Learning climate and motivation among elite ballet dancers, classical musicians, and sport athletes.

Learning Climate and Motivation among Elite Ballet Dancers, Classical Musicians, and Sport Athletes. Talent development within arts and sport is embedded in different motivational contexts. In this study, we therefore aimed to examine how the interaction between quality in motivation and different motivational learning climates affected the motivational processes, perceived by nine professional performers from ballet, music and swimming within a Norwegian culture. The retrospective qualitative data revealed complex motivational processes, with unique trajectories and compositions of interacting factors, showing that both "who" you are and "where" you are matters. The findings identified three clustering groups of performers' motivation (high, mixed and low quality) that experienced the same learning climates differently. Through the lens of self-determination theory, the learning climates provided high-performance focused deliberate practice perceived to be crucial for a virtuous circle of competence development. At the same time, the performers reported controlled learning conditions that challenged their sense of autonomy. The art contexts displayed a tacit knowledge culture, challenging performers’ opportunity to act in accordance with their true self and being autonomous, but also enhanced their flow experience and competence. Concurrently, a perfectionistic culture was more prevalent within the arts, which translated into more unhealthy conditions for these performers. As a cultural backdrop, a "Norwegian way" of applying social-democratic and non-hierarchical norms and values seemed to nurture the need for autonomy and relatedness at a global level, affecting the performers' negotiation with the perceived controlled contextual conditions. Finally, the findings revealed that to hold a high quality motivational profile and, in addition, be successful, seemed to put the performers in the best negotiating position within their environments.