THE EFFECT OF RECREATIONAL SPORT PARTICIPATION ON ACADEMIC MOTIVATION

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of recreational sport participation on academic motivation. Totally, 144 students (108 male, 36 female) were taken part in this research. Data was gathered through Academic Motivation Scale which was developed by Vallerand et al. (1992) and translated to Turkish Language by Karagüven (2012). The scale has 28 items. In evaluation part for questionnaires answered by participants, in addition to Kolmogorov Smirnov normality test, T-Test and One Way ANOVA tests were applied. According to the results, it was statistically determined that there were significant differences on recreational participation, free time activity, recreational practising frequency and age (p<0,05); but there were not significant differences on analyses done for gender (p>0,05).


INTRODUCTION
The qualified evaluation of leisure time should increase work efficiency, academic success and the individual lives happily and healthy together with the physical and spiritual benefits.It is absolute that individuals will feel happy when they have free time in their own time.Decisions on how to use these times from past to present have been the determinants of their quality of life.
Leisure is coming from a word stem of the Latin licere which means to be free.Hence the French word "loisir", meaning 'free time', and the English words 'liberty' (Torkildsen, 1993;Axelsen, 2009).Leisure is time beyond which is required for existence, the things which we must do, biologically, to stay alive and subsistence, the things we must do to make a living ( eating, sleeping etc.) it is the time to be used according to our choice (Brightbill, 1960;Edginton et al., 1989).
Although recreation is generally used to give the meaning of leisure time, the activities or experiences that people or groups participate in their free time, in one's free time, to enjoy or to gain some physical, social and emotional behaviour (Kilbas, 2001).
Individuals from the past to the present, tired in daily rushes and then renewed itself with some recreational activities and have started a new day as if they had gained a new life.People have taken many steps in the name of renewal by developing different activities and recreational activities (Polat, 2017).
Today, the understanding of free time has been changing.Excessive wear resulting from the business life has made it important to evaluate the importance of free time.With the introduction of electricity, television and radio entered the houses, and the nights started to be evaluated.Besides, the popular recreation has improved and the sports activities have been increased in the late times.People working during the day had the opportunity to separate their nights into various activities.In addition, with the increase of parking spaces and recreational areas, interest in family walks, reading and education has increased (Doğar, 1997).
The classification of the recreation can be done as; age groups, the number of participants, the time zone where the recreational activity took place, what sociological structure took place and different angles that require and do not require some movement (Karaküçük, 2014, Gümüşgül, 2018).
The concept of motivation is defined as the realization and maintenance of behaviour for a particular purpose (Schunk, et al., 2013;Üstün, 2018).The issue of academic motivation has attracted the attention of both educators and psychologists.Many studies show that motivation is associated with various outcomes such as curiosity, persistence, learning and performance (Deci & Ryan, 1985).
Academic motivation, in the educational life of individuals; in other words, the motives that they have in doing their duties at school.Academic motivation, which can be defined as the internal motivation to go to school, to do homework and to prepare for exams, is an important concept that determines students' attendance to school, learning and academic success (Wentzel & Wigfield, 2009).
Academic motivation is important because it influences students' approach to academic tasks, spending necessary time and energy, and making enough efforts to complete academic tasks, and is related to academic achievement (Lindner & Harris, 1998;Vanzile & Livingston, 1999).
The factors affecting academic motivation are non-traditional students, study area, working time, social background of students, environment, students' expectations.
People want to get enough motivation to realize their instincts, needs and goals.There is a common trend in motivation for academic achievement, a steady performance assessment and a successful task to perform successfully (Amrai et al., 2011).
Nowadays, physical activity has become an important occupation that attracts great attention of the masses.Club managers, trainers, sports audience and athletes; together, they serve as a useful and meaningful pursuit of all humanity.The concept of motivation reflects the wishes and expectations of all groups involved in physical activities (Dirmen, 2014).
The concept of motivation is divided into two as internal and external.The athlete's desire to win during the competition and the ability to use his skills at a high level means intrinsic motivation, criticism of his appreciation by others after the competition or the award he receives is extrinsic motivation (Karageorghis et al., 2011).Athletes who have high levels of intrinsic motivation during competition and training enjoy much more than the athletes who have high level of extinct motivation (Gallucci, 2013).
Explaining the behaviours of people taking part in sportive activities is dealt with within the concept of motivation.First of all, the person who does sports meets the need to move (Koç, 1994).An improved musculoskeletal structure, high coordination to perform the movements, the ability to achieve despite the various mental, physical and physical disabilities and the necessary personality traits and the necessary motivation for training are needed in order to avoid failure.Regular and long-lasting sports activities within the framework of certain rules provide positive changes and developments in the organism.Skeletal, muscle, respiratory, circulatory systems work more efficiently (Horst, 1976).

METHOD Sample of the Study:
The sample of the research was 144 university students voluntarily participated to the study (108 male, 36 female) studying in Dumlupinar University School of Physical Education and Sports.Data Collection Tool: Academic Motivation Scale (AMS), developed by Vallerand et al. (1992) and translated to Turkish Language by Karagüven (2012) was applied to participants.The scale is divided into seven subscales, reflecting one subscale of amotivation, three subscales of intrinsic motivation and three subscales of extrinsic motivation.Seven subscales named as Intrinsic Motivation to Know (IMTK); Intrinsic Motivation to Accomplish (IMTA); Intrinsic Motivation to Experience Stimulation (IMES); Extrinsic Motivation External Regulation (EMER); Extrinsic Motivation Introjected Regulation (EMIN); Extrinsic Motivation Identified Regulation (EMID) and Amotivation (AMOT).The items are rated on a seven point scale, ranging from 1 (does not correspond at all) to 7 (corresponds exactly).Each subscale consists of four items; thus, subscale scores can range from four to twenty-eight.A high score on a subscale indicates high endorsement of that particular aspect of academic motivation.
Analysis of Data: Data collected from the participants was evaluated with the statistics package program SPSS 22.0.Kolmogorov Smirnov normality test, parametric tests as Independent Sample T-Test and One Way ANOVA were performed (p<0.05).

FINDINGS
In this part of the study, statistical results of the findings have been given.As a result of the T-Test analysis, it was found that there were not statistically significant difference in 0,05 significance level between the sub-dimensions of female and male participants (p>0,05).According to the results of T-Test on the sub-dimensions of Academic Motivation Scale show that there is significantly difference between Intrinsic Motivation to Know sub dimension, Extrinsic Motivation Identified Regulation, Extrinsic Motivation External Regulation sub dimension, Amotivation subdimension and recreational activity (p<0,05).However, there was not a statistically significant difference between Intrinsic Motivation to Accomplish, Extrinsic Motivation Introjected Regulation and free time activity (p>0,05).According to the Table 5, on the sub-dimensions of Academic Motivation Scale show that there is significantly difference between Extrinsic Motivation Introjected Regulation sub dimension, Extrinsic Motivation External Regulation sub dimension and monthly recreational practising frequency (p<0,05).

DISCUSSION
It was aimed to investigate the effect of recreational sport participation on academic motivation.Besides that, it was also investigated whether there was significant difference between gender, free time activity, recreational practising frequency, age and academic motivation.Table 1 showed that that there were not statistically significant difference between academic motivation and gender.This result may mean that gender is not important variable for academic motivation.Gomleksiz & Serhatlıoğlu (2014) found significant difference between gender and academic motivation on their study.
According Anova test results of the analysis, significant differences were found in amotivation sub-dimension and age.It was observed that the lower the age, the lower the motivation.It is thought that the reason of younger participants have less academic motivation is that participants of older age realize that school life is beneficial to the rest of their lives.Eymur & Geban (2011) pointed out depending on increasing study years of students, amotivation scores slightly decrease.
The results on Academic Motivation and recreation sport participating show that the participants differ significantly According to the result participants practice recreational sports has statistically significant higher scores at Extrinsic Motivation External Regulation sub dimension.This result can be seen physical and recreational activities are strong extrinsic motivation that may lead making plans about future.Akandere et al. (2010) found at their study that even there was not statistically difference participants who practice at their free time has higher academic motivation.
At Table 4, there is significantly difference between Intrinsic Motivation to Know sub dimension, Extrinsic Motivation Identified Regulation, Extrinsic Motivation External Regulation sub dimension, Amotivation subdimension and recreational activity.On the other hand there is not statistically significant difference between Intrinsic Motivation to Accomplish, Extrinsic Motivation Introjected Regulation and free time activity.At all internal and external academic motivation subdimensions participants practising active recreational activity had higher scores than the participants has passive recreational activities.Also the participants practising active recreational activity had less amotivation scores than the others.This result can show that active recreational participants enjoy their studies and can have higher academic scores than others.Gumusgul ( 2018) also pointed at their study participants practising active sports have higher academic success.
Results for monthly recreational participation frequency indicates that there is significantly difference on academic motivation.Participants practise recreational activity more than 5 times in a month has higher Extrinsic Motivation External Regulation scores than the others.This result points that practising more recreational activities can have more external academic motivation and become more successful thanks to it.Also, at their studies in the field of education and health intuitively believe that physically more active students perform better in school (Kirkcaldy et al. 2002;Castelli et al. 2007;Bjealica & Jovanovic, 2016).
It can be said with the light of whole results that recreational participation become the reason for individuals to have more academic motivation with both internal and external sides.Also it can be reason for decreasing amotivation for academic studies.With these results it can be suggested that students should be directed to have more recreational activities to have better academic scores and better understanding.

Table 1 T
-Test Results According to Gender

Table 2
Oneway ANOVA Results According to Age

Table 2
shows the ANOVA test results according to age of the participants in the study.According to the results of the analysis, significant differences were found in amotivation sub-dimension [F(2-141)= 4,564; p<0,05].

Table 3 T
-Test Results According to Recreational Participating

Table 4 T
-Test Results According to Recreational Free Time Activity Participation Type

Table 5 T
-Test Results According to Recreational Practising Frequency (Monthly)