RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FITNESS AND MOTIVATION TO LEARN 1 RUNNING HEAD: RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FITNESS AND MOTIVATION TO LEARN The Relationship Between Physical Fitness and Motivation to Learn in College Students

The relationship between Physical Fitness and Motivation to Learn has been discussed since the 1980's. Since budgetary considerations have caused school districts to cut physical education program hours in K-12 education, professionals in the field have questioned the value of such cuts, and have researched the link between physical education, academic achievement, and motivation to learn. Such researchers have reasoned that if there is a strong relationship between the level of physical fitness and academic achievement, then it does not make sense to cut such programs, as academic achievement and motivation to learn would be negatively affected. What researchers discovered (Grissom, 2005) was that there indeed was a consistent positive relationship between the level of physical fitness and academic achievement. The body of evidence collected is not without detractors. Other researchers have brought in the issue of domain specificity on motivation in physical education and cautioned that the general application of motivation to be physically fit does not necessarily translate to motivation in the classroom, and that the two should be viewed separately. In support of this counterpoint to the argument that physical fitness is a vital link to academic achievement, other researchers have argued that as students in high school are generally less fit than when they were in grade school, they do in fact, remain motivated to learn. In this study, we will investigate the next level of education, the university setting, to see if a relationship exists between motivation to learn and physical fitness among undergraduate college students at a public university. Because research has shown that the relationship between academic achievement and physical fitness has been different among males and females, as well as among first through eighth and ninth through twelth grade students, we will also examine at the university level the relationship of motivation to learn and physical fitness between both male and female participants. graders comparing their fitness standards of aerobic capacity using the Fitnessgram test with their SAT scores on reading and mathematic achievement. Analysis of variance between groups and Tukey post hoc analyses showed that reading and math schores improved significantly as the physical fitness scores increased. Although the correlations between physical fitness and reading (.186) and physical fitness amd math (.217) were rather small, additional analyses showed that the relationships held across genders and regardless of socioeeconomic status. Interaction effects revealed a stronger relationship for females than for males, and …