Examination of Secondary School Students' Attitudes Towards Physical Education Course During The Covid-19 Pandemic Process

Abstract

The transition of education to a completely digital environment during the pandemic period, and particularly the delivery of physical education and sports classes in a virtual setting, has brought about numerous questions and practices. How students' attitudes toward physical education and sports classes have been affected has become an important area of research. This study aims to examine the attitudes of middle school students toward physical education classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 220 students, consisting of 110 boys and 110 girls aged 10-15, who were attending middle school, participated in the study. The research, which utilized the survey model among quantitative research methods, employed a personal information form and the "Physical Education Class Attitude Scale" as data collection tools. The statistical analysis of the data was conducted using IBM SPSS Statistics 22.0. Based on skewness and kurtosis values, the data were assumed to have a normal distribution. An independent samples t-test was used to determine differences between groups, and the Pearson correlation test was applied to analyze relationships between variables. While attitudes toward physical education classes did not differ significantly by gender, number of siblings, or tablet usage (p>0.05), they did differ significantly based on participation in physical activities before the pandemic (p<0.05). Additionally, it was observed that as the participants' age increased, their attitudes toward physical education classes declined (r = -0.249, p<0.05). In conclusion, it can be said that students who participated in physical activities before the pandemic still maintain a positive attitude toward physical education classes.