الملخص الإنجليزي
ABSTRACT
The Kingdom of Bahrain considers education one of the most important
sectors of human development (Ministry of education, 2004). The
government secondary schools' physical education (PE) program provides
students with regular physical activities in order to develop sports skills for
use throughout their lives, and to develop positive attitudes towards
physical activity as part of day-to-day living. It is an elective course for
students mainly in the literary, scientific and commercial tracks. Students
spend 2 hours per week in a PE class, with a total of 30 sessions in a three-
month semester. Each school has its own sports hall and receives a budget
for PE.
Statement of the problem: Unfortunately, there is few of data related to
physical education and activity in Bahrain. With the decline in physical
activity during adolescence, there is a need to equip students with skills,
knowledge and positive attitudes to maintain a physically active lifestyle.
The purpose of this study is: To provide information on the attitudes of
high school students towards the PE program in order to increase the role
of schools in improving adolescent health, and encourage positive attitudes
towards physical education among high school students.
The study attempts to answer the following questions:
a) What are the students' attitudes towards the PE program?
b) What factors in the PE program contribute to students' attitudes?
c) What is the relationship between the students' gender, track of the
study, and their attitudes toward PE?
Hypotheses: It was hypothesized that:
a) High school students have negative attitudes toward PE.
b) There are factors that significantly contribute to students' positive
attitudes towards high school PE program.
c) There is a relationship between students' gender, track of the
study and their attitude toward physical education.
Methodology: Study population were grade 10, 11, and 12 secondary
school students (male and female, Bahraini and non-Bahraini), in the three
main tracks for the academic year 2004-2005. Their ages ranged between
14 - 21 years. A random sample of students was selected from a total 26
Bahrain government high schools. Sample size: Cluster samples were
selected from the total population of 22,321 students in 757 classes, and
sampling units approximately 475 students from 16 randomly selected
classes from each track.
Setting of the study: The students' classroom was used for the
implementation of the study.
Ethical consideration: Consent was taken from the participating schools
and students.
Instrument: A self-administered structured questionnaire was completed by
the students after a brief explanation of the purpose of the study. The
questionnaire was coded, and consisted of two parts: the first 5-item part
was related to demographic data, and the second part, consisting of 47
items, was related to students' attitudes towards PE, which was adapted
from a tested instrument, the Arabic version of the Edington Attitude Scale
for high school students toward PE (Edington, 1968).
Results: The findings from the study suggest that the PE program has a
lower status than other subjects. The reasons for this may be attributed to
the type of activities, lack of facilities and uninteresting content. High
school students 322 (68.5%) both gender have positive attitudes toward PE,
and there were significant differences in attitude between male and female
students. The results showed that 26 (15.0%) males and 122 (41.1%)
females have negative attitudes. And 106 (61.3%) male students versus 82
(27.6%) female students practice sport outside the school and male students
were also more positive about continuing practicing exercise in the future.
The main factors contributing to the students' positive attitudes included
curriculum (76.0%), self-perception (70.9%), teacher (59.1%), class
atmosphere (54.0%), and facilities (36.0%), and there was no significant
relationship between students' gender, track of study, and their attitudes
toward PE.
Conclusion: The study concludes that negative attitudes are more among
female students as a result of the PE facilities and class atmosphere. This
affected their participation in outdoor PE activities.
Several recommendations are offered:
1. The secondary schools' PE programs need to consider offering
students the opportunity to choose some of their PE activities in
consultation with their PE teachers.
2. Students must be provided adequate time to maintain good health
from the activities in which they can perform for a lifetime.
Therefore PE hours need to be extended.
Policy implications: It is very important to establish/ review policies and
guidelines that define and set up the purpose, goals, and safety of PE
programs. Develop policies that permit and encourage all students to
participate in enjoyable physical activities at least 30 to 60 minutes per day,
as an essential part of the school day. Establish policies that promote
enjoyable life long physical activity. Ensuring safety policies are very
important in fitness activities. The study attempts to recommend several
related policy implications in relation to different sectors in the country.
The results of this study can be generalized to all governmental schools,
and offer an informative foundation for further studies.
Key words: Physical education, Attitudes, Gender, Track of the study.
