Physical education, positivism, and optimistic claims from achievement goal theorists: A response to Pringle (2000)

In a recent issue of Quest, Pringle (2000) asserts a number of criticisms o f the achievement goal approach to motivation and claims that conclusions d rawn by researchers in this field are "overly optimistic." In this response , we suggest that Pringle's paper is marked by a limited review of the lite rature and many erroneous conclusions. Several issues of contention are dis cussed, and it is proposed that claims of achievement goal theorists are ri ghtly optimistic. In particular, the assertions that the achievement goal a rea of inquiry is decontextualized and reductionistic are challenged. It is also argued that the championing of the interpretivist perspective for the study of motivational processes reflected in the Pringle article is inhere ntly biased. In contrast, we suggest that there is not one correct methodol ogy or theoretical perspective for understanding and fostering motivation o f young people in physical education and that the achievement goal framewor k has much to offer with respect to this question.