High school students’ attitudes towards physical education lesson: The case of Bala district in Ankara

The results from the studies examining the high-school (HS) students’ attitutes towards their physical education and sports (PES) lesson vary; while some studies similarly find significant difference regarding specific psycho-social indicators, their results regarding gender may change. The aim of this research is to examine the levels of HS students’ attitudes towards the PES lesson and whether there are significant differences in those levels regarding some variables. A total of 466 students (188 female, 278 male) in HSs of Bala district participated to this survey study. The data was collected using an information form and the “Attitudes of HS Students towards Physical Education Lesson Scale” and analysed using SPSS-21 and LISRELL-8.8 programs. The HS students’ attitudes towards PES lesson found nearly neutral. The scores were significantly higher in (a) males compared to females, and (b) vocational school of health compared to some other HSs. Moreover, scores were significantly higher in students (c) who expressed that they can adequately benefit from sports facilities than the students who expressed that they can somewhat use or cannot benefit at all from these facilities, (d) who indicate that they always participate in sports or physical activity compared to the ones responded as “occasionally”, “seldom” or “never”, and (e) who participate in sports in a sports club occasionally than the ones never participate. Development of the appropriate research, practice and policies needed considering the nearly neutral scores towards the PES classes and the groups that even scored lower in the district