THE IMPACT OF THE MOTIVATIONAL INTERVENTION ON STUDENTS’ MOTOR ABILITIES

The Object of the present study was primary school students’ motivation in physical education classes. The Study aim was to test genuine motivational program in physical education classes and assessment of its contribution to improvement of motor abilities and decrease of truancy. The Participant sample was made of two classes from each grade of primary school: sixth, seventh and eighth (N=127; 63 boys and 64 girls) for the experimental group and the same number of classes in the control group (N=128; 70 boys and 58 girls). The assessment of the motor abilities has been done at the beginning and at the end of the experimental treatment, which lasted for whole second semester, 17 weeks, and two school hours per week. We have applied earlier verifi ed tests that estimate coordination, fl exibility, strength and speed. The number of truancy from physical education classes has been recorded at the end of fi rst semester and at the end of the experiment. Apart from descriptive statistics, we utilised T-test for independent samples and Mann-Whitney test. The students from the experimental group had signifi cantly larger improvement of motor abilities than students from the control group are. At the same time, they had signifi cantly less truancies.


INTRODUCTION
According to Hardman (2008), physical education (PE) is compulsory subject in almost 90% countries in the World.Some earlier studies suggest that PE is the most favourite subject for many students.However, in recent times it is quite common that students in Republic of Srpska avoid PE classes (Dobraš, 2009).Reasons for that lay in hedonistic and sedentary way of life.Secondly, content of PE lessons in a great deal are not adjusted to the needs of students, but to the teacher, causing further demotivation among students.It seems that motivation is the key problem and a challenge for a PE teacher.
Everyday practice requires permanent search for new contents that will improve students' motivation in PE classes.Đorđić and Tubić (2010) describe two intertwining motivational climates: ''Task oriented motivational climate is characterised by focus on learning, self-advancement, engagement and effort.Teacher is designing the optimal diffi culty tasks, and evaluation is based on the effort and personal advancement.Cooperation and group work are encouraged, students take part in the decision-making and they have choice options.On the other hand, Achievement motivational climate, put emphasize on the outcome, competition and comparison with the others.Evaluation is public, teacher makes his decisions, students do not have choice options''.Although many authors give advantage to the Task oriented motivational climate (Suzić, 2011), a study on 275 students of 5th and 7th grade suggests that within PE classes Achievement motivational climate was the dominant one (Đorđić, & Tumin, 2008).
Various novel concepts in the PE practice have been tried in the last 30-plus years in Serbia and Republic of Srpska, aiming at improvement of students' motivation.During Mitrović's research (Mitrović, 1980), experimental and control group followed the same program, but marking of experimental group was done in a special way (mark was a motivational mean).It has been statistically confi rmed that experimental group students more regularly attend classes than students from the control group.The results from the fi nal testing of biomotor abilities showed vantage of the experimental group, speaking in favour of the hypothesis that mark was strong stimulative mean.Milanović (1983) suggests concept of selected sport, where he see signifi cant move toward modernization and democratization in education.Višnjić (1987) implemented experimental PE lectures with emphasize on theoretical education, motivation on classes and referring for self-organized exercise.Such lectures more signifi cantly contributed to improvement of motor abilities than lectures where these factors have been less emphasized.Students of the experimental group had attitudes that are more positive, bigger engagement during lessons, higher motivation and knowledge about PE.At the same time, they exercised more often in their own time because they have been better informed about positive effects of exercise.The other well-designed experimental programs (Sääkslahti, Numminen, Varsal, & Välimäki 2001., 2001;Kljajević, 2005;Krulanović, 2006;Zrnzević, 2009) showed that is possible to improve signifi cantly students' motor abilities.Considering marks as a motivational factor in PE, Đorđić (1998) implies certain dilemmas.Namely, according to her study, PE mark is rather refl exion of students' general school achievement and attitude toward education than students' motor status.
The aim of this study was to test genuine motivational program in physical education classes and assessment of its contribution to improvement of motor abilities and decrease of truancy.

METHOD Participants
The experiment included mentally and physically healthy children, capable to follow school curriculum.The experimental group was made of two classes from each grade of primary school: sixth, seventh and eighth (N=127; 63 boys and 64 girls) for the experimental group and the same number of classes in the control group (N=128; 70 boys and 58 girls).
Participants are the students from the same school attend classes in the same rooms, have access to the same equipment and apparatus, therefore the only important alterable factor in this study was students' motivational program.

Procedure
In the beginning of the program, during fi rst few PE classes, four balanced groups in terms of gender and motor abilities were formed within each experimental class.Grouping in this manner gives talented students (in certain activity) chance to take responsibility and help less talented peers.Experimental program lasted for 17 weeks (complete second semester), with two PE classes per week.Control group followed regular curriculum, proposed by the Ministry of education and culture of the Republic of Srpska.Each of four formed groups in the experimental classes received markers (T-shirts) of different colours.PE classes were designed in such way that each part has a competitive character.Winning was mandatory during tag games, obstacle courses, relay games, team games (basketball 4 vs. 4; volleyball 4 vs. 4), more effort and number of attempts when learning techniques, etc.Based on the results obtained by exact indicators (competition or measurements) or personal assessment (it is of a great importance they are realistic and based on facts), at the end of each part of the class teacher awards points: 5 points for the best group, 4 points for the second one,…2 points for the last group.Furthermore, student who made best effort would gain extra 2 points to his group and for the next class he would be wearing marker of notable colour.This rule represents strong tool in hands of competent teacher in order to keep the teams in close score balance and to prevent demotivation of trailing teams.It was expected, due to the way of organized lessons in the experimental classes, that students will be more interested in work, have better effects of lessons and less truancy from PE.The achievement motive as a convenient one in teaching was essential motive in our research too.
Apart from descriptive statistics, T-test for independent samples and Mann-Whitney test were utilized as well.

RESULTS
In the fi rst two tables, basic descriptive parameters of analysed groups are presented.In Tables 3  and 4 are comparisons between initial and fi nal testing of motor abilities.At the end, two fi gures show changes in PE class attendance of experimental and control group.
From the results presented in Table 1, it could be concluded that for the most variables, the control group is very homogenous one considering the value of CV (<0,2).For other variables, whose CV (coeffi cient of variation) exceed this value, it could be said they were taken in a homogenous group, because except from variable МRSU (Sit-ups), it does not go beyond 0,4 value.We need to stress that there was no possibility, after initial testing, to form very homogenous groups computing Z-scores, because that would have required transfer of students from one class to another.-20 m dash.

МАGSS:
There is statistically signifi cant difference between control and experimental group on both statistical levels (p=0,000).Experimental group had better results.This is more important consider-ing that control group had better results at the initial test (although that difference was not statistically signifi cant).МАGF8D: Difference between the groups is statistically signifi cant at 0,05 level, in favour of the experimental group (p=0,014), although control group had better result at the initial testing at 0.05 (p=0,029).МRЕOCB: It has been confi rmed that control and experimental group statistically and signifi cantly differ at 0,01 (p=0,007), where experimental group had better result.МKAA: Despite the difference between the groups is at 0,05 (p=0,048) margin of error, it could be reckoned that difference appeared during the experimental treatment is significant because control group made better results at the initial testing.МFLFBB: Experimental group made better results in this test too.Based on them, it could be claimed that there is statistically signifi cant difference at 0,01 (p=0,007) compare to the control group.МFLMBT: There are no statistically signifi cant differences between the groups at any stage.МFSBJ: There are no statistically signifi cant differences between the groups at any stage.МRSU: The biggest difference between control and experimental group was achieved in this test.Established difference is at 0,01 (p= 0,000) level.In this case, difference was due to better results of the experimental group.МF20D: There are no statistically signifi cant differences between the groups at any stage.From the class record book, all skipped PE classes from fi rst semester were counted.It is noticeable from Figure 1, that control group had 0.82

Figure 2. PE Truancy -fi nal
After the experiment, all skipped PE classes were counted as well.Figure 2 shows that situation was quite opposite: experimental group made signifi cantly less skipped classes (0.8 per student) than control group (1.21 per student) (Mann-Whit-ney=6354.000; p=.001)

DISCUSSION
Contribution of the original motivational program to students' motor abilities and truancy reduction is obvious.Statistically signifi cant difference was found for 6 out of 9 variables: МАGSS, МRЕOCB, МFLFBB and МRSU at 0,01 level.For variables МАGF8D and МKAA the difference was at 0,05 level, and having in mind that control group at the initial testing had better results (for МАGF8D test statistically signifi cant), this difference is objectively more signifi cant.Reasons for statistically signifi cant alteration of results, from experimental to control group, hypothetically could be found in experimental motivational program for students in experimental group.Namely, it is certain that good results in these tests greatly depend on students' motivation, con-cerning at some extent they test stamina too.From this group of tests (only with statistically signifi cant difference), test МKAA is the one that measures any type of stamina (p=0,048).Tests without statistically signifi cant difference, at initial or fi nal testing, were МFLMBT, МFSBJ and МF20D.These tests estimate explosive strength, which is highly genetically determined, and it was unrealistic to expect signifi cant changes, especially in short period.
In Mitrović research (1980), the results at the fi nal testing of the biomotor abilities showed the advantage of the experimental group.His results are consistent to our fi ndings, indicating that mark is very stimulative mean.Our experimental program has proven positive infl uence more motor variables than study of Sallis et al. (1997) Lesser number of skipped PE classes in experimental group could be explained by the way of organization of classes during the experimental program.Students were divided into the groups that have not been changed, otherwise absence of one student would be detrimental for that group.That was additional motive for the students who skip only PE classes ("group condemnation").However, those days when students did not attend school for whole day, were not counted.Based on all the above-mentioned fi ndings, it could be confi rmed that experimental treatment had effect on decrease of PE truancy.This is in concordance with Mitrović's (1980) study results, who found mark to be a motivational mean too.

CONCLUSION
Presented motivational program could be recommended to the PE teachers as one of the ways to enhance teaching.Considering the fact that this program led to improvement of students' motor abilities and contributed to decrease of PE truancy, it could be stated that is very applicable one.12. Kurelić, N., Momirović, K., Stojanović, M., Šturm, J., Radojević, Đ. i Viskić-Štalec, N. (1975).Struktura i razvoj morfoloških i motoričkih dimenzija omladine.[Structure and development of morphological and motor dimensions in youth.In Serbo-Croatian] Beograd: Institut za naučna istraživanja Fakulteta fi zičke kulture.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.PE Truancy -initial Their two years long intervention, conducted with 955 students from 4th and 5th grade, led to improvement in strength and stamina of abdominal muscles and cardio respiratory stamina.Sibinović, Mandarić, Mikalački, & Stojiljković (2011) confi rmed signifi cant effects of experimental aerobics program, on the 8th grade students' motor abilities and their motivation for participation in PE classes.Kalaja, Jaakkola, Liukkonen, & Digelidis (2012), on the sample of Finish 13 year old students, after 33 weeks, achieve signifi -cantly better results with the experimental group.The fi nal goal of their experiment was to hold back lasting trend of declination in physical activities of Finish students.Other authors, who have investigated effects of experimental programs in PE classes, gained similar results to our research: experimental program led to improvement of students' motor abilities (Martin, Rudisill, & Hastie, 2009; Ericsson, 2011; Eather, Morgan, & Lubans, 2012).

Таble 1 .
Descriptive parameters of control group initial (1) and fi nal (2) test Descriptive parameters of еxperimental group initial (1) and fi nal (2) test *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 Legend: МАGSS -Side steps, МАGF8D -Figure 8 with ducking, МRЕOCB -Obstacle course backwards МKAA -Agility in the air, МFLFBB -Forward bend on the bench, МFLMBT -Laying medicine ball throw МFSBJ -Standing broad jump, МRSU -Sit ups, МF20D -20 m dash.Таble 2. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 Legend: МАGSS -Side steps, МАGF8D -Figure 8 with ducking, МRЕOCB -Obstacle course backwards МKAA -Agility in the air, МFLFBB -Forward bend on the bench, МFLMBT -Laying medicine ball throw МFSBJ -Standing broad jump, МRSU -Sit ups, МF20D -20 m dash.МKAA -Agility in the air, МFLFBB -Forward bend on the bench, МFLMBT -Laying medicine ball throw МFSBJ -Standing broad jump, МRSU -Sit ups, МF20D -20 m dash.Legend: МАGSS -Side steps, МАGF8D -Figure 8 with ducking, МRЕOCB -Obstacle course backwards МKAA -Agility in the air, МFLFBB -Forward bend on the bench, МFLMBT -Laying medicine ball throw МFSBJ -Standing broad jump, МRSU -Sit ups, МF20D However, motivation of students today is changeful and demands from PE teacher constant search for new ways and contents in PE classes.It would be interesting to test this program on younger students, as well as high school student population.Comparison of the results from the present study with results from these two groups would provide reliable answer on question: "What students' age group is the easiest one to motivate in the PE class"?Furthermore, sport schools and clubs could use our idea in order to boost competitive motivation in training sessions.1 through 9 in Sweden.Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 16(3), 313-329.