A STUDY OF THE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' MOTIVATION IN TAKING THE COURSE OF TABLE TENNIS

The research aims to understand the factors that affect the university students' motivation in taking the course of table tennis, and to provide findings for better physical education. The subjects of this research were 208 students (119 males & 89 females), who took the course of table tennis at National Chung Hsing University (NCHU). The "University Student Motivation Factor Scale" was adopted in the research to measure the students' motivation. It was divided into seven dimensions: social demand, health and fitness, release of tension, teacher's way of teaching, nature of the sport, achievement and honour, and grade consideration. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and t-test. The conclusions were: 1. The top three motives in order for taking table tennis were: teacher's way of teaching, nature of the sport, and health and fitness. 2. Those students had higher motivation who would play table tennis at their free time than those who would not. 3. Students of the advanced level in table tennis skill had higher motivation than students of the basic level.