Date of Award

2000

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Edith Cowan University

Degree Name

Bachelor of Education Honours

School

School of Education

Faculty

Faculty of Community Services, Education and Social Sciences

First Supervisor

Joan Strikwerda-Brown

Abstract

This study of year eleven female students at a rural Western Australian high school, focused firstly on why students were choosing not to enrol in Physical Education Studies (PES) and secondly what students believed would improve student enrolment. A two-stage qualitative research approach was utilised. The first stage involved creating a school profile and conducting a survey of 71 year eleven females. The second stage involved a three-step process of interviewing three year eleven females who were selected on the basis of not enrolling in PES and their responses on the survey slips. Findings suggested that the major factors effecting PES non-selection were that students believed PES was irrelevant to their future career choices, did not provide a structure to their liking, had negative prior experiences with PE classes, felt participation in community sport made PES unnecessary, did not want coeducational PE classes and perceived PES as being too competitive/stressful. Student-generated strategies for improving the PES unit were based on the premise that students should have more say over the structure of the subject and that changes should be made to the sports available, the theory studied, the coeducational and stressful/competitive nature of the classes, the promotion of the subject, students' confidence in their ability, the PES uniform, the teachers' authoritarian stance and that community involvement in classes should be encouraged.

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