This study compared the effect of the cooperative learning and direct instruction models on the motivational climate in physical education lessons. Participants were 121 seventh-grade students. The Achievement Orientation Scale examined learners' perceptions of the motivational climate in physical education lessons. One teacher taught a class of boys, a class of girls, and a coed class. Participants completed the questionnaire before and after the learning program, in which the teacher used direct instruction and cooperative learning. In all three groups, the students perceived the mastery climate to be higher than the performance climate, irrespective of the gender composition of the class or the instructional model employed. It is not possible to attribute motivational climate to the instructional model.