Students’ attitudes to PE lessons with respect to lesson content, sex, and type of school

Abstract

Although school work is typical by its sedentariness, school as an institution has undoubted potential to influence total physical activity of students, particularly due to regular physical education. The main aim of this paper is to describe school PE lessons with various content from the aspects of 1) number of steps referred to physical load of students and 2) students’ attitudes to realized PE lessons, with regard to sex of participants and type of school the students attended. All presented data were gathered within teaching practices of PE students at secondary schools and high schools in the Czech Republic during 2012. The sample consisted of 734 boys and 590 girls. To measure number of steps within PE lessons, participants wore the Yamax pedometers. To collect relevant data on participating students’ attitudes toward realized PE lessons, the standardized questionnaire “Diagnostics of PE lesson for students” was applied. Mann-Whitney U-test was used to process the data comparisons. Mean number of steps realized during the school PE lessons was higher in boys (secondary schools: 57.80±22.92 steps·min-1; high schools: 59.25±19.54 steps·min-1) than in girls (secondary schools: 50.04±20.00 steps·min-1; high schools: 42.50±14.99 steps·min-1). The highest number of steps was detected in PE lessons focused on sports games (especially basketball and football). The questionnaire data did not reveal any specific trends in attitudes towards various PE lessons regarding sex or type of school within the overall evaluation. Nevertheless, significant differences were found in partial comparisons. These analyses might be helpful when considering efforts aimed at increasing efficiency of PE lessons through thinking over levels of physical load, selection of content or educational methods and forms.