In the master’s thesis we researched what kind of an opinion pupils of the 3rd grade have about the Sport as a subject.
In the theoretical part we identified the meaning of movement and sport and explained the difference between them. We focused on the importance of the quality of delivery of the Sport as a subject in elementary school and on ensuring safety and a positive class climate in this subject. We touched upon the reason why it is important to implement differentiation and individualization and we provided a few ways by which the teachers are able to adjust the class to different pupils. In addition to the teacher, the parents hold a very important role in the development of the child’s opinion on sport; therefore we briefly touched upon this as well. We described the type of fears pupils are faced with in sports and proposed ways these fears could be overcome. Finally, in the last chapter we explained the issue of excusing pupils from sports activity and provided some suggestions on how pupils, who have medical conditions and are thus enable to be as active as their peers, can be more included in class.
In the empirical part, we obtained results from 245 pupils, which in the school year 2014/2015 attend 3rd grades in various elementary schools in the Gorenjska and Ljubljanska region. We wanted to know whether the Sport as a subject is popular amongst the pupils; whether the pupils are aware of its importance and classify it amongst three most important subjects for life; and which sports and forms of activity they prefer and which they dislike. We were also interested to find out, which factors the pupils are bothered by and what they would prefer to do most, if they were able to choose themselves.
The results show the Sport as a subject is one of the most popular school subjects amongst students, who are also aware of its importance as they classified it as one of the top three most important school subjects for life. In addition to sports, the pupils favourite subjects are Arts, Math and Music, whereas the subjects rated as most life-important are Math, Natural and Social Science and Slovene.
In regards to the type of sports, the pupils are most excited about the team game dodgeball. In addition to this, basketball and football are also popular with the boys, whereas gymnastics is popular with the girls. On the other hand, the least preferred type of activity was testing for sport educational personal file and Krpan badge. When asked about what they like in Sport as a subject, the majority answered they prefer to choose what type of activity they wish to do. They also enjoy sports day, field trip and obstacle field as a learning technique. The least important factors according to the pupils were having a lot of mats, balls and a lot of different props. In regards to types of sports, the least favourite amongst boys are dancing and gymnastics, whereas girls prefer football and handball the least. Most boys and girls, however also said they dislike measuring a skin fold. The factors which the pupils were most bothered by are the teacher getting angry with them, classmates screaming, being mocked and laughed at, being punished by the teacher and having their sports class canceled when they are not behaving well.
If the pupils were able to pick for themselves what they would prefer to do, they would mostly prefer to play various games. For other popular activities they also chose gymnastics, football, basketball, dance, volleyball and running.
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