Children’s Thoughts and Feelings About Physical Education

1. Children’s Thoughts and Feelings About Physical Education By: Ryan Montag and Brian Barnhart February 17, 2003

2. What Children Think, Feel, and Know About Physical Fitness Testing • Two medium sized schools in Southeastern U.S. • Both schools administered the Presidential Physical Fitness Challenge tests • Participants in the study: 4th and 5th graders who had taken the Physical Fitness Tests at their school • Data Sources: Interviews & Written Quiz

3. Data Collection • Written Quiz Determined the students’ knowledge of the purpose of each fitness test item • Interview Questions (mile-run) 1. Did children understand why they took the mile run? 2. What did the children think about the mile run test? 3. What would they change about it?

4. Results • Students’ Understanding • “Test Dodging” • Opinions for Change

5. Students’ Understanding • Only 46% of students were able to correctly identify the mile-run as the answer to the question: Which test measures your cardiorespiratory endurance?

6. Students’ Understanding • Abstract understanding -smallest number of students -understood cardiorespiratory fitness, endurance • Concrete understanding -incomplete understanding • No understanding -largest number of students

7. Test Dodging • Many students dislike taking the mile-run test, some so much that they become “test dodgers”. Excuses used to skip the mile run: • Faking illness or injury • Being absent on the day of the test • Producing a written note from a doctor or parent

8. Opinions for Change Given the chance, many students would change the mile run: • Make it more game-like • Disregard timing • Make the test easier

9. What do physical educators have to do to change the way children think, feel, and know about physical fitness testing?

10. Who Is Having Fun in Physical Education Classes? Experiences of 6th Grade Students in Elementary and Middle Schools

11. Purpose of Study • Find the reason for the lack of achievement for students in physical education class. • Based upon performance in physical education class and learned helplessness. • Describe physical education experiences of low skilled sixth-grade students, interpret the experiences, and find the educational significance.

12. Subjects and Methods • Four six grade classes observed. • Each observed over two 12 day units. • Teachers all gave consent and had minimum of 10 years teaching experience. • Parents of the students were aware of of purpose and procedures, and gave consent. • Low skilled students were identified by a skills test and teacher judgment. • 11 girls and 2 boys were selected. • Field observations and interviews were used to collect data.

13. Findings • Two interviews were done involving all students in the classes. A third interview was conducted on the selected low skilled students. • Interviews were transcribed. • Notes from the field observations were studied. • Profiles with description, behavior, and self perceptions of performance were made for low skilled students. • Results were inspected for patterns in behavior of low skilled students. • The patterns were put into four themes that described the experience of thelow skilled students.

14. 4 Themes “I like PE when I am successful” “I can’t because I can’t” “Mostly nobody helps” “Mostly everyone yells at me”

15. Implications for PE teacher • We need to be aware that there will be low skilled students in our classes and we need to give them a chance to succeed. • We need to allow low skilled students more time to practice the skills, by teaching by invitation and intratask variation. • Success should not be based on comparing scores, but should be based on self improvement and mastery of skills. • We need to encourage even the low skilled students that they can succeed and give them the guidance needed to succeed. • We can’t give students a chance to develop learned helplessness, because once it is reached, it difficult to turn back.