ACADEMIC MOTIVATION OF STUDENTS IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND SPORT AT SOFIA UNIVERSITY “ST. KLIMENT OHRIDSKI“

Abstract

Training is a two-way process of pedagogical interaction. The quality of the final result depends not only on the teacher, but also on the academic motivation of students participating as equal partners in the educational process. The PURPOSE of this article is to represent the results from a study aimed at establishing the degree of academic motivation of students. Total of 45 participants (of which 26 male and 19 female students) were questioned. All of them were in the second and third year of their bachelor study in the specialty Physical Education and Sport at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. METHODS: As an instrument is used Angel Velichkov’s questionnaire for evaluation of the level of academic motivation in which are set the factors that favour or impede the formation of high academic motivation and also allows to trace its development. RESULTS: Results are aimed at proving the hypotheses. We assume that the students in Physical Education and Sport specialty should have: 1) an active attitude towards the learning process; 2) internal self-discipline and 3) a striving to complete and extend the knowledge obtained. The analysis will be comparative, based on the gender and year of study which will allow us to determine whether these two criteria also influence the degree of academic motivation. CONCLUSION: The establishment of differences in the levels on these three criteria and the overall level of the students’ academic motivation will enable teachers to optimize the teaching process and make it more personal-oriented.

Keywords

• academic motivation
• higher education
• student in speciality „physical educational and sport“