and 34 girls) between 13 and 15 years old (M_age = 13.35, SD = 0.62) were involved in the experience for 6 weeks (n_control = 24; n_experimental = 26). Validated questionnaires were administered both before and after the intervention in both groups. Furthermore, theoretical knowledge and badminton-specific motor skill tests were carried out in both groups after the intervention. An analysis showed that after the intervention, students in the CBL condition improved their autonomy (M_before = 3.15 vs. M_after = 3.39; ES = 0.26 *), competence (M_before = 4.01 vs. M_after = 4.18; ES = 0.33 *), and relatedness satisfaction (M_before = 3.86 vs. M_after = 4.06; ES = 0.32 *). As for behavioural engagement measures, students in the CBL condition exhibited higher scores after than those from before (M_before = 4.12 vs. M_after = 4.36; ES = 0.35 *). No significant changes were observed for motivational regulations or agentic engagement. On learning outcomes, students in the experimental group achieved higher scores in both theoretical knowledge (M_contol = 6.48 vs. M_experimental = 6.79) and badminton-specific motor skills (M_contol = 6.85 vs. M_experimental = 7.65) than the control group did. The present study findings highlight that CBL might be a valid and effective methodological approach for students in PE to achieve adaptive motivational, behavioural, and learning outcomes.

The sport education model (SEM) has been suggested to have a positive impact on students’ motivational processes within the physical education setting. However, there is no evidence about how this methodology can affect such processes in the unconventional scenario provoked by the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the present study was to analyze the effect of a SEM-based teaching intervention on students’ basic psychological needs (BPN), intrinsic motivation, and behavioral engagement in physical education. For this purpose, a quasi-experimental study was carried out in which two groups of secondary students (M_age = 14.61, SD = 0.5) were taught a basketball unit following either the SEM or traditional teaching. Previously validated questionnaires were administered both before and after the intervention. The results showed that students following the SEM methodology significantly improved their autonomy satisfaction (MPre = 3.09 vs. Mpost = 3.63), competence satisfaction (Mpre = 3.48 vs. Mpost = 4.17), and relatedness satisfaction (MPre = 3.79 vs. MPost = 4.43), as well as their behavioral engagement (MPre = 4.05 vs. MPost = 4.48), while students in the control group reported lower relatedness satisfaction after (M = 3.54) than before (M = 4.13) the intervention. This study thus contributes to the understanding of how teaching in a COVID-19 scenario has affected students’ motivational responses, and interesting implications for the current situation are provided.

The promotion of physical activity between people with disabilities has been pointed out as an important issue since they have a higher risk of serious health problems. However, the participation of people with disabilities do not meet the recommended physical activity guidelines. Based on the existing literature, the first aim of the study was to analyse how an inclusive sport training program could affect the intention of physical education (PE) teachers to develop different teaching styles in their classes. The second aim was to explore whether teaching students with disabilities could alter the effect of the intervention. A paired t-test revealed that participants had higher intentions to display autonomy (5.29 vs. 5.50; p<.001) and structure-supportive (5.78 vs. 5.92; p<.001) teaching styles after the intervention. Regarding the influence of having contact with students with disabilities (SWID), it was found that the intervention had slightly different effects on teachers with and without experience teaching SWD. Findings are discussed in terms of inclusion, motivation, and teaching behaviours in PE contexts with SWID, suggesting the existence of a parallelism between teaching behaviours that favour the inclusion of students with disabilities and those that favour motivation between students. Resumen La promoción de la actividad física en personas con discapacidad es un tema de gran relevancia, ya que este grupo enfrenta un mayor riesgo de sufrir problemas de salud graves. Sin embargo, su participación en actividades físicas no alcanza los niveles recomendados. Basándose en la literatura existente, el primer objetivo del estudio fue analizar cómo un programa de entrenamiento deportivo inclusivo puede influir en la intención de los profesores de educación física (EF) de adoptar diferentes estilos de enseñanza en sus clases. El segundo objetivo fue explorar si la experiencia previa en la enseñanza de estudiantes con discapacidad podría modificar el efecto de la intervención. Los resultados de una prueba t pareada indicaron que, tras la intervención, los participantes mostraron una mayor intención de emplear estilos de enseñanza que fomentan la autonomía (5.29 vs. 5.50; p<.001) y el apoyo estructural (5.78 vs. 5.92; p<.001). Además, se observó que la intervención tuvo efectos ligeramente distintos en docentes con y sin experiencia previa en la enseñanza de estudiantes con discapacidad. Los hallazgos se discuten en términos de inclusión, motivación y comportamientos docentes en contextos de EF con estudiantes con discapacidad., sugiriendo la existencia de un paralelismo entre los comportamientos docentes que favorecen la inclusión de estudiantes con discapacidad y aquellos que fomentan la motivación entre los estudiantes.