The purpose of this study was to investigate how 5th and 8th grade students experience basic psychological needs and their state of enjoyment and anxiety during ordinary physical education classes and Move! measurement classes. The participants of the study were total of 645 5th and 8th grade students in comprehensive schools from Jyväskylä, Kuopio, Turku, Vaasa, Lohja, Alajärvi, Petäjävesi, Muurame, Peräseinäjoki, Honkajoki, Isojoki, Uusikaupunki and Lavia. The students responded qustionnaires after three different classes. BPN-PE scale (BPN-PE; Vlachopoulos ym. 2011) was used to investigate students’ experiences of basic psychological needs during classes. Students’ enjoyment was investigated by using finnish version of Enjoyment subscale from Sport Commitment Questionnaire-2 (SCQ2; Scanlan ym. 2016) and their anxiety was investigated by using Physical Education State Anxiety scale (PESAS; Yli-Piipari ym. 2009). The answers were analyzed by using Pearsons’ correlation coefficient, Two-way ANOVA and Repeated Measures ANOVA.

This study revealed that the more the students experienced basic psychological needs during classes the higher was their state of enjoyment and lower their state of anxiety. Our results also revealed that students’ experiences of basic psychological needs and their state of enjoyment were higher during ordinary physical education classes than during Move! measurement classes. Accordingly, students’ state of anxiety was lower during ordinary physical education classes than during Move! measurement classes. However, the means of enjoyment were pretty high and the means of anxiety were pretty low in both classes. Boys had higher enjoyment levels than girls in both ordinary physical education classes and Move! measurement classes, and 5th grade students had higher enjoyment levels than 8th grade students. Girls were more anxious than boys in both ordinary physical education classes and Move! measurement classes, and 8th grade students were more anxious than 5th grade students in both ordinary physical education classes and Move! measurement classes.

Our study reveals that students’ experiences of basic psychological needs and enjoyment are higher during ordinary physical education classes than during Move! measurement classes, as well as students’ states of anxiety are higher during Move! measurement classes. As the Move! monitoring system is still pretty new, it would be important to investigate how to increase experiences of basic psychological needs during Move! measurement classes and how to make the classes more enjoyable.