Human beings manifest themselves through body movements (conscious or unconscious) using it as a tool of expression and connection with other individuals and with the environment (Vidaci et al., 2021). In this context, body expression (BE) was applied as a discipline that allows a deeper knowledge of our body through rigorous bodywork and enhances expression and communication beyond verbal (Schinca, 2010). BE within the educational context is part of the curriculum in all educational stages and is just another subject of Physical Activity and Sports Science degree. This educational discipline helps the development of generic and personal competencies, included in the plans of study, such as body awareness and self-acceptance, discover the group, disinhibition, communication, improving gestures, body posture, eye contact, and facial expression that determines the effectiveness of messages (Moreno & Pérez 2013).

Despite all the possibilities, several studies carried out in the Spanish educational context showed that Physical Education teachers allot less time onto this content while they are programming their classes (Conesa y Angosto, 2017). This way, students become less familiar with body expression classes and their contents. The novelty that this discipline represents may cause them to initially present less motivation and interest towards BE (Koronios&Kriemadis, 2018), but teachers could influence positive attitudes towards BE (García et al., 2020).

It is known that motivation is important to achieve what we want, therefore it becomes one of the most valuable virtues to achieve the goal. Motivation, as defined in the Royal Spanish Academy, represents the sum of both external factors, given by the context, and internal factors, specific to the person, that determine their actions. Under these premises, various authors agree to mention two types of motivations: intrinsic and extrinsic. (Moreno, &Corbí, 2021; Baena, et al., 2014; Cecchini, Fernández & Méndez 2013)

When we refer to intrinsically motivated behaviors, we refer to those behaviors that are carried out in the absence of apparent external stimulants (López Viera, 2018). It could be defined as what motivates us internally without the need for external rewards. On the other hand, extrinsic motivation refers to those processes that activate our behavior due to environmental reasons (López Viera, 2018). Therefore, motivation is important in personal development in various areas of our life such as education and work (Naranjo, 2009).

Focusing specifically on the educational field, according to Baena, et al., (2014), students have three different levels of motivation. These are: the general motivation of the student, the second one is generally oriented towards a specific context, and the motivation that one has while developing a particular activity. Each of these levels can directly influence students’ motivation, therefore it is very important to maintain all levels of motivation active in order to keep their interest in the subject.

For all the above, the aim of this study was to observe the motivation of Physical Activities and Sports Science students towards the body expression subject, according to gender.

This research has a quantitative, descriptive design that uses inferential statistics. The study involved 22 women and 60 men who attended the classes of Body Expression, from Physical Activity and Sport Science Degree of a Spanish University. All participants were informed of the purpose of the study and gave their informed consent. A scale of motivation towards body expression was built to collect the data. That had 18 items of the Likert type, with five points, ranging from 1 (I do not agree at all), 2 (I agree a little), 3 (I agree enough), 4 (I agree a lot) to 5 (I agree exactly). It was based on the AMPET test adapted by Ruiz et al., (2004). That contemplates 3 dimensions: commitment and dedication in learning, perceived motor competence in its realization of tasks, and anxiety to error and stressful situations. The reliability of the questioner was realized through the Cronbach alpha with an internal consistency of commitment and dedication in learning .924, perceived motor competencies in its realization of tasks .686, and anxiety to error and stressful situations .844. The information was collected through the Google Drive online form, which was active for ten days on the virtual campus of the university. The analysis of the quantitative results was performed using the SPSS ® (v26.0; IBM®, Armonk, NY, USA).2.4. Software package. Descriptive statistics (mean, median, and standard deviation) were used for the comparison of means, and the Mann-Whitney U test was used for non-parametric samples.

Within the three dimensions analyzed, the one that obtained the highest scores was commitment and dedication. However, the results showed that students had commitment and dedication, which is neither favorable nor unfavorable towards BE. A significant difference p <.016 was found in the gender variable, where women scored higher ratings in comparison to men, in the item related to the repetitive practice of BE exercises to achieve good performance. This means that women might be more consistent in practicing exercises to achieve their goals in BE than men. This fact might be linked to motivational aspects since it was one of the sports most women preferred. It was noted that students generally had a low perception of their motor competence in BE. By segregating the sample by gender, women valued their motor skills higher than men, but without significant differences between both groups. In the dimension of error and stress anxiety, the data projected that such situations did not create moments of anxiety. When analyzing the sample by gender, our data revealed that men had higher scores than women in aspects related to error anxiety without significant differences. The only significant difference p<.007 was found in the item I am concerned about not going to do it right than thinking that I'm going to succeed. To conclude, this type of study served to assess the motivations of the students towards certain content and to discover its possible implications that could have on the strategies used by teachers. Through this data, it could be observed that students had an average motivation for the contents presented by BE, so it would be interesting to promote certain behaviors that enhance students’ extrinsic motivation towards the subject.  

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