TY - JOUR

T1 - Effects of cooperative games on enjoyment in physical education - How to increase positive experiences in students?

AU - Engels, Eliane Stephanie

AU - Freund, Philipp Alexander

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2020 Engels, Freund. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

PY - 2020/12/7

Y1 - 2020/12/7

N2 - Enjoyment is one of the most important factors for the maintenance of regular physical activity. The present study investigated if cooperative games in physical education classes (grades 6–9) can increase students’ enjoyment of physical activity. Data were collected in a quasi-experimental study employing a two-group design with repeated measures and randomization of classes to conditions. The total sample consisted of N = 285 students from regular schools in Germany aged 10 to 16 years (Mage = 12.67 years, SD = 1.10; 48.4% female). We found that cooperative games led to a higher perceived enjoyment in physical education classes (F(1) = 3.49, p = .063, ηp2 = .012), increased the feeling of how strong students felt related to each other (F(1) = 4.38, p = .037, ηp2 = .016), and facilitated feelings of perceived competence in physical education class (F(1) = 6.31, p = .013, ηp2 = .022). In addition, social relatedness and perceived competence partly mediated the effect of cooperative games on enjoyment. The findings indicate that systematically designed cooperative games can help foster enjoyment in physical education classes.

AB - Enjoyment is one of the most important factors for the maintenance of regular physical activity. The present study investigated if cooperative games in physical education classes (grades 6–9) can increase students’ enjoyment of physical activity. Data were collected in a quasi-experimental study employing a two-group design with repeated measures and randomization of classes to conditions. The total sample consisted of N = 285 students from regular schools in Germany aged 10 to 16 years (Mage = 12.67 years, SD = 1.10; 48.4% female). We found that cooperative games led to a higher perceived enjoyment in physical education classes (F(1) = 3.49, p = .063, ηp2 = .012), increased the feeling of how strong students felt related to each other (F(1) = 4.38, p = .037, ηp2 = .016), and facilitated feelings of perceived competence in physical education class (F(1) = 6.31, p = .013, ηp2 = .022). In addition, social relatedness and perceived competence partly mediated the effect of cooperative games on enjoyment. The findings indicate that systematically designed cooperative games can help foster enjoyment in physical education classes.

KW - Psychology

KW - Adolescent

KW - Child

KW - Cooperative Behavior

KW - Exercise

KW - Female

KW - Humans

KW - Male

KW - Physical Education and Training/methods

KW - Pleasure

KW - Students

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85097482567&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/48c54e8e-ec6c-3dbf-858d-f2ff1b1d494c/

U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0243608

DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0243608

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 33284852

VL - 15

JO - PLoS ONE

JF - PLoS ONE

SN - 1932-6203

IS - 12

M1 - e0243608

ER -