PEDAGOGICAL, COGNITIVE AND METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF DIGITALISATION IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Abstract

The implementation of digital education technology into the school subject of physical education (PE) has become a challenging trend of contemporary pedagogy. This paper emphasises the importance of the pedagogical, cognitive and methodological aspects of digitalisation in PE. The research presented examined the attitudes of PE teachers in primary and secondary schools towards digitalisation in PE. The research has three goals: 1. Theoretical-the review of all the international and national sources relevant for the perception of the theoretical aspects of introducing digitalisation into physical education teaching; 2. Cognitive-the study of PE teachers’ attitudes towards digitalisation in PE as a school subject; 3. Applicable-a contribution to raising awareness about the importance of PE improvement. The methods used in the empirical research were the descriptive method, the survey and scaling technique with a questionnaire as the instrument and the assessment Likert-type scale (DOUF/DEIP). The questionnaire comprised of four closed-ended questions and the scale containing 40 items. The sample included 126 PE teachers from Serbia. The obtained results were calculated by the SPSS software version 24, used for the statistical data processing. The following statistical parameters for displaying results were used: frequency (f), percentage (%), arithmetic mean (M), standard deviation (SD), Pearson’s chi-squared test (χ2), the t-test and ANOVA F-test. The research results show that PE teaching is undergoing digitalisation and that teachers have positive attitudes towards digital competences, technologies and the connection between digital education and quality of teaching, schoolchildren’s academic achievements and the teacher’s role.