Title

Generalizability of achievement behavior skills from sport to the classroom

Date of Completion

January 1992

Keywords

Education, Physical|Education, Educational Psychology

Degree

Ph.D.

Abstract

Although anecdotal literature provides myriad examples of learning from a sport experience and applying it to other areas of one's life, there is a dearth of empirical data providing support for this notion. This study begins to provide such data by exploring the generalizability of competitive achievement behavior skills learned through sport to competitive achievement behavior skills in the classroom.^ Three randomly assigned experimental groups of ninth-grade students were taught the achievement-enhancing skills of goal-setting and ascribing appropriate causal attributions. One group learned only competitive achievement behavior skills, another group learned competitive achievement behavior skills and the process of generalization, and a third group learned competitive achievement behavior skills through sport and learned the process of generalization. A fourth group served as a control group. The independent variable was the subjects' knowledge of the competitive achievement behavior skills of goal-setting and ascribing appropriate causal attributions. This was tested by means of Malouff et al.'s (1990) goal-orientation scale, Gould's (1986) goal-setting criteria, and Fosterling's (1985) measure of causal attributions for success and failure.^ It was hypothesized that the learning of these competitive achievement behavior skills through sport and learning to generalize these skills would result in greater competitive achievement behavior skills in the classroom than learning the skills alone or learning the skills and learning to generalize. To test the hypotheses, analyses of variance and analyses of covariance were employed with a Scheffe follow-up procedure and a.05 alpha level.^ Of six posttests, significant results were found to support this hypothesis in the one area of the generalizability of goal-setting from sport to the classroom. Significant results were not reported regarding the generalizability of causal attributions from sport to the classroom. A trend did appear, however, that supports the supposition of this study that the teaching of skills only is inferior to the teaching of skills along with the process of generalization, and that the teaching of skills and generalization through sport is superior to both. ^

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