RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COMPETENCE, AUTONOMY AND RELATEDNESS SATISFACTION AND DESINTEREST IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION CLASSES IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Abstract

This article shows causes for the lack of interest of sixth and ninth grade students in
physical education classes based on the satisfaction of Basic Psychological Needs (BPN), as well as by
the interpretation of reasons given by students for being apart of subject classes. The sequential mixed
method was used, in which the sample of initial phase of quantitative characteristic (extensive) was
composed by 153 studentes, followed by the intensive phase, of qualitative nature, which had 12 students.
The result show that girls feel less attended to their BPN when compared to boys, in sixth grade, with an
emphasis on competence dimension, expanding to autonomy and relatedness in the ninth grade. In line
with the research objectives, this study indicates that lack of ability (competence), lack of diversification
of contents beyond popular coletive sports (competence/autonomy) and lack of opportunities to
participate in decision-making (autonomy) are some of the reasons that lead to students disinterest in
physical education classes.