Girls' Perceptions of Physical Education: A Research Proposal

Introduction and Background

When properly balanced with other educational and life objectives, physical education can play an important role in promoting lifelong health and activity. However, some recent research has suggested that many young women in the Canadian secondary education system do not choose to enroll in physical education beyond the point required to fulfill mandatory course expectations (Friedman, 2002; Gibbons et al., 1999; Humbert, 1995). Some preliminary evidence suggests that these young women become disillusioned with physical education in early adolescence; however, more research needs to be done in order to identify and correct the reasons for this mid-adolescence rejection of physical education. This research identifies reasons that Canadian high school girls are reluctant to enroll in physical education and defines those factors that contribute to student resistance to involvement in physical education classes. Through a mixed-methods study including quantitative and qualitative data presented in a variety of ways, the research addresses this critical concern and offers suggestions for improvement in educational curriculum and culture designed to improve participation among girls.

Statement of Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the physical education (PE) experiences of female students in middle adolescence (grades 8 and 9, junior high school). In order to achieve that end, the study presents an approximate systematic replication of a study completed by Gibbons and Humbert (2008) titled "What are Middle-School Girls Looking for in Physical Education?" The present study differs from that earlier one only in that the participants will be grade 8 and 9 girls from segregated physical education classes, whereas the earlier subjects were grade 6 and 7 girls from coeducational physical education classes. Additionally, the participants in this study come from one school, whereas the original study had subjects from five schools.

The study has the following research objectives:

1. Identification of physical activity preferences and patterns of early adolescent females (both curricular and extracurricular).

2. Identification of barriers toward participation in physical education.

3. Examination of early adolescent females' knowledge and perceptions of the contribution of physical activity to health.

The study's results have implications for physical education curricula, as well as for motivational and participation programming for adolescent females.

Definitions

The primary academic concept considered in the research is physical literacy. A physically literate person is defined as someone who has "the motivation, confidence, physical competence, understanding and knowledge to maintain physical activity at an individually appropriate level, throughout life" (Whitehead, 2007, p. 1). Defined operationally, the term signifies "the ability and motivation to capitalise on our movement potential to make a significant contribution to the quality of life" (p. 1).

Delimitations

This study is limited in scope by a relatively small sample size. The sample universe consisted of approximately ninety girl students enrolled in segregated compulsory physical education classes at a high school in North Battleford, Saskatchewan.

Limitations

The study's significance is ultimately limited to the degree that its use of written questionnaires, focus group interviews, and one-on-one audio-recorded interviews admits the possibility of bias or inaccuracy. A number of factors could have affected the research in this regard. First, there is no guarantee that participants were honest and accurate when completing the questionnaires and interviews. Second, participants may have had medical conditions that affected their physical education experience. Third, not all participants had the same physical education teacher. Finally, due to space requirements at the school, certain girls' classes were required to share the gym with a boys' class, which could have influenced the physical education experience of girls in those situations.

Assumptions

The researcher assumes that students responded honestly and to the best of their ability during data collection. The researcher also assumes that, despite receiving instruction from different teachers, all participants received the same amount of physical education class time. A third assumption is that there will not be a strong sentiment highlighting the girls' perception that their teachers attended more closely to the needs and interests of their male counterparts. In this study the classes are segregated by gender.

Conclusion of Introduction

The goal of physical education is to develop students who are physically literate. Children attain physical literacy by mastering fundamental movement and sport skills. Quality Daily Physical Education (QDPE) programs develop physically literate students in a process that begins in primary school and continues into high school. Unfortunately, evidence suggests that Canadian adolescent female students do not enroll in high school physical education at adequate rates. These low levels of physical activity among girls and young women in Canada, documented by Gibbons and Humbert among others, provide great cause for alarm.

A national physical education and health survey titled The Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HSBC) was conducted in Canada and showed that, in the average week, fewer than 40% of early- and mid-adolescent female youth reported being physically active for 60 minutes or more each day (Boyce, 2004). Tremblay and Willms (2000) found that obesity among children and youth aged 7–13 tripled between 1981 and 1996. These and similar statistical findings indicate that young females are not participating in physical education to an adequate degree. This must be understood and corrected, since it has been shown that young females who are not physically active are less likely to be physically active as adults (Shephard & Trudeau, 2000; Thompson, Humbert & Mirwald, 2003; Trudeau et al., 1999; Wallace, 2003). In order to ensure that the problem of reluctant participation in physical education by late-adolescent females is understood and corrected, this research will provide a variety of fieldwork analyses conducted with mid-adolescent girls, before they reach the point at which their reluctance is expressed through coursework choices.

Physical Education and Health

A review of the literature was conducted to lay the groundwork for the fieldwork and analyses. Because this research is concerned with physical education participation in the experience of mid-adolescent females in Canada — with an ultimate goal of influencing greater participation and curriculum alignment that facilitates such participation — the review focused on the following areas: (1) Physical Education's role in adolescent and lifelong health, and (2) the female experience in Physical Education. There is a significant body of research addressing each of these topics. In order to focus the review, the researcher sought studies that specifically addressed improving the participation of female adolescents in physical education.

Obesity and Physical Activity

Gibbons and Humbert (2008) point to the link between physical education and health when they write that "school physical education has the potential to play an important part in both stemming the decline of physical activity and promoting lifelong physical activity" (p. 1). It is in this dual role that physical education makes perhaps its largest contribution to physical health: it provides opportunities for students to exercise now, as well as inspiration and guidance for them to participate in physical activity later in life. School-based physical education is not, of course, the only possible source of physical activity leading to improved health. However, McKenzie (1999) reviewed data from a variety of sources and found that, in order to attain the level of physical activity prescribed by national standards — that is, the level that reliably leads to health improvements — student participation in physical education classes is perhaps the only realistic avenue many children have for meeting exercise goals.

By providing opportunities for exercise in real time, physical education offers students the chance to improve their health immediately. This is important since numerous studies have shown that students, while among the more active segments of the population, often do not get enough of the right kinds of activity (McKenzie, 1999). For example, Stone, McKenzie, Welk, and Booth (1998) conducted a study of students across several developed countries and found that fewer than half got enough exercise to cross a threshold the researchers defined as healthy. Gibbons and Humbert further report that, although young girls could articulate the need for physical education and its links to weight control and physical health, they did not think they got enough exercise in their physical education classes or elsewhere to achieve the goals they recognized as important. Physical activity appears to be on the decline as students spend their time playing video games, surfing the internet, and watching television (Tremblay and Willms, 2001), and this has important implications for adolescent health.

Tremblay and Willms (2001) conducted a study of obesity and body mass index among Canadian school-aged children, drawing on nationally representative data from the 1981 Canada Fitness Survey and the 1996 National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth. They performed regression analysis to assess changes in body mass index scores for children aged 7–13 over those 15 years. They found that the prevalence of being overweight or obese was increasing as students benefited from the rich diets and sedentary lifestyles made available by their culture. Analyzing the data by sex, they found that obesity rates for boys were higher than for girls at these early ages, and they suggested that environmental factors such as diet and leisure lifestyles — particularly the prevalence of video-game play among boys — were largely responsible. However, Tjepkema (2005) found that, by adulthood, this relationship reverses: by age 35, women have caught up with men in obesity prevalence, with approximately 1 in 5 women suffering from obesity, and women's rates increase more quickly than men's with each advancing age group.

These findings suggest that something occurs between mid-adolescence and adulthood that causes women to lead more sedentary lives or adopt poorer diets — or both — leading to increased obesity. While physiological factors related to differences between men's and women's body chemistry and lifestyle choices may be at play, the essential point is that in early life girls are less likely to be obese than boys, while in later life women are more likely to be obese than men.

The basic rates of obesity themselves should not be discounted in discussions of gender differences. Over the 15-year gap in the Tremblay and Willms (2001) study, the rate of overweight children rose from under 15% to over 25%, while the rate of obese children increased from an average of about 5% to approximately 12%. These rates are alarming because youth obesity has been linked to many factors that negatively impact health, including diabetes, hypertension, poor body image, and increased morbidity and mortality in adulthood. Finkelstein, Fiebelkorn, and Wang (2003) calculated the additional monetary costs that overweight and obese individuals incur for their healthcare. In total, overweight and obese people spend between $52 billion and $79 billion more in healthcare costs, while obese individuals alone spend between $27 billion and $48 billion more. The physical health problems caused by obesity thus carry significant social and economic costs.

Other studies have echoed these findings, including research by Troiano et al. (1995). Many of these studies argue that "primary prevention" is needed to improve youth health — an argument that gains particular significance when one considers that young people establish habits that carry over throughout life, meaning that improvements in lifestyle and physical activity made at early ages are more likely to endure (Thompson, Humbert, and Mirwald, 2003). Tremblay and Willms (2001) call for "effective health promotion planning and policy and legislation development." School-based curriculum revolving around physical education is one place where such prevention and programming can take place. McKenzie (1999) concluded that student participation in physical education classes is the best hope many children have for achieving adequate exercise goals. When this is coupled with a finding by Wechsler et al. (2000) that extracurricular activities, recess breaks, and sports opportunities that provide physical activity all exist within the school setting, it becomes clear that schools and physical education curriculum specialists should take responsibility for designing programs that address the health needs of children and help prevent rising obesity.

Physical Education and a Life of Activity

The link between early childhood and youth physical activity and adult physical activity has been well documented. Thompson, Humbert, and Mirwald (2003), for example, conducted a longitudinal study to determine the long-term effects of youth participation in physical activities on later levels of physical activity. They performed in-depth one-on-one interviews with 16 men and 15 women from a longitudinal study designed to determine participation rates and motivations for children, with a follow-up investigation 25 years later. For men, such concerns as competence, capacity, and relationships influenced their level of adult physical activity, while for women the key determinants were relationships, body image, and attitudes or behaviors related to physical activity formed in childhood. This finding suggests that the potential influence of physical education on child and adult physical activity is lasting — but that it can have either positive or negative implications.

Trudeau et al. (1999) conducted a study with 147 Canadian men and women to determine whether participation in a daily physical education class during the first years of school led to lasting health benefits. They found that women who had participated in physical education classes daily in the early years of schooling were more likely to remain active in later life, while men who had participated in such programs were more likely to exhibit positive health-related characteristics such as not smoking. These findings suggest that physical education has lasting impacts on levels of physical activity and also influences other attitudes related to health and lifestyle.

Sherman (2001) points out that many studies have considered the short-term benefits of physical activity such as increased muscular strength, aerobic capacity, coordination, and flexibility, but that fewer studies weigh the long-term health benefits. One study that did, cited at length by Sherman, was conducted by Shephard and Trudeau (2000). It measured the participation rates of young children and assessed the impact of their participation on school-based activities as well as later adult activities. The study was conducted with 546 students divided into an experimental group that participated in physical education for one hour daily while in school and a control group with less involvement. The findings showed, consistent with the Trudeau et al. research, that women who participated in more physical activity as youth also participated in more physical activity as adults, while men who did so tended to have healthier attitudes and practices generally. Interestingly, Shephard and Trudeau also found that those in the experimental group were more likely to recall the names of their physical education teachers and their PE class schedules, suggesting that there was something about more frequent participation in physical education that students valued and remembered — indicating a lasting psychological impact of participation.

The effects of physical education and activity therefore appear to be clearly linked to health concerns such as obesity and lifelong physical activity. In response to this link, physical educators have been called upon to consider the role their programs play in public health generally (Sallis and McKenzie, 1991). School-based delivery of early physical culture has been shown to be critical for developing physical literacy across the population. Due to its importance, physical education must be planned and implemented correctly in order to draw in all students and maintain their committed participation throughout their school careers. Unfortunately, abundant research shows that this is not the case. Specifically, the treatment and perception of girls in the physical education system has been questioned, since female participation appears to taper off in later school years (Gibbons and Humbert, 2008).

Female Experience in Physical Education

Studies documenting female perceptions of and participation in physical education are abundant. Most of these studies identify thematic concepts and attempt to determine what factors drive girls either to participate in or refrain from participating in physical activities. Regardless of age, a number of thematic similarities emerge in the motivations of girls to participate: socializing, enjoyment, values alignment, and physical challenge appear among the overarching reasons girls take part. These differ from the reasons boys cite for participating, such as competition and physical competence (Thompson, Humbert and Mirwald, 2003), though both genders list socializing as an important motivation.

For the purposes of this study, it is equally important to determine the reasons that females do not participate, since the ultimate purpose is to understand why females in middle school choose not to take physical education once they enter high school. Gibbons and Humbert (2008) conducted an in-depth study designed to define such objections to participation. They used mixed methods for data gathering, including focus groups, interviews, and survey questionnaires. Their sample consisted of 90 female students in grades 6 and 7 from five middle schools in a Western Canadian city. Using a controlled sampling method to ensure the subjects reflected the total school district population, Gibbons and Humbert studied participants' responses to a variety of questions designed to determine why they chose not to participate in physical education.

Female students tended to list reasons against participation that indicated their values were not being met. They enjoy variety and choice in their lifestyle, but PE activities did not offer choices that appeal to them. They seek to improve their personal competence but feel they do not get enough opportunities to do so. They understand the importance of health benefits from sports but do not believe physical activities offer them the best avenue for achieving such benefits. Finally, they believe themselves to be treated as secondary to boys in physical education classes, which conflicts with their emerging identities. As seen in the previous section, girls seem to have a values alignment in their approach to sport and do not enjoy participating when they feel their involvement is out of alignment with their other educational and lifestyle values.

Gibbons and Humbert argue that female students start out enjoying sports just as much as boys do, but grow disillusioned by high school. They suggest that this process of disillusionment begins as early as elementary school. Put simply, girls enjoy sports programs that include fun, fairness, and safety, and they begin to reject sports when activities reflect other values (p. 170).

The fact that the structure of the sport offering itself is key to female acceptance or rejection seemed significant. Olafson (2002) argued that "institutional barriers" such as activity choice and orientation lie at the foundation of girls' rejection of sports. Felton et al. (2005) offer seven characteristics which can be incorporated into sport programming so that such barriers will not be present:

(1) Gender separation opportunities exist in classes. (2) Students are physically active in PE classes. (3) Noncompetitive activities are offered. (4) Lifelong physical activity is emphasized. (5) Classes are fun and enjoyable. (6) Appropriate instructional methods are used (e.g., small group interaction). (7) Behavior skills for PE are taught. (p. 58)

These findings suggest that there is a reciprocal relationship among a number of variables that, depending on how they work together, can either inspire females to participate or turn them away from participation. When sports provide more choices in a socializing, cooperative atmosphere — positive values that draw in girls — and downplay competition and hierarchy — negative values that cause girls to reject sports — girls are more likely to participate. However, when the opposite is true, and Gibbons and Humbert suggest that this is the case beyond elementary school physical activity, girls reject participation. Gibbons and Humbert conclude:

"If physical educators are to play a role in enhancing the health of girls and young women, their efforts need to be directed towards improving middle-years physical education programs. It is very evident that girls in middle school know what types of experiences they desire in their physical education classes. The challenge, therefore, is to develop and teach courses to meet the needs of middle-school girls and to help them see that physical activity is an essential part of their life."

The research on female participation in physical activity is generally clear. In early school years, girls enjoy participation. It is significant that in these years, when all students are just developing their coordination and learning to express physicality, sports are oriented toward fun and cooperation. However, as students progress, competition increasingly becomes the order of the day and girls begin to drift away. Several studies suggest it does not have to be this way. Garrahy (1998), for example, argues that maintaining female motivation to participate in sports in the middle grades depends entirely on how girls are treated within the sports programs themselves. Furthermore, Thompson, Baxter, and Mirwald (2003) considered the effect of biological age on decreasing participation for both boys and girls and found no differences related to gender. In other words, the fact that girls stop participating is not because they reach a certain age and begin to lose interest. Boys and girls alike develop new interests over time and both genders eventually drift away from active physical activity. However, the rate at which girls do so appears to be driven more by the institutional barriers of sports offerings and orientations than by any inherent female characteristics. Sports initially include many elements that appeal to girls, only to remove many of those elements when programming shifts from a cooperative and fun activity to a competitive one during the middle school and junior high years. If Gibbons and Humbert find that girls grow disillusioned with sports and physical education, it is because the programming around those curricular areas does not make a sufficient effort from middle school onward to speak to their interests and needs. The implications of these findings for the present study are significant.