Attitudes and Perceptions of Middle School Students Toward Competitive Activities in Physical Education

Abstract

The attitudes and perceptions of middle school students toward competitive activities in physical education were examined. Ten boys and 14 girls volunteered (11-high-skilled, 11 moderate-skilled, and 2 low skilled students) in 6th and 7th grade from a total of 6 schools, all offering competitive activities. Data collection was conducted over several months and included focus groups consisting of students of mixed skill levels, observations of competitive class activities, and informal interviews with teachers. The three major themes that emerged were, having fun in competitive activities, not all students were attaining motor skills necessary to participate in activities due to a lack of time to engage in appropriate practice, and the structure of competitive activities affects student experience

High School Students’ Attitudes Toward Fitness Testing

“…According to the TPB attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control leads to behavioral intention. In physical education, factors that have been shown to affect the development of attitudes include the teacher and the curriculum (Bernstein, Phillips, & Silverman, 2011;Carlson, 1995;Luke & Sinclair, 1991;Phillips & Silverman, 2012;Subramaniam & Silverman, 2000, 2002. It has not been determined if these factors also affect the development of students' attitudes toward fitness testing.…”

Pre-service physical education teachers' beliefs about competition in physical education

“…As Bernstein et al (2011) recently highlighted, the way that physical education teachers' structure competitive activities can affect the nature of the experience for the pupils. For that reason, encouraging the 'alternative' aspects of competition (O'Reilly et al, 2001) and focusing on a mastery climate (Bailey et al, 2009) may provide ways in which pupils can learn through competition and challenge the polarised nature of competition highlighted earlier.…”

“…Furthermore, they noted that due to the fact that many pupils' conception of competition is winning and losing, the teacher rarely emphasised these alternative elements of competition. In a recent paper directly focused on pupils' perceptions on competition within physical education, Bernstein et al (2011) concluded that: (1) students of different skill levels perceived having fun in competitive activities differently; (2) pupils felt that having skill was a necessary part of competition although not everyone was developing their skills within competition; and (3) the structure of the various competitive activities influenced the student experience.…”

Students' Perceptions of Learning, Post-school Options and Status in Two Elite Athlete Programmes

“…Several factors mentioned in the literature may contribute to the improvement of physical skills, such as time and appropriate practice (Escartí & Gutiérrez, 2001;Larson & Silverman, 2005), skill progression, and task presentation (Bernstein, Phillips, & Silverman, 2011;Ravizza & Stratton, 2007), and motivational climate (Quicke, 1999;Subramaniam & Silverman, 2002;Subramaniam & Silverman, 2007). Student athletes that did not perceive physical skill improvement responded that the teacher/coach was unsupportive and it affected the amount of time and energy that they devoted to their sport.…”