Challenge-based learning approach to teach sports: Exploring perceptions of teaching styles and motivational experiences among student teachers

The present study analyses how experiencing challenge-based learning (CBL) may affect student teachers' basic psychological needs and the perceptions of their teachers’ styles in comparison with being involved in a traditional teaching (TT) methodology. A quasi-experimental study with experimental and control groups was carried out. A total of 128 responses (n_control = 71; n_experimental = 57) were reported by 83 student teachers from the Physical Activity and Sport Sciences Degree (M_age = 20.07, SD = 1.82; range = 17–27 years) who completed some self-reported validated questionnaires. Analyses based on non-parametric test to compare independent and related groups showed that, after the 14-week intervention, student teachers in the CBL condition exhibited higher competence satisfaction (M_CBL = 4.21vs.M_TT = 3.80) and lower competence (M_CBL = 1.87 vs. M_TT = 2.46) and relatedness (M_CBL = 1.58 vs. M_TT = 1.99) frustration than the TT group. As for teaching styles, student teachers in the CBL-based experience perceived their professors as using more strategies supportive of autonomy and structure than student teachers in the TT group. The results of the study outline that CBL might be a valid methodological approach for student teachers to achieve motivational consequences in university context and in their future as teachers.