Listening to Female Students in Physical Education:
Action Plans for Change
Sandra Gibbons, Geraldine Van Dyne and Catherine Gaul Joan Warf Higgins,
Canada
Very few female students (8-10%) in British Columbia secondary schools
choose to enroll In physical education as soon as it becomes a curriculum
elective. Coupled with the drastic reduction in out-of-school physical
activity levels among female youth and considering the evidence of the
positive contribution of physical activity to health, this is a
particularly
disturbing trend. As most adolescent females are in school, physical
education
programs are well situated to successfully increase the physical activity
levels of this group. However, the fact that activity preferences differ
markedly as a function of sex and age (CFLRI 1996) indicate that
opportunities
provided within many school programs may not be meaningful to, or
motivating
form female students. This paper describes the three-phase research
project
designed to reverse the enrollment trend in several physical education
programs.
Phase I involved focus group discussions with
female adolescents in order to gain insight into factors resulting in
attrition.
Phase II involved educating teachers about these themes. Phase III will
involve implementation of action plans designed by teachers to increase
enrollment in physical education at their schools.
Conference
Home Page // Schedule
// Papers to be Presented
// Interesting Sites
The
Organization
©
1998 Smith College // Please send comments to: webmaster
Page
maintained by the Project on Women and Social Change. // Last update:
2/12/00.