The effect of physical activity games within physical education lessons on character development of elementary students

This study is aimed to examine whether physical activity games within physical education lessons affect on character development of fourth class elementary students. In this research, pre-test post-test with control group model has been implemented which is experimental model. The study was carried out on two groups, experimental and control groups, consisting of a total of 60 students. Physical activity games prepared for the development of character in addition to the matters Physical Education course designated by the Ministry of Education was implemented to the experimental group. Physical education curriculum designated by the Ministry of Education was implemented to the control group. In this research, both groups were implemented ?Youth Sports Value Questionnaire? which is originally developed by Martin J. Lee, Jean Whitehead and Nick Balchin (2000) and then modified by Frogozo (2006), as a pre-test before training and as a post-test after training. SPSS was used for statistical analysis of research data. In the data analysis, "arithmetic mean?, ?standard deviation", ?t-test? and ?ANOVA? were used. At the end of the research, it is found that physical activity games prepared for the development of character in addition to the matters Physical Education course affected on the character development of students in the experimental group. Even though there was an increase between pre-test and post-test values of students in the control group educated only physical education course, it has seen that this increase didn?t make a difference in favor of protest. It has observed that according to the Physical Education curriculum conducted, physical activity games prepared for the development of character in addition to the matters Physical Education course was not effective on character development of students. It has found that physical activity games prepared for the development of character in addition to the matters Physical Education course has influence on character components including trustworthiness, caring, responsibility and citizenship of students in the experimental group despite the fact it has no influence on character components including fairness and respect. It has observed that students in the control group educated only physical education course was not different on character components including fairness, respect, caring, responsibility and citizenship despite the fact it made a difference on character component including trustworthiness. It has seen that according to the Physical Education curriculum conducted, physical activity games prepared for the development of character in addition to the matters Physical Education course didn?t make a difference on character components including trustworthiness, fairness, respect, caring, responsibility and citizenship of students.