Revista Electrónica de Investigación Educativa

Vol. 9, Num. 2, 2007

Compulsory Secondary Education Students’ Interests
towards Physical Education

Juan Antonio Moreno
morenomu@um.es

Facultad de Ciencias del Deporte
Universidad de Murcia

Parque Almansa
San Javier 30730
Murcia, España

María Gloria Hellín
gloriahellin@yahoo.es

Facultad de Ciencias del Deporte
Unidad de Investigación de Educación Física y Deportes
Universidad de Murcia

Parque Almansa
San Javier 30730
Murcia, España

(Received: June 18, 2006; accepted for publishing: April 12, 2007)

Abstract

Compulsory Secondary Education student’s opinion on Physical Education is a matter of great interest for teachers; there are numerous variables that determine it. This research analyzed the influence of the interest shown by students towards the course caused by different aspects: students’ grade level, gender, importance given to the class, their physical-sports practice, the context in which the class is given and the teacher’s Physical Education degree. To this end, a Questionnaire for Analyzing Students' Opinions on Physical Education (for its acronym in Spanish CAPAEF) was applied to a sample of 1,499 students in first and second grades of Compulsory Secondary Education, in the Murcia Region; the questionnaire was designed specifically for this research. As a result of this study, it was concluded that among the students who showed great interest for Physical Education, the objectives that stood out were related to health, education, competition and the curriculum of the courses of Physical Condition and Health as well as Games and Sports, but not Corporal Expression. These same students chose it as their favorite class, they did not accept reduction of hours, they considered the classes were useful, easy and motivating; they found a lot of support from the teacher, given that he had a good nature, was pleasant, comprehensive, cheerful and fair, besides of the fact that he was committed to the class.

Key words: Student motivation, physical education, interests, attitudes.

Introduction

Nowadays, there exists the need to incorporate culture and education with knowledge and skills that related to the body and physical activities contribute to personal development and a better quality of life. Therefore, incorporation of physical education in the curriculum is justified by student’s integral education and it has resulted in the study of student’s satisfaction as one of the issues of most interest.

Lopez and Gonzalez (2001) refer to satisfaction-dissatisfaction as a psychological state that results from the interaction of a set of affective experiences which move between the positive and negative poles as the activity satisfies the necessities and it corresponds to the motives and interests of the individual. Within every person, affective experiences are an expression of the process of satisfaction of his needs.

For the authors, affective experiences constitute indicators of the subjective relevance of the objects, phenomena, facts and situations with which each individual interacts. As the subject experiences the positive and negative poles (in this case those of the physical education class), he will be able to stand out from the cumulous of influences that act upon him by considering which ones are relevant for him, according to their attractive or repulsive overtone, which ones result to be indefinite and which impress him, as a mixture of the pleasant or unpleasant.

Earl and Stennett (1987), Fernandez Garcia (1995), Hellin and Moreno (2001a and 2001b), Moreno and Cervello (2003), Moreno Sanchez, Rodriguez, Prieto and Mula (2002), Luke and Sinclair (1991), and Ruiz (2000) are different authors with papers on students attitudes. In their findings, they consider that the level of satisfaction in Physical Education is conditioned by factors like curriculum content, sports practice (not only of the student, but his family and friends as well), teacher’s and the student’s gender, the importance given to the course by the student according to the teacher’s characteristics and the socialization of the physical-sports phenomenon influenced by the media.

Motivation constitutes an element of vital importance in the teaching and learning process. Florence (1991) notes that a motivated student manifests different behaviors in class: he is active, he is exhausted, he follows instructions, he questions, he helps his classmates, he wants to do more, he cuts in line, he is cheerful, he worries about his performance, he repeats his exercises and practices outside school hours. Overall, he feels pleasure and has the urge to work out and learn in his physical education class.

This motivation acts in different forms depending on whether it refers to an intrinsic or extrinsic type. Intrinsic motivation leads to a feeling of enjoyment, competence, skills or self-realization; it results in the student’s greater commitment and self-determination. While extrinsic motivation is in charge of external rewards, of any kind, that have to do with the regulation of student’s participation, especially when it’s successful.

Each motivation has a different effectiveness level when regulating the student’s activity. Therefore, the study of motivation, whether intrinsic or extrinsic, is important for a teacher since this allows him to develop educational strategies with the purpose of stimulating the interest for the course that is being given, as a factor that guarantees an effective learning (Lopez and Gonzalez, 2001).

In different research (Fox and Biddle, 1988; Lopez and Gonzalez, 2001; Martin Albo, 2000; Moreno, 1999) the student’s maximum satisfaction in the physical education class is characterized by the intrinsic motivation obtained directly from the activity, which leads the student to a greater participation, a feeling of competence, greater commitment and self -determination.

Satisfaction shown by the students in physical education classes is associated with motivational atmospheres generated within them. In this sense, Cervello (2000), Guitierrez (2000), and Papaioannou (1994, 1995, 1998) research papers point out that physical education classes with an orientation towards physical activities make students feel more satisfied with them. Escarti and Brustad (2000) suggest that individuals who are oriented towards tasks perceive sports and physical activity as activities that strengthen cooperation skills and social responsibility, as well as they increase their interest for learning and for being better citizens, abiding rules, making greater efforts and improving their health and their own skills in sports.

In this context, the objective of this paper is to analyze the relation between the interest towards physical education and the different factors involved with it: student’s grade level, gender, importance given to physical education, physical-sport practice, the context in which the class is given and the course teacher’s degree in Compulsory Secondary Education.

I. Method

1.1 Sample

The sample was made up of 1,499 students from the Murcia region, in Spain. 769 were female and 730 were male between the ages of 11 and 18, all of them in Compulsory Secondary Education, representing a margin of error of ±3 and a trust level of 95.5%.

1.2 Instrument

To collect data, a Questionnaire for Analyzing Students' Opinions in Physical Education (by its acronym in Spanish CAPAEF) was designed for this research. It had 22 questions, four of them were open ended and the rest were closed, grouped into four blocks: socio-demographic, physical education courses importance and assessment, aspects related with the professor and physical-sport habits.

1.3 Statistical Analysis

To obtain results, descriptive statistics were determined for all variables, their independence was analyzed with the Pearson’s Chi-square test, and they were applied the analysis of corrected typified residuals. The dependent variable was the Compulsory Secondary Education student’s opinion on physical education. The independent variables were: grade, student’s gender, the importance the student gives to physical education, his physical-sport practice, the context in which the class is given and the Physical Education professor’s degree.

II. Results

The information obtained on the interest shown by students toward Physical Education, showed that 62.9% of the students really liked the class, 33.8% of them said they liked it and 3.3% of them said they really dislike it.

Figure 1. The percentage distribution of the simple
on the liking of Physical Education classes.

III. Discussion and conclusions

The results lead to think that Physical Education turns out to be more interesting and preferred by male than female students, which coincides with other research papers that affirm this same and they add that they find that the activities are more fun (Ruiz, 200; Torre, 1998).

When relating the course level that the students are taking with the interest in PE, it is found that the first year students show a higher interest in the class; as for second years, their liking is considered regular. The loss of the positive attitudes towards the course increases with their age; it is a verifiable fact in a multitude of research works. Pieron, Telama, Almond and Carreiro (1999) conducted a study in several European countries on attitudes towards Physical Education at school with students from both genders aged between 12 and 15, and they found that the most unfavorable attitudes were registered in 15 year female students. These results match those obtained by Moreno, Rodriguez and Gutierrez (2003) from a sample of students of both genders aged 12 to 15 which highlighted that the attitude and the interest towards the class declined as the students passed the course. Similar results were obtained by Casimiro (1999), Mendoza, Sagrera and Batista (1994) and Ruiz (2000), among others.

There is direct relation between the importance that the student attributes to PE and the interest shown for it. Students highly interested in the class; also consider it very important or important; as their interest decreases, so does the level of importance, until considered normal. In this sense, when it stops being interesting, it also stops being important. Torre (1998) had similar results when he found that the importance that the students attributed to classes depended largely to self-determination and self-esteem experienced in class.

The analysis of interest according to the contents evidences that “Physical Condition and Health” just like “Games and Sports” are the best assessed by students who really like PE, while “Corporal Expression” turns out to be the best assessed content by those who like PE The lack of interest for the subject causes the content to stop being assessed positively and the same happens with “Physical Condition and Health”, “Games and Sports”, “Corporal Expression” and activities in “Natural settings”; if interest increases, the contents negatively assessed are “Physical Condition and Health” and “Games and Sports”. Finally, when interest is at the highest level, only “Corporal Expression” is assessed negatively.

The results match those presented by Torre (1998) in his research on the interrelation between the extracurricular physical-sport activity and the Physical Education students of intermediate education. In it he revealed that the boys and girls, who really liked Physical Education classes, were those who gave greater importance to the contents of physical condition, collective sports, rhythm and relaxation.

Regarding the negative assessment of the contents of “Corporal Expression”, it can be concluded that it is affected not only by how frequently the teacher teaches dance and corporal expression, but by the method used in class also, which is very different to the one used in traditional sports practices.

In the same way, students’ interest in PE makes them eliminate the possibility of taking another class or doing anything else as an alternative, an option that they may consider when they stop liking the class. This result is similar to the one obtained by Moreno and Cervello (2004) on a paper with third graders in an elementary school, where they proved that those students who liked the course rejected the idea of studying or carrying out another activity at PE hours apart from those pertaining to the class.

The interest in the class makes the student prefers it as an open elective when against other courses, but, as the interest decreases, his preference for other courses increases. The interest in Physical Education contributes to the student’s favorable opinion when referring to the fact of receiving more PE class hours. Casimiro’s (1999) observed that students of elementary school were the ones who demanded more hours and showed greater interest for PE, which resembles the results in this paper.

As for the assessment of Physical Education classes according to the interest shown, it was verified that when there is a high interest in the class, students find the classes easier, motivating and of greater use since physical condition is enhanced; it helps them to relate to others, to be smarter and more coordinated. In this sense, it is considered that the teacher helps students get interested in extracurricular physical-sports and to assess positively the importance of the class in relation to the rest of the courses. Likewise, these students demand more weekly classes, while less interested students think that the number of weekly classes is enough. If the explanatory children motivation models toward physical activity are applied to the Physical Education class, it is possible to prove that when the physical skills of the student correspond to the demands of the teacher, the response results in the increase of physical self-esteem and consequently, in a positive attitude toward the class: Physical Education.

Consequently, the interest in the course makes the students assess positively the objectives related to “Health”, “Competition” and “Education”. Also, it influences the students when they assess the teacher’s attitude in class as: “Good”. “Nice”, “Fair”, “Understanding” and “Cheerful”. Hence, the attitudes expected from the teacher in class are: “Participation in class”, “Encouraging”, “Correcting in class” and “Sports practice”; this last one is shown by the teacher when dressed in sportswear. These results are related to those obtained by Moreno et al. (2002).

Another important result is also related to the level of interest shown by the students towards the course, the fact that it increases when the teacher has a “Masters in Physical Education”, and it decreases if the teacher’s degree is a Science Degree in Physical Activity and Sport or another education specialty. The Physical Education teacher , as someone who encourages and dynamizes in class, has been an object of attention of numerous research papers (Casimiro, 1999; Earl and Stennet, 1987; Figley, 1985; Hellin, 2001; Luke and Sinclair, 1991; Moreno et al., 2003; Moreno and Hellin, 2001; Torre, 1998; Velasquez and Hernandez, 2001). The conclusions are that academic training, participation in class, the interest shown by students, the design of attractive and motivating classes are factors that awaken positive students’ attitudes towards PE.

On the other hand, it can be observed that the student physical-sports practice relates to his interest for PE, and his liking for it is greater when he practices a sport and does it in a federated form (Hellin, 2003).

In general, the students who assess Physical Education positively recognize its importance, along with Sports’, in the country’s culture.

The fact that Physical Education is better liked by those students who do extracurricular practice and those who are federated should take to the reflection on how class is delivered to students. Which of the following objectives: performance, technique improvement, results or the assessment on personal effort and cooperation should be achieved? According to one or the other, interest in PE can be stimulated in a great number of individuals, and not only in a few of them, which will bring at the same time positive opinions on the importance of Sports and Physical Education for country’s culture.

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Translators: Eleonora Lozano Bachioqui and Graciela Johnson.

1People who are affiliated to a sports club to compete

Please cite the source as:

Moreno, J. A. & Hellin, M. G. (2007). Compulsory secondary education students’ interests towards physical education. Revista Electrónica de Investigación Educativa, 9 (2). Retrieved month day, year, from: http://redie.uabc.mx/vol9no2/contents-moreno.html