Attitudes of secondary school students towards physical education and sports lesson in terms of various variables

The purpose of this study is to analyze the attitudes of students towards the lesson of physical training and sports in schools and to analyze the situations which are effective on these. A total of 129 (63 girls, 66 boys) between the ages 11 and 14 (13.01 ± 1.80 years) studying at Secondary School participated in the study. Physical Training and Sports Attitude Scale which was 5Likert type with 24 items, 12 positive and 12 negative and developed by Demirhan & Altay was used to measure the students’ attitudes. Personal information form includes information such as the students’ grades, genders, place of residence, level of education of parents, family’s level of income and number of siblings. No significant difference was found in scores of attitudes towards physical education and sports lesson in terms of their grades, gender, place of residence (p>0.05). No significant difference was seen in students’ attitudes in terms of parents’ levels of education and number of siblings (p>0.05). As a conclusion grade, gender, place of residence, parents’ level of education, level of income and number of siblings did not affect the physical education and sports lesson attitude scores of secondary school students who are between the ages 11 and 14 years.


INTRODUCTION
The purpose of education is to give individuals behaviors to help them know themselves psychologically, biologically, socially and culturally, to learn their rights and responsibilities and to continue their lives in harmony with successful, happy and healthy individuals (1).
The information and skills gained during the process of education are important factors in the formation of behaviors.Behaviors are conscious reactions given to any situation (5).Conscious behaviors are willing reactions given to the outer world in accordance with a person's will.Not only observable behaviors but also emotional feelings of a person are also within the context of behavior.The most important factors in showing observable reactions are our attitudes.
Attitudes are positive or negative approaches to a situation or thing (4).Attitudes can be ordered in various positive and negative degrees.Positive attitudes are having positive thoughts about a situation, while negative attitudes are having negative thoughts about a situation.Individuals fail to show their knowledge and skills about a subject they have negative attitudes for.It is always easier for them to show their knowledge and skills in situations they have positive attitudes for.Thus, attitudes should not be overlooked and should be developed positively during the process of education in order to change and develop an individual's behaviors in the desired course.Individuals are not born with attitudes; they acquire attitudes (9).Attitudes can always change and be shaped.
Today, physical training and sports are blended with education in societies with a high level of development.Science evaluates education within mental and physical integrity (14).The origins of physical education go back to Old Ages.Bodily strength was used in first ages in order to maintain the continuity of life.In time, the fight to defend against and dominate nature and other living beings became to be performed more consciously in many areas, especially in education (7).With the developments in technology people began to have a more passive role in this fight.This triggered situations such as health problems, etc. which emerged with inactivity and caused countries to look for solutions.Therefore, people are required to encourage physical activity.Physical activity has benefits in many areas such as protecting the body against diseases, spending the extra energy naturally, slowing down lipoidosis and the organic regression caused by lipoidosis, bringing respiratory systems to a high level and protecting this capacity, preventing and decreasing deaths caused by coronary vascular diseases and increasing the protective effect and avoiding posture disorders (12).
Technology dependent life in adolescence and period of development keeps children away from street games and physical activities and lead them to an inactive life.Studies have shown that contributing to the physical development of individuals is specific to physical education (15).Physical education brings about integrity of mental, emotional and social development.

The basis of Ministry of Education
Fundamental Law number 1739 is to educate physically and mentally balanced and healthy, free individuals with scientific and contemporary power of thinking who are democratic and respectful to our national principles.Bodily and mental development is two integrated phenomena.The primary purpose of the physical education and sports lesson is to maximize the physical, mental and social development in children and adolescents and to contribute to their continuity.In order to be able to realize this purpose, students, teachers and educational programs should be in harmony.Attitudes can be considered among the most important factors in acquiring, maximizing and continuing this harmony.Thus, positive attitudes can cause lessons to be taught efficiently and motivate teachers and students (2).
The purpose of this study is to analyze the attitudes of students towards the lesson of physical training and sports in schools and to analyze the situations which are effective on these.

MATERIAL & METHOD
A total of 129 (63 girls, 66 boys) between the ages 11 and 14 (13.01±1.80years) studying at Secondary School in Ardahan during the Academic Year 2014-2015 participated in the study.
Physical Training and Sports Attitude Scale which was 5-Likert type with 24 items, 12 positive and 12 negative and developed by Demirhan & Altay (2) was used to measure the students' attitudes.The highest score in the scale is 120, while the lowest score is 24.Thus, scores between 1 and 24 express the most negative attitude, scores between 25 and 48 express negative attitude, scores between 49 and 72 express a neutral attitude, scores between 73 and 94 express a positive attitude and scores between 95 and 120 express the most positive attitude.Personal information form includes information such as the students' grades, genders, place of residence, level of education of parents, family's level of income and number of siblings.
Normality distribution of the data was checked with Kolmogorov-Smirnov test.The level of significance was determined as p<0.05.One way variance analysis test was used for the analysis of the data which showed a normal distribution, while Kruskal Wallis test was used for the analysis of data which did not show a normal distribution.

RESULTS
When Table 1 is examined, it can be seen that the students' attitudes towards physical education and sports lesson did not differ significantly in terms of their grades (p>0.05).No significant difference was found in scores of attitudes towards physical education and sports lesson in terms of gender (p>0.05).No significant difference was found in students' attitudes in terms of place of residence (p>0.05).
Physical Training and Sports Attitude Scale scores of students in terms of parents' levels of education were given in table 2.
When the attitudes were compared according to father's level of education, there was no difference between who were illiterate, graduated from elementary or high school (p>0.05).There was no difference of Physical Training and Sports Attitude Scale scores of students between whose mothers were illiterate, graduated from elementary or high school (p>0.05).
When Table 3 is examined, no significant difference was seen in students' attitudes towards physical education and sports lesson in terms of parents' level of income (p>0.05).
No significant difference was seen in students' attitudes towards physical education and sports lesson in terms of number of siblings (p>0.05).

DISCUSSION
In our study, it was seen that students' grades did not affect their attitudes towards physical education and sports lesson.In their studies, Gurbuz (8) & Kır (10) found that the attitudes of sixth, seventh and eighth graders towards physical education and sports lesson did not differ statistically.These studies support the results of our study.Physical education and sports lesson meets secondary school students' game needs and students do not have score anxiety.Because of such reasons, different grades do not cause a statistical difference in attitudes towards physical education and sports lesson.
No statistical difference was found in our study in terms of the variable of gender.The reason for this situation, the teacher may have similar approach to female and male students.In their studies, Kocak & Hurmeric (11) and Yuksel & Bayar (16) found that girls had higher attitudes than boys towards physical education and sports lesson.Another previous studies did not show a statistically significant difference in physical education and sports lesson attitude scale scores in terms of the variable of gender (8,10,13).
No significant difference was found between the attitude scores of students living in towns and in villages.The scale was administered in a school with students coming from 8 villages and towns.Since the curriculum of the lesson contributes greatly to students' socialization, it is natural that there is no significant difference between attitude scores.In the previous study attitude scores of students towards physical education and sports lesson were analyzed in terms of their places of residence, no significant difference was found (8).
Our study analyzed physical education and sports lesson attitude scores in terms of the father's level of education and found no statistical difference.When the literature was reviewed, it was reported that the education levels of the family did not cause a significant difference in physical education and sports lesson attitude scores (8,11).
When the lesson attitude scores of secondary school students were analyzed in terms of the mothers' levels of education, no statistically significant difference was found.It was found that the mothers of students who got the lowest attitude scores did not attend school.Since the mothers who are illiterate school did not have sufficient information about the content of the physical education and sports lesson, they can think that this lesson can negatively affect achievement in other lessons and they can cause their children to have negative attitudes towards the lesson.Erbas's (3) study also supports our study.
In our study, it was found that economic level did not affect students' attitudes towards physical education and sports lesson.Previous studies showed that the economic levels of the family did not affect their attitudes towards physical education and sports lesson positively or negatively (3,6).At the same time, it was reported that socio economic level did not affect attitudes towards the lesson (11).These results are in parallel with the results of our study.Although level of income is expected to affect attitudes, the fact that children between the ages of 10 and 13 may have neutralized this situation.
When the answers of students who participated in the research were analyzed, it was found that the variable of number of siblings did not affect the physical education and sports lesson attitude scores statistically.During some of the activities which were conducted to realize the purposes in the curriculum of physical education and sports lesson, students took part in mixed groups.The opportunity to work with a group gives the students socializing skills and the skill to work in cooperation.Group activities encourage individuals with different characteristics to understand each other, to exchange ideas and to take responsibility on behalf of the group.Since individuals with siblings start to have these characteristics within the family, although their attitude scores are not significantly different, they are more positive.
As a conclusion grade, gender, place of residence, parents' level of education, level of income and number of siblings did not affect the physical education and sports lesson attitude scores of secondary school students who are between the ages 11 and 14 years.

Table 1 .
Physical Training and Sports Attitude Scale scores of students in terms of their grades, genders and place of residence.

Table 2 .
Physical Training and Sports Attitude Scale scores of students in terms of parents' levels of education.

Table 3 .
Physical Training and Sports Scale scores of students in terms of parents' level of income and number of siblings.