"It's just PE' till "It felt like a computer game': using technology to improve motivation in physical education

Motivating adolescents to participate in exercise and physical activity is becoming increasingly important due to a rise in obesity but can be prevented through Physical Education. A quasi-experimental design, grounded in the Self-determination theory, was utilised to assess the impact of an intervention using wrist-worn digital physical activity monitors to provide individual feedback to participants. Within the context of K secondary school, a sample of 10, male Year 10 students (aged 14-15-year olds) were divided into experimental and control groups. Over a period of six week, the experimental group received feedback on their exercise levels after PE lessons, while the control group did not. Three quantitative research questions in this pilot study were analysed using independent and dependent t-tests and correlations were run to understand the interaction between motivation and exercise. Results indicated that students in the experimental group showed a statistically significant increase in identified regulation. Furthermore, exercise levels increased significantly from week 2 of the intervention to week 6 in both groups. This pilot study suggests providing specific digital feedback to individuals based on their exercise levels in PE can increase students' motivation to exercise which in turn increases their levels of exercise in PE.