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The aim of this study was to examine associations of teaching competence, autonomous motivation, and self-efficacy between two groups of pre-service teachers enrolled in a four-year Bachelor of Education degree program. One group participated in a Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) pathway and one who did not participate in a Work-Integrated Learning pathway. Self-reports of basic psychological needs, motivational regulations, and self-efficacy were completed by 116 pre-service teachers. Findings indicated that pre-service teachers who participated in the WIL pathway had higher levels of efficacy in classroom management, and had higher perceptions of identified regulation, demonstrating that they perceived WIL teaching sessions as a useful way to develop other characteristics of themselves. These findings suggest that exposure to authentic and experiential learning encounters through practical WIL experiences has a favourable impact on pre-service teacher competence, autonomous motivation, and self-efficacy. Incorporating authentic and practical opportunities such as WIL into teacher education programs presents a valuable and feasible option to foster broad skill development and teacher readiness.

The primary purpose of this study was to analyze the link between students' expectancy beliefs, subjective task values, out-of-school activity, and moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) participation across secondary school physical education (PE) classes. The sample comprised 96 students (58 girls, 38 boys; Mage = 15.03, SD = .94) from schools located in Northeast Finland. The self-report questionnaire was modified to address the domain-specific questions for Finnish PE. Accelerometers were used for the objective assessment of students' MVPA across the PE classes and during out-of-school activities. The findings show that perceived importance indicates MVPA involvement for girls and attainment value and out-of-school MVPA for boys. Boys were more physically active than girls across PE classes. In contrast, girls received more out-of-school activity across the 7 days. The major cause of concern arising from the current findings was that girls engaged in up to 26.2% and boys 33.6% of their weekly MVPA during only two 45-min PE classes. A higher priority needs to be placed in schools on encouraging young people to engage in daily physical activity and providing guidance that makes it easy to find activities in which girls and boys have opportunities to be successful and feel competent. Schools should also use PE as a mean to promote greater physical activity outside of school., Maintaining the positive promotion of physical activity (PA) among children and youth has become a universal challenge (Coulter &Woods, 2011). In previous research, it has been revealed that adolescents' level [...]

Purpose: To examine synergistic associations between developmental trajectories of motor competence, perceived motor competence, cardiorespiratory fitness, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), and body mass index (BMI) from late childhood to adolescence. Methods : In this 3-yr follow-up study, motor competence, perceived motor competence, cardiorespiratory fitness, MVPA, and BMI were assessed in 1167 Finnish school-age children (girls = 583, boys = 565; M age = 11.27 +/- 0.33). Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity was measured using hip-mounted accelerometers. Developmental trajectories were analyzed using latent growth curve modeling. Results : The development of motor competence, cardiorespiratory fitness, and BMI was positive over time, whereas the development of perceived motor competence and physical activity was negative. The development of BMI was inversely associated with the development of cardiorespiratory fitness and physical activity. Conclusions: In the transition from late childhood to adolescence, motor competence, cardiorespiratory fitness, and BMI increased, and perceived motor competence and physical activity decreased. However, individual variance in the developmental trajectories was significant. Moreover, children with a greater increase in BMI showed a greater decrease in cardiorespiratory fitness and physical activity from late childhood to adolescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]