The 3-h training course was inspired by continuous development training (Aelterman et al., 2013; Girard et al., 2023a) and builds on two well-known motivational theories in the contexts of sport and PE: self-determination theory (SDT; Ryan and Deci, 2020; Deci and Ryan, 1985) and achievement goal theory (AGT; Ames and Archer, 1988; Elliot et al., 2010).

To verify the impact of the training on pre-service PE teachers’ practice during their final high school internship as well as on pupils’ motivation and engagement, the aims of the study are threefold: (1) to compare the perceptions of high school pupils during the final internship of pre-service PE teachers who had completed the training [experimental group (EG)] and pre-service PE teachers who had not completed the training [control group (CG)] with regard to perceived motivational climate, basic psychological needs’ satisfaction, motivation, achievement goals, effort and intention to be physically active at the beginning and end of the internship; (2) to verify changes in the perceptions of EG and CG high school pupils with regard to the same motivational variables between the beginning and end of the internship; and (3) to compare observations of the motivational climate established by the pre-service PE teachers and of their pupils’ engagement between EG and CG. The consideration of both subjective (pupils) and objective (observers) points of view represents a strength of the study and aligns with the recommendations of Hastie et al. (2022).

Drawing on previous research involving in-service PE teachers, our hypotheses suggest that the psychological needs of the EG pupils will be better sustained than those of the CG at the end of the internship (Girard et al., 2023a). Furthermore, we hypothesize that pre-service PE teachers who followed the training will be more inclined to create an empowering motivational climate than those from the CG (Aelterman et al., 2014; Girard et al., 2023b).

The pilot training was offered for the first time at the end of the third year (out of four) of initial training to four pre-service PE teachers from the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (Québec, Canada) in May 2022. Of the four, two agreed to take part in this study during their final high school internship (10 weeks) (at the end of the fourth year of initial training during the winter 2023 session) as the EG (women = 1; men = 1). Two other pre-service PE teachers, who did not receive the training, took part in the study as the CG (women = 1; men = 1). All consented in writing to take part in the project. Figure 1 presents all the procedures to recruit participants. Specifically, to take part to the present study, the inclusion criteria were: (1) to have completed the questionnaire of phase 1; (2) to have indicated in the phase 1 questionnaire that they were interested in participating in subsequent phases; (3) to be a student at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (Québec, Canada); (4) to be in their fourth (and last) year of initial training; and (5) to do their last internship in high school during their last semester. For the experimental group, one inclusion criterion was added, which was to have participated in the pilot training in the spring of their third year of initial training. For the control group, it was the same inclusion criteria, however, participation in the pilot training was an exclusion criterion from the experimental group (see Figure 2).

With the approval of school administrations and assistance of cooperative teachers (those supervising the pre-service teachers’ internship), the project and its objectives were presented to pupils by a research team member. This process aimed to facilitate informed, voluntary, and written consent. For pupils under the age of 14, cooperative teachers contacted parents via email to relay project details and electronic consent was obtained. Participants were informed they could withdraw from the project at any time. In total, 109 of pre-service PE teachers’ pupils completed the questionnaires. However, 20 pupils were withdrawn from the sample for missing one of the two measurement times (Time 1 = 6; Time 2 = 14) as displayed in Figure 2.

As presented in Table 2, the final sample consists of 89 pupils: one group of pupils per pre-service PE teacher (n = 89; girls = 34; boys = 52; other = 3; EG = 39; CG = 50).

For the first two objectives, pupils completed a questionnaire at the start (Time 1 = February) and conclusion (Time 2 = April) of the pre-service PE teachers’ internship regarding their perception of the motivational climate, the satisfaction of their basic psychological needs, their achievement goals, their motivation, their effort in PE and their intention to be physically active. For the third objective, one to three lessons (depending on the constraints of participants’ internship schools) were filmed for a total of 7 videos and then analyzed by two coders based on two observational grids: one for motivational climate (Girard et al., 2023a) and the other for pupils’ engagement (Reeve et al., 2004; Aelterman et al., 2012).

After verifying the scales’ internal consistency, we calculated composite scores for each variable. Descriptive statistics were then calculated at both measurement times, and data were screened for non-normality. Because some variables displayed non-normal distributions and the number of pre-service PE teachers was small, non-parametric tests were used (Cleophas and Zwinderman, 2016). The Mann–Whitney test for independent samples was employed to verify if the scores between the EG and CG were statistically different at each measurement time (objectives 1 and 3). The Wilcoxon signed rank test for related samples was used to verify changes between the start and end of the internship for each group (EG and CG; objective 2). As regards observation scores, because the sample consisted of only four pre-service PE teachers, trends up to 0.15 were also interpreted to avoid type 2 errors (i.e., concluding that scores are not significantly different when in fact they are), as was done by other researchers (Smith et al., 2016; Smith et al., 2017; Wahl-Alexander et al., 2017; Girard et al., 2023a).

To begin, results show that before the start of the internship, pupils from both groups displayed high levels (> 5.00) of a perceived mastery motivational climate, autonomy and relatedness support, competence need satisfaction, mastery goals, intrinsic motivation, identified regulation, effort and intention to be physically active. These scores suggest that pupils were already fairly motivated and engaged in their PE courses before pre-service PE teachers arrived in their gymnasium. The scores for observed engagement were also quite high in both groups, which aligns with these results. These findings are encouraging insofar as high school pupils are generally considered to be little engaged in PE (Noetel et al., 2023) and less engaged in physical activity outside school than younger pupils (ParticipACTION, 2020; ParticipACTION, 2022).

At the end of the internship, however, some differences between groups emerged regarding perception of the dimensions of an empowering motivational climate (mastery, autonomy and relatedness support), which were higher in the EG. These differences can be explained by the decline of these three variables for CG pupils. The dimensions of the motivational climate were perceived as less empowering by CG students at the end of the internship, which was not the case for the EG group; this suggests that the training enabled pre-service PE teachers to maintain an empowering motivational climate that pupils perceived as such. These results align with those of previous studies focused for the most part on autonomy support (Cheon et al., 2012; Cheon and Reeve, 2013; Aelterman et al., 2014) and are quite promising in terms of the relevance of Learning how to motivate for improving pre-service PE teachers’ ability to implement an empowering climate. Even more so, considering the findings of Honrubia Montesinos et al. (2023) stating that professional development is linked to pupils’ motor skill development in PE.

Furthermore, the fact these significant results did not emerge from observations, contrary to those of previous studies (Cheon et al., 2012; Cheon and Reeve, 2013; Aelterman et al., 2014; Girard et al., 2023a) could be explained by the small study sample. With a larger sample, these results might have reached statistical significance, as suggested by the positive trends (p ≤ 0.15) observed for the preparation and realization phases of the lesson. In addition, coding observations relative to each phase revealed that pre-service PE teachers in the EG were more empowering during these phases than those in the CG. During the integration and gap phases of the lesson, however, participants were less empowering, which affected the score for the entire lesson. The fact pre-service PE teachers were not yet teaching “experts” could explain why they had more difficulty being empowering during transitions between activities: it is possible the teachers were more preoccupied with classroom management and organizational activities (moving material, installing equipment, etc.) than with supporting pupils’ motivation. Indeed, to avoid the appearance of disturbing behaviors, these gaps should be kept as short as possible (Girard et al., 2023a). As for the integration phase (which occurs mainly at the end of the lesson), it is recognized as an ambiguous phase often overlooked by in-service PE teachers, and this despite its importance in the learning process (Girard et al., 2023a). Thus, it is hardly surprising that pre-service PE teachers had difficulties being empowering during this phase of the lesson. This is especially reflected in the low observed score for EG pupils’ engagement during the integration phase, which tended to be lower than for the CG. Accordingly, some improvements are needed to specifically address ways to implement empowering motivational strategies during gaps and integration phases. Focusing on specific parts of the lesson was in fact recommended in a previous study (preparation phase; Van den Berghe et al., 2016). To this end, the content of Learning how to motivate could be reinvested in courses on the planning of learning situations. For example, teacher trainers could explicitly state how content they have already discussed regarding planning for each phase of the lesson can also be used to help sustain pupils’ motivation. Additionally, given that EG participants took the training almost a year before their internship without follow-up, reinvesting some of the training content in other theoretical and practical courses could certainly improve pre-service PE teachers’ ability to create an empowering motivational climate. This is consistent with the findings of de Guise et al. (2024), which highlight pre-service teachers’ needs for more coherence and continuity during their training and suggests that results may have been more conclusive if there had been follow-up to consolidate learning in other courses of the teacher program.

Finally, there may be different reasons for the decrease in the pursuit of performance-approach goals in both groups. According to AGT, pupils are inclined to adopt goals consistent with the perceived motivational climate (Ames and Archer, 1988; Blais et al., 2020). The high perception of a mastery climate in the EG may thus explain why pupils were less inclined to pursue performance-approach goals. As for the CG pupils, the decrease in the pursuit of performance-approach goals adoption may be explained by a reduced competence need satisfaction, an important determinant of these types of goals. Indeed, according to AGT, pupils who feel they are less competent than their counterparts are more inclined to pursue performance-avoidance goals (Lochbaum et al., 2020). However, studies involving more pre-service PE teachers are needed to verify these hypotheses.

A few limits need to be considered when interpreting results. First, this pilot study included a small number of pre-service PE teachers from the same university, which can be explained by the post-pandemic context. Moreover, students from high schools were selected according to the internship placement from the university. This limit may therefore have introduced a selection bias. Additional studies involving a higher number of pre-service PE teachers from different universities are needed to verify if our results can be replicated. Moreover, the fact pupils were already quite motivated at the start of the study does not seem representative of high school pupils in PE (ParticipACTION, 2020; ParticipACTION, 2022). Again, a broader sample of pupils from multiple backgrounds would be necessary to generalize our results. Moreover, even though precautions were taken when giving instructions to students (e.g., answer according to your own opinion, there are no right or wrong answer) and setting the context for completing questionnaires (e.g., asking the pre-service PE teacher to be out of the gym during the completion, being available to respond to students’ questions during completion), using self-reported questionnaires with students may introduced bias, such as social desirability. To help compensated this aspect, it is advisable to also collect observational data, which provide an objective point of view. Finally, we did not assess pupils’ perception of the dimensions of the disempowering motivational climate. Given that observation scores for the dimensions of the disempowering motivational climate were quite low and those for an empowering climate were high, it is reasonable to believe pupils’ perceptions would be consistent with these results. However, this choice was made because the questionnaire items currently available to measure these dimensions tend, in our view, to be confrontational (e.g., My PE teacher yells at pupils for messing up; My PE teacher shouts at pupils in front of others to make them do certain things; Milton et al., 2018), and there was a concern participants would withdraw if pupils were questioned using these items.