Learning Experiences in Physical Education and Health (PEH) – a longitudinal study

Author(s):

Suzanne Lundvall(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

18. Research in Sports Pedagogy

Format:

Paper

Session Information

18 SES 11 A, Professional Learning...Fit for a Purpose?

Paper Session

Time:

2014-09-04

17:15-18:45

Room:

B103 Sala de Aulas

Chair:

Mark Griffiths

Contribution

Physical education and health (PEH) has during the last decades been under debate in several countries. Reports claim that students learn sport but not health. Literature also points to a gap between curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. Changes in society show new scenarios around health, wellbeing and illness among young people, and a growing uneven distribution of access to physical activity and knowledge in health. This leads to questions about students’ learning experiences from school PEH.

The aim of the presentation is to, with the help of a nine year follow-up study, describe and analyze students’ attitudes to participation and learning in PEH over the school years. The findings will be analyzed and discussed in the frame of curriculum theory and pedagogical models for health-based physical education.

Method

The study was based on a population from randomly selected schools in Sweden, with students born 1991, 1988 and 1985. The year of the baseline study was 2001. Follow-up studies were made three, six and nine years later. The method used for the collecting of data was questionnaires consisting of both closed and open answers.The presentation will focus on the follow up studies of the students born 1991, made six and nine years after the base line study. In 2010, 75% of the original population (1290) answered a revised, almost identical questionnaire. Frequency of data has been analysed with descriptive statistics and cross tabulations. Chi-square was used for examining group differences with the following levels of statistical significance *p<0.05 **p<0.01, ***p<0.001.Values>0.05 were considered as statistically non significant (n.s.)

Expected Outcomes

The results show a significant difference in participation pattern between male and female students, where 18% of the female students in relation to 8% of the male students never or very seldom participated in PEH in their older ages. From 15 to 18 years of age, one third of those who experience that they learned “nothing” remained in this category. Leaving school, 21% of the students at the age of 18 thought that they knew well how to train and be physically active by their own. 2 out of 10 regarded themselves as not having this knowledge. Over one third of the students were uncertain of relationships between health, life style and environment. The students’ open answers in relation to their general attitude towards PEH in upper secondary school have been categorised in mainly two head categories: the value of having possibilities to engage in physical activity during the school week, and the need to restructure how PEH is organised and taught. One conclusion from the study is the need for a reworked model of how to become a learner in PEH.

References

Evans, J. & Penney, D. (2008) Levels on the playing field: the social construction of physical ‘ability’ in physical education curriculum, Physical Education & Sport Pedagogy, 13(1), 31-47. Haerens, L., Kirk, D., Cardon, G., De Bourdeaudhuij, I. (2011) Toward the Development of a Pedagogical Model for Health-Based Physical education. Quest, 63, 321-338. Kirk, D. 2010. Physical education futures. London, England: Routledge. Penney, D., Brooker, R., Hay, P. & Gillespie, L. (2009) Curriculum, pedagogy and assessment: three message systems of schooling and dimensions of quality physical education, Sport, Education and Society, 14(4), 421-442. Paakkari L., Paakkari O. (2012) Health literacy as a learning outcome in school. Health Education. Vol.112(2),133. Skolinspektionen. (2010). Mycket idrott och lite hälsa. Skolinspektionens rapport från den flygande tillsynen i idrott och hälsa [A lot of sports and little health. The Swedish Schools Inspectorate]. Report 2010:2037. Stockholm:Skolinspektionen. Wellard, I. (2006) Re-thinking abilities, Sport, Education and Society, 11(3), 311-315. Wright, J. & Burrows, R. (2006) Re-conceiving ability in physical education: a social analysis, Sport, Education and Society, 11(3), 275-291.

Author Information

Suzanne Lundvall (presenting / submitting)

The Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, GIH

departement of sport and health sciences

Stockholm

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