An examination of middle school students' physical education predisposition: A longitudinal study

The purpose of this study was to analyze perceived levels of physical education predisposition of middle school students with longitudinal study according to some demographic variables and students' opinions. 2805 (1454 girls and 1351 boys) for pretest and 2643 (1334 girls and 1309 boys) for posttest students studying at middle schools provided responses for quantitative part and 36 (18 girls and 18 boys, one girl and one boy from each grade level) students provided responses for qualitative part. Sequential Explanatory Strategy used in the research within the framework of mixed methods. Although longitudinal survey design used in quantitative part, case study method used in the qualitative part. "The Physical Education Predisposition Scale" used to collect quantitative data. Qualitative data was collected by interview technique by using the semi-structured form. Descriptive statistical methods, MANOVA, ANOVA, one sample t-test, Tukey and Dunnett's C multiple comparison and Pearson Correlation tests were used in the quantitative data analysis. Content analysis method was used for qualitative data analysis. Results from the quantitative part of study showed that physical education predisposition of the students differed significantly according to gender, grade level, injury/disability experiences, gender of physical education teacher, had a person being interested with sport (audience, sportsman, trainer, referee) in family, participating school sport teams, doing sport in sports club (licensed). The findings from the qualitative part of the study showed that the physical education lesson was an important and necessary. Course processing and environment was suitable for students and the students stated that they got a yield from the lesson. Students reported that the weekly lecture hours were inadequate. Students stated that the personality traits of the teacher had an effect on the attitude and interest of the physical education will affected by participating school sport teams and doing sport in sports club (licensed). As a results of the study, it had been determined that the physical education predisposition of students decreased by the time and the factors thought to affect this result were discussed within the frame of literature.