European Researcher. Series A, 2016, Vol.(105), Is.

Copyright © 2016 by Academic Publishing House Researcher

Published in the Russian Federation

European Researcher
Has been issued since 2010.
ISSN 2219-8229
E-ISSN 2224-0136
Vol. 105, Is. 4, pp. 208-215, 2016

DOI: 10.13187/er.2016.105.208
www.erjournal.ru

Pedagogical Sciences

Педагогические науки

UDC 37

Attitudes of Primary School Pupils towards Physical and Sport Education

1 Pavol Bartík
2 Ján Kubiš
1-2 MatejBel University, Slovakia
Tajovského 40, 974 01 Banská Bystrica
1 Dr. (Pedagogic Sciences), PhD, Professor

E-mail: [email protected]
2 Mgr. (Pedagogic Sciences)

E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract
One of the most important roles of spare time physical education is the formation of a
positive attitude towards sports activities and sports among pupils. The formation of a positive
attitude can play an important role in the matter of a child's healthy lifestyle. Therefore the authors
of this article decided to find out what kind of a relationship and an attitude the pupils of primary
schools take towards physical education and sports activities in the Detva and Zvolen regions.
The authors of this article present the attitudes towards physical education and movement as well
as sports activities of 8th grade primary school pupils in the Detva and Zvolen regions as well as to
their frequency. The authors discuss which activities among extracurricular or spare-time activities
are the most interesting for pupils. According to the results presented in the charts, it is clear that
pupils take a positive attitude towards physical education and sports activities. Sports games
belong among the most favourite interest groups.
Keywords: attitudes, physical education, sports activities, spare time activities.

Introduction
Movement and sports activities can affect the physical development of an individual to a large
extent; both increase their efficiency and strengthen their health. Movement activity creates a
positive antipole against the present-day sedentary lifestyle among children and youth who sit a
great deal of the day not only in school, but also afternoons and evenings during preparation for
the next day of school, when watching TV, while communicating on social networks and being on
the computer. In this age movement activity is being largely sought out and at the same time it is
one of the most significant needs of a child. There is a decrease in movement activities and
movement performance (Frömel, Novosad and Svozil, 1999; Pavlík, 1999; Šíma et al., 1998;

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Sigmund et al., 2003; Chow and Fung, 2005). To set the accurate motivation of youth towards
movement activity we need to know the structure of their movement interests. Attitudes are factors
affecting our perception and our interpretation of the perceived as well as which information we
relate to one another and which not. Attitudes save time, improve our orientation in the social
environment, give us confidence, knowing what we are looking for and what we want to avoid.
According to Görner (1998), extracurricular education has its irreplaceable place in the
upbringing process of children and youth. From the point of view of educational work efficiency,
extracurricular education e.g. spare time school physical education and sports can have as well,
under certain conditions, better options than compulsory school physical education. Thanks
to the smaller number of attendants in this education process we can pay more attention
to individual interests not applicable in compulsory school physical education.

Materials and methods

The goal of the research was to study the attitudes of primary school pupils towards physical
education and movement activities, to find out the difference between boys’ and girls’ attitudes,
between rural and urban schools and between pupils who attend and do not attend sports groups.
In accordance with the research results, literary sources available and their own pedagogical
practice the authors assumed that the boys would take more positive attitudes towards physical
and movement activities than the girls, that the pupils attending sports groups would take more
positive attitudes than pupils not attending any sports group and also pupils visiting rural schools
would take more positive attitudes than urban school pupils.
There were 256 pupils participating in the research carried out in the 2014-2015 school year,
the research specimen composed of 124 boys and 132 girls from eight primary schools in the Detva
and Zvolen regions.
A questionnaire according to Sivák et al., (2000) was used to find out the specific declarative
attitude of pupils towards activities – physical education and sports activities. The research was
carried out within the scientific VEGA project 1/0606/15.

Results and discussion

The research was focused on discovering the attitudes of pupils towards physical education
and sports activities, so therefore the authors were mainly interested in the relationship of pupils
towards physical and sports activities, their frequency and favourite sport activities among them.
In the past others were concerned with the problem of primary school pupils’ attitudes
towards physical education, e.g. Chromík et al. (1993), Antala and Dorošová (1996), Görner and
Starší (2001), Bartík (2005, 2006, 2007), Vladovičová and Novotná (2005), Mesiarik (2013) and
Palička (2013). The most interesting results were presented by Görner and Starší (2001), who were
performing their research on 6th and the 8th grades pupils in selected primary schools in the
Central Slovak Region. The authors listed above found out that the positive attitude towards school
physical education and sports predominate among pupils of 6th and the 8th grades in those selected
primary schools. Besides the great work of gym teachers, the authors placed the credit for the
positive opinions about school physical education and sports on the fact that sports became a
significant social phenomenon particularly through media such as TV.

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Do you attend a sports group

40,00%
35,00%
35,00% 33,00%

30,00%
25,00%
20,00% yes
16,00% 16,00%
15,00% no
10,00%
5,00%
0,00%
Boys Girls

Figure 1. Do you attend a sports group

In Figure 1 we can see how many pupils of the specimen attend, or more precisely do not
attend a sports group. It is clear that the interest in sports activities is on the same level between
the boys and the girls, also seeing that more pupils do not attend a sports group. Interest school
physical education and sports are very close to recreational physical education and sports, the
application of this activity by youth also explored by many authors, such as Hrčka and Drdácka
(1992), Smith (1994), Hrčka (1997), Liba (2002, 2003), Hrčka, Michal and Bartík (2004) along
with Blahutková, Řehulka and Dvořáková (2005). They mainly emphasised the social and health
significance of the movement and sports activities but also the preventive effect against different
drug addictions.

What sports group do you attend

30,00%
30,00%

25,00%

20,00% 19,00%

15,00% 13,00%
9,00% Boys
10,00%
6,00% 6,00% Girls
4,00% 3,00% 4,00%
5,00% 2,00% 2,00%
0,00% 0,00% 0,00%
0,00%

Figure 2. What sports group do you attend

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Apart from the frequency of attending sports groups the authors were also interested in
which sports activities are the most attended. The most popular activities (Figure 2) were the
sports games, which 19 % of the girls and 30 % of the boys were attending. Floorball is the second
most popular activity; shooting, football and volleyball are preferred by 6 % of pupils, basketball
by 5 % and badminton by 4 %.

I attend the sport group every week

35,00% 32,50%

30,00% 25,00%
25,00%
20,00% 17,50%
Boys
15,00%
10,00%
10,00% 7,50%7,50% Girls

5,00%
0,00%
Once Twice Three times and
more

Figure 3. I attend a sports group every week

The results (Figure 3) show that today as a sedentary lifestyle is gaining ground and the
informatization of the society is increasing, boys (7.5 %) and girls (7.5 %) in the 8th grade of
primary schools perform their chosen activity regularly three and more times weekly, which is
according to the authors, not a positive relationship to a sports activity. Once a week 57.5 % of the
pupils attend a sports group and twice a week 27.5 %.

I attend a sports group every week

30,00%
25,00% 25,00%
25,00%

20,00% 17,50%

15,00% Boys

8,75% Girls
10,00% 7,50% 7,50%

5,00%

0,00%
One hour Two hours Three hours and more

Figure 4. I attend a sports group every week

The authors were also interested in the number of hours the pupils spend on sports activity
(Figure 4) within the sports group. The chart shows that 16.23 % of the respondents spend three

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and more hours on the activity, 42.5 % of the pupils saying they spend one hour weekly on the
activity and 32.5 % spend two hours every week on a sports activity within a sports group.

Attitudes towards physical education and sports activities

33,59%
35,00%

30,00% 27,34%

25,00%
20,31%
20,00%
Boys
14,06%
15,00% Girls
10,00%
3,91%
5,00%
0,78%
0,00%
Positive Indifferent Negative

Figure 5. Attitudes towards physical education and sports activities

The results show (Figure 5) that 60.93 % of pupils take a positive attitude towards physical and
sports activities. Indifferent attitudes predominate in 34.37 % of pupils and 4.69 % of the
respondents took a negative attitude. The assumption of the positive attitudes predominating in boys
as opposed to girls was not confirmed in this research. The research on the subject of an attitude
study towards school physical education and sports among the 6th and the 8th grades in the selected
primary schools in the Central Slovak Region was carried out by Görner and Starší (2001). They
observed a positive attitude towards school physical education and sports by both boys and girls.

Attitudes of pupils towards physical education and sports

activities
40,00% 37,29%
33,90%
35,00%
30,00% 26,09% 26,09%
23,19%
25,00%
20,00% 17,39%
15,25%
15,00% 13,56% Urban area

10,00% 7,25% Rural area

5,00% 1,45%
0,00% 0,00%
0,00%
Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls

Positive Indifferent Negative

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Figure 6. Attitudes of pupils towards physical education and sports activities

The results (Figure 6) show that among the boys (33.9 %) and the girls as well (37.29 %)
attending a rural school there predominated positive attitudes towards physical and sports
activities as opposed to boys (23.19 %) and girls (26.09 %) attending urban primary schools.
Therefore the assumption made about the more positive attitudes of pupils attending rural primary
schools as opposed to pupils attending urban schools was confirmed. We can also see the negative
attitude that predominated in urban schools in 1.4 % of boys and 7.25 % of girls.

Attitudes towards physical education and sports activities

40,00%
40,00%
35,00% 32,50%
30,00% 27,27%
25,00%
25,00% 22,73%
20,00% 17,50% 18,18%
Attending
15,00% 10,00%
10,00% Not attending
5,68%
5,00% 1,14%
0,00% 0,00%
0,00%
Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls
Positive Indifferent Negative

Figure 7. Attitudes of pupils attending/not attending a sports group

Finally the authors were interested in the difference of attitudes towards physical and sports
activities among pupils who are and are not attending a sports group. The authors assumed that
the attitudes of the pupils attending a sports group would be more positive than of the pupils not
attending any sports group and this assumption was confirmed. The research results show
(Figure 7) that 32.5 % of boys and 40 % of girls attending a sports group took a positive attitude as
opposed to 25 % of boys and 27.27 % of girls not attending any sport group.

Conclusion
The research made in the primary schools in the Detva and Zvolen regions demonstrated
primary school pupils’ attitudes towards physical education and sports activities. The research
findings did not confirm the more positive attitudes of the boys towards physical education and
sports activities than the girls. In accordance to the findings we are able to state that pupils
attending a sports group took a more positive attitude than pupils not attending any sports group;
also that pupils attending rural schools took a more positive attitudes than urban school pupils.
Movement activity has a universal effect on people, with a great biological and humanistic
effect on their life attitudes, work production, actual efficiency, eating habits, behaviour and self-
image (Labudová, 2002). School physical education has a great impact on the biological
development of an individual and also on one's healthy lifestyle. One of the main functions of
school physical education is to teach the pupils the most adequate way of developing their
movement skills and abilities as well as a way of actively spending their free time along with
extracurricular physical education.
For the practice requirement the authors recommend an active cooperation among the
school, parents and sports groups with the goal of improving pupils’ attitudes towards school
physical education, regular movement and sports activities mainly among 8 th grade pupils
in primary schools.

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УДК 37

Отношение младших школьников к физическому воспитанию и спорту

1 Павол Бартик
2 Жан Кубис
1-2 Университет Матея Бэлa, Словакия
97401 г. Банска Быстрица, ул. Таёвскего, 40
1 Доктор педагогических наук, PhD, профессор

E-mail: [email protected]
2 Магистр педагогических наук

E-mail: [email protected]

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Аннотация. Одну из важнейших ролей в организации физического воспитания

является формирование положительного отношения к спортивной деятельности и спорту
среди учащихся. Положительное восприятие к спорту может сыграть важную роль в вопросе
формирования здорового образа жизни ребенка. Поэтому авторы данной статьи решили
выяснить, каково отношение учащихся начальных классов к физической культуре и
спортивным мероприятиям в регионах Детва и Зволен. Авторы представляют отношение к
физической культуре и спорту, а также спортивным мероприятиям школьников 8-го класса
начальной школы школьников в регионах Детва и Зволен, а также их частоты.
Авторы обсуждают вопросы, какие из внешкольных или в свободное от основной
деятельности время мероприятий, являются наиболее популярными. Согласно результатам,
представленных в исследовании, видно, что ученики имеют положительно относятся к
занятиям физической культурой и спортом. Спортивные игры являются одними из самых
любимых в группе предпочтений.
Ключевые слова: отношение, физическое воспитание, спортивные мероприятия,
свободное от основной деятельности время.

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