A comparative study of marks and attitudes in physical education and the investigation of teacher tenure upon student attitudes.

Abstract

This study determined the relationship between student attitudes toward PE and marks and also investigated the effect of teacher tenure upon attitudes and marks. In order to investigate the above, the Wear Attitude Inventory, Form B, was administered to 202 freshmen girls enrolled in a required PE course from a Class AA and a Class AAA SHS. Data was analyzed by means of the Pearson PrOduct-Moment Correlations between attitude scores and final class marks. In order to investigate whether students with higher marks (A and B) had higher attitude scores than all combined students, analysis of variance was used. The i-test was used to determine differences between the attitude means of students receiving instruction under various teachers. Significant differences were found to exist between attitudes toward PE and final marks of students. Mean attitude scores were higher than mean grades. There was only a chance relationship between mean attitudes and mean grades under each of the five teachers. No significant relationships were found between students receiving grades of A or B and their attitude scores. No significant relationships were found between length of service of a PE teacher and the attitudes of her students. It was concluded that there are differences between attitudes toward PE and final marks received in a PE class. A high grade could not be predicted from a given attitude score. Length of service of a teacher made no difference in the attitudes of her students.