[Truncated abstract] Enjoyable physical education (PE) has the potential to promote adolescent involvement in healthy activities outside the school setting. Disturbingly, evidence exists that many students do not enjoy PE and do not believe that it meets their needs. Indeed, a number of studies have documented an age-related decline in PE enjoyment among students. The research reported here is based on the assumption that a deeper understanding of the enjoyment processes could guide researchers and assist teachers in making PE classes more enjoyable for students. Given the fact that enjoyment is a product of multiple processes, a model of enjoyment developed by Scanlan and Lewthwaite (1986) was viewed as a potentially useful framework to guide this research. The validity of this model has been established in youth sport settings. However, further studies are needed to examine the utility of this framework in PE settings. In STUDY 1 (Chapter 3), a measurement instrument was constructed based on the Scanlan and Lewthwaite (1986) model. Content validity of the instrument was established by obtaining feedback from eight experts in psychology and four highly experienced secondary school teachers. ... Moreover, the results of correlation analyses again revealed significant positive relationships between PE teaching processes and enjoyment of PE. Unique findings in this study centered on the specific aspects of PA that were positively related to PE enjoyment. More v specifically, significant positive relationships were also obtained between PE enjoyment and self-reports of exercise duration (min-per-week: r = .30, p <.001), exercise intensity (r = .28, p < .001), exercise habit strength (r = .29, p < .001), and exercise stage-of-change (rho = .23, p < .001). Together, the findings from these studies provide support for the Scanlan and Lewthwaite (1986) model within the PE context. In addition, the findings provide guidance about how PA programs can be structured to maximize student enjoyment of PE. In terms of program structure, student enjoyment may be fostered by considering six processes. These processes are: self-referent competency, other-referent competency, teacher-generated excitement, activity-generated excitement, peer interaction, and parental encouragement. By emphasizing these processes, teachers will not only increase student enjoyment of PE but also increase the likelihood of involvement in PA outside of the school setting. Given global trends toward decreases in PA and increases in obesity, these outcomes could have important benefits for reducing public health costs in future.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/221378 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Hashim, Hairul Anuar |
| Publisher | University of Western Australia. School of Human Movement and Exercise Science |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Copyright Hairul Anuar Hashim, http://www.itpo.uwa.edu.au/UWA-Computer-And-Software-Use-Regulations.html |
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