Student attitudes toward organizational aspects of secondary school physical education programs
Date
1984
Authors
Hurst, Virginia Ellen
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes of male and female secondary school students toward various organizational aspects of physical-education programs and to recommend organizational structures which would take into consideration the expressed attitudes of high, medium, and low achievers in school physical education programs.
A total of 60 subjects, including equal numbers of male and female high, medium, and low achievers in physical education were selected at random from the grade 9 student population at eight secondary schools in the Greater Victoria School District, British Columbia. The subjects were interviewed individually using a questionnaire designed by the researcher to determine their attitudes toward five major aspects of physical education program organization: timetabling considerations, program decisions and responsibilities, competition, student/teacher interaction, and evaluation and reporting.
The students' responses to the questionnaire were subjected to a chi-square analysis to determine if there were significant differences (p<.05) between the attitudes of male and female high, medium, and low achievers toward those aspects of physical education program organization. Comments made by the students during the interviews were recorded on tape and analyzed separately by the researcher.
Statistically significant differences were found between the attitudes of (a) male and female medium achievers, (b) male and female low achievers, (c) males and females, and among (d) high, medium and low achievers.
Male and female medium achievers differed in their preferences for the type of teaching style used in physical education classes, while male and female low achievers preferred different criteria for the frequency of changes in class teams.
The greatest number of statistically significant differences in attitudes occurred between male and female subjects with regard to the following aspects of program organization: the level of difficulty of the activity skills taught in physical education class, the instructional method(s) preferred, the selection and changing of class teams, the preferred amount of class time devoted to competition without an emphasis on winning, the desire to discuss a problem in physical education class with a friend, the perceived emphasis placed by classmates on winning in physical education class, and the degree of hesitation to participate in physical education class activities experienced because of possible teasing from the other students.
High, medium, and low achievers differed significantly only in their attitude toward the option of learning and practising activity skills with the whole class following the teacher at the same time. The subjects' achievement level in physical education, therefore, distinguished very little between their attitudes toward the organization of physical education programs.
Recommendations for the organization of secondary school physical education programs included the individualization of activity programs to meet the needs of students at all skill levels and a greater involvement of grade 9 students in a variety of decisions related to physical education program policies, content, organization, and evaluation. Separate physical education classes for students at different ability or achievement levels were considered to be unnecessary.