Students’ ability beliefs about running activities in physical education/athletics classes were investigated longitudinally from the perspectives of Nicholls’ conceptions of ability and Dweck’s implicit theories of ability. The data for this study were provided by 44 students (20 boys; 24 girls) who participated in a larger longitudinal project on students’ running motivation in schools. They were individually interviewed from fourth to eighth grade. All interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim for inductive analysis, revealing the criteria that students used to assess their own ability in running and reasons why they believed they could improve their ability in running. Frequencies and percentages were computed to determine changes in students’ ability assessment criteria over time. Results showed that students used ability, effort, task mastery, intra-individual comparisons, and social comparisons as criteria to assess their own ability in running as they progressed from the fourth to eighth grade. However, they increasingly used social comparison in assessment as they became older. Most students believed they could improve their ability in running, suggesting that they were incremental theorists. Ability/maturation, effort, experiences, and influences from significant others were cited as contributors to their beliefs about improving running ability. This study took the first step to provide longitudinal qualitative data on students’ ability beliefs about running in physical education/athletics classes. Findings of the study revealed students became more concerned with social comparisons in their ability assessments over time and held a belief that they could improve their own running ability. The implications of these findings for physical education teachers are discussed.

从Nicholls的能力概念和Dweck的隐式能力理论的角度，对学生在体育/田径课中进行跑步活动的能力信念进行了纵向研究。这项研究的数据由44名学生（20名男孩； 24名女孩）提供，他们参加了有关学生在学校跑步动机的较大的纵向项目。他们从四年级到八年级接受了单独采访。所有访谈均录音并逐字记录以进行归纳分析，揭示了学生用来评估自己的跑步能力的标准以及他们认为自己可以提高跑步能力的原因。计算频率和百分比以确定学生的能力评估标准随时间的变化。结果表明，学生运用了能力，精力，掌握任务，个人内部比较和社会比较，以此作为评估他们从四年级升入八年级的能力。但是，随着年龄的增长，他们越来越多地在评估中使用社会比较。大多数学生认为他们可以提高自己的跑步能力，这表明他们是渐进的理论家。能力/成熟度，努力，经验以及其他重要因素的影响被认为是他们对提高跑步能力的信念的贡献者。这项研究迈出了第一步，提供了有关学生对体育/田径课跑步能力信念的纵向定性数据。研究结果表明，随着时间的推移，学生在能力评估中越来越关注社会比较，并相信他们可以提高自己的跑步能力。讨论了这些发现对体育教师的意义。