Review of Literature discerning Student Attitudes Toward Scondary Physical Education
Although it has been documented that many students perceive physical education as irrelevant and/or boring, there are still many students who enjoy physical education and understand the life-long benefits of participating in regular physical activity. This investigation presents a synopsis of research conducted into secondary student’s attitudes toward physical education. The purpose of this investigation was to discuss student’s feelings toward secondary physical education programs, lend insight into what students want from their secondary physical education programs, and discuss possible ideas for changing negative views/attitudes toward secondary physical education. Results from this investigation indicated that secondary students have an overall positive attitude toward physical education. Introduction Unquestionably there are a number of students who enjoy physical education and their experiences in class while there are others who find physical education appalling and loathsome, but for a large number of students high school physical education is purely a coarse graduation requirement, according to Cothran and Ennis (1999), and not relevant. However, paradox exists, in that many secondary students are participants in physical activity in out of school contexts (Aicinena, 1991). ... So why is it physical education has little relevance for these high school students? Carlson (1995) discovered that students did not consider physical education in the same manner they considered other subjects such as math or english. Students indicated that they viewed physical education as a break from their normal class work. Physical education would not influence university admittance or “real world” information and as such was viewed in a different way. Assessment is also associated to the perceived differences between physical education and other school subjects. Imwold, Rider, and Johnson (1982) observed that numerous physical educators computed grades based on issues unrelated to performance (i. ... If students do not believe they are being graded similar to other subjects, why should they believe physical education belongs in similar classifications as other school subjects? Associations have been established among quality instruction and quality assessment as it relates toward student’s perceptions of physical education (Kinchin and O’Sullivan, 1999; Pennington and Krouscas Jr. ... Leggett (1986) found that appropriate use of grading prompted positive attitudes toward physical education and developed students’ self esteem, confidence, and sense of worth. Bain (1980) found that all students, regardless of ability, required positive reinforcement to have positive attitudes toward physical education. Morey and Goc Karp (1998) found that factors such as the composition of the physical education curriculum, teacher attitudes, teacher behaviors, family, community, and the individual all related to how physical education was viewed.