Dressing-Policy Dispute
Dressing-Policy Dispute After reading "Not Dressing Is Disobedience, Not Just a Nuisance;' by Mitchell and Hewitt (JOPERD, August 2002), I was compelled to offer a differing view. My initial reaction to the article was that the overall tone was very negative, punitive, coercive, and one of displaced responsibility. After some reflection, I cannot say that my feelings have changed. Let me begin by stating that I am an elementary physical educator, grades four through six. I understand that at the junior high and high school levels, where changing for physical education is routine, nondressers are a problem. I know nothing of the authors' physical education program, and the nondressers may simply be rebellious teens. However, in my own program, students are free to choose whether to participate or sit out. Is threatening students with inschool suspension, parental notification,lower grades, and being sent home an effective way to deal with nondressers? Perhaps in the short run, although I am not really convinced. But in the long run, is this the way to turn kids on to physical activity and is it likely to produce individuals who will at some later date choose physical activity when we, the physical educators, are not around? Some introspection is needed when students opt to sit out rather than participate. What is the message the nondresser is sending? Let me take a moment to relate a story from my gymnasium. During a basketball dribble-and-shoot warmup activity, children were asked to dribble to the music and shoot at one of five baskets when the music stopped. All students had their own ball. The next thing I knew, five players had made the choice to sit out (after they had begun the activity). To make a long story short, the kids were uncomfortable with all the balls coming back down and were afraid of getting hurt. When they returned for their next class (two days later), I offered students the choice of using either a basketball or a volleyball trainer. When the music stopped, students with volleyball trainers were to shoot at different baskets than those with basketballs. All five students voluntarily returned to the activity. My point? I could have threatened to lower their grade, call their parents, or send them to the office if they did not participate, but I found
Determinants of Attitudes Toward Physical Education
The development of positive attitudes toward physical education has been a longstanding and desirable goal of the program of physical education. The intent of this investigation was to identify those aspects of the program students reported as turning them on to or turning them off from physical education. The critical incident report was the tool used to gather information. The subjects (N = 100) classified the reported incidents as either positive or negative, and their comments were then categorized into five broad categories: (a) teacher, (b) curriculum, (c) atmosphere of the classroom, (d) peer behavior, and (e) perceptions of self. Further classification occurred within each category. The results indicated that the items most frequently mentioned in relation to both positive and negative attitudes related to the teacher and the curriculum. Some interesting patterns evolved both within and between the various categories. The most encouraging aspect of the investigation is that the great majority of c...
Relationship between Attitudes Toward School Subjects and School Achievement.
AbstractAttitudes toward school subjects were explored in a group of sixth graders. First, correlations were obtained between ratings of school subjects on the Semantic Differential (SD) and scores on corresponding subtests of the SRA Achievement Series. Significant positive correlations (p < .01) were observed for boys in social studies, arithmetic, and reading and for girls in reading. Second, achievement at the end of the year was predicted from IQ, achievement and SD scores at the beginning of the year. SD ratings contributed significantly to predictions only in the case of arithmetic for boys (p < .01). Third, SD ratings of school subjects at the beginning and end of the year were compared by an anlysis of variance procedure. For both boys and girls, attitudes were significantly less favorable for most subjects at the end of the year.