Knowing Students' Characteristics: Opportunities to Adapt Physical Education Teaching

Abstract

Physical Education (PE) aims to convey the joy of exercise and by this educate students to lifelong physical activeness. Student motivation in PE decreases during the school career. This study therefore comprehensively analyzes student characteristics determining motivation in PE: General Personality Traits, Physical Self-Concept, Achievement Motive, Motives to be physically active, and Sports Interest. This contribution aims to describe students' prerequisites in the PE context by using an aggregated assessment of the abovementioned general plus sport specific characteristics and to detect gender, class, and school type differences. In total, 1,740 German secondary school students (58.1% female, M = 14.39 years) participate in a cross-sectional questionnaire survey. Descriptive analyses and between subjects MANOVAs followed by univariate ANOVAs with pairwise multiple comparison tests are applied. Gender explains the largest proportion of variance across all characteristics. Regarding individual dimensions, genders differed on 12, grades on two and school types on 11 out of 19 dimensions. PE teachers must adapt teaching to different gender dispositions. In general, group differences ascribe special meaning to student perception and teaching behavior. Findings are discussed in terms of their contribution to the research area and their implementation in teaching practice as well as in PE teacher education or professional training, e.g., aligned teaching methods, arranged learning atmospheres, or adjusted content design of PE lessons.

Promotion of Physical Activity Programs Outside School Hours to Support the Great Design of Indonesian National Sports

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Synthesis May Be Better than Singleness— A Cross-sectional Study on Physical Activity Environment, Food Environment and Adolescents' BMI

“…This study's results show that the overall physical activity level of the sample was low, with females having a lower percentage of cases of moderate physical activity and high physical activity than males. This may be due to the uneven physiological development of males and females; females tend to increase body fat during adolescence, while males increase muscle mass, which facilitates their physical activity (Waylen and Wolke, 2004); females have a lower physical self-concept, and males are usually more confident, braver, and more motivated to achieve than females, wherein the females' personalities are less conducive to physical activity compared to males (Kirch et al, 2021); adolescents of various genders. There are differences in the process of socialization, and families and schools tend to assign different social norms and roles to males and females in the process of individual growth.…”