The relationship among learning styles of the secondary school students taking physical education courses their success and attitudes towards phsical education courses and demographic features

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of learning styles of thesecondary school students (6th.,7th and, 8th grades) taking physical educationcourses on their success and attitudes towards physical education courses.One thousand four hundred and ninety eight students (717 girls, 781 boys)with a total of 1498, from 12 secondary schools from Bolu in the 2005-2006education- teaching year participated in this study.In the study a ?personal information inquiry? was applied that includes 8questions (name of the school, class, gender, education level of mother and father,grade point average, income level), in order to collect personal information. Inaddition, to determine the learning styles of the students ?Learning Styles Inventory?developed by Kolb in 1984 and, to determine the attitudes towards physicaleducation courses ?The Student Attitude Scale? developed by Demirhan ve Altay(2001) were used.Students learning styles prefence were analyzed through frequency (f) andpercentages (%). Students taking physical education courses on their succes andattitudes were analyzed using One-way ANOVA. Students learning styles prefencewith gender, class level, education level, mother and father grade point avarege,family income level were compared byusing Chi-square Test.According to the findings gained from the study; it was found that1. 37,4% of the secondary school students attending to the study have diverger,24% of them have assimilator, 19,8% converger and 18,8% accomodatorlearning styles.2. There was a difference between student? learning styles and class levels,gender, fathers? education levels (p<0,05).3. The attitudes of the students towards physical education courses changedconsiderably depending on their learning styles. (p<0,05).4. There was not a difference between student? learning styles and their success,mothers? education level and income level (p<0,05).Key words: Learning Style, Attitude Toward Physical Education, AcademicSuccess, Gender, Class, Education Level, Income