A cooperation project on school physical education (PE) was established between the Tshwane University of
Technology, Pretoria, South Africa and the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The project was funded as part of
the international cooperation agreement between South Africa and Sweden. The aim of the project was to investigate
discrepancies between intended subscription and actual provision for PE/Life Orientation (LO) in Swedish and
South African schools. Presented in this paper are results of the pilot study on the comparative research project
which focused on PE as a tool for developing health and social skills among Swedish and South African school
children. A major objective of the project was to investigate how provision for PE is defined in formal school
settings in both countries. To answer the question we constructed a 23-item questionnaire measuring PE provision
and children’s attitudes towards the subject in primary and lower secondary schools. A questionnaire was
constructed utilizing a) participant observations of lessons in Sweden and South Africa, b) semi-structured
interviews with school principals and PE teachers in both countries, and c) analyses of policy documents in each
country. The pilot instrument consisted of four batteries of questions: a) Health promotion (8 items), b) Social
development (8 items), c) Personal development (10 items), and d) Physical development and movement (6 items).
The questionnaire was developed in two almost identical versions and was completed by primary school pupils in
South Africa (n =105) and Sweden (n = 42). In order to improve the reliability and the construct validity of the
questionnaire we modified the pilot versions of the questionnaire eliminating poorly fit items using various
statistical techniques. Pupils’ answers to the questionnaire were analyzed mainly through structural equation
modeling techniques (AMOS). This technique facilitates the simultaneous analysis of the robustness of the whole
instrument and the test of each battery of questions. The statistical analyses were aimed at designing a questionnaire
with very good fit indices for Swedish and South African contexts. Results yielded substantial Cronbach’s α: whole
instrument (α=.84); Health promotion (α=60), Social development (α=60), Personal development (α=79), Physical
development (α=76), which showed acceptable reliability estimates for the questionnaire subscales.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:tut/oai:encore.tut.ac.za:d1001022 |
| Date | 09 1900 |
| Creators | Toriola, AL, Lateef, O, Amusa, GP, Konstantin, K |
| Publisher | African Journal for Physical, Health Education, Recreation and Dance |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | |
| Rights | African Journal for Physical, Health Education, Recreation and Dance |
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