That's what I like! Fostering enjoyment in primary physical education

Abstract

Enjoyment in primary physical education (PE) is a key factor in increasing children's physical activity engagement in PE and leisure time. While existing PE research has largely focused on a motivational PE climate and meaningful experiences in PE, research on children's perceptions of enjoyable teaching practices (TPs) in PE is limited. Therefore, this study aimed to explore primary school children's perspectives on TPs that foster PE enjoyment. In addition, we observed to what extent these TPs were applied in daily PE practice. Four focus groups with 10- to 12-year-old children (12 boys, 12 girls) from four primary schools were formed and inductive analysis resulted in 32 child-identified TPs categorized into 10 dimensions. Thirty-one PE lessons taught by 19 different PE teachers (11 generalists, 8 PE specialists) were recorded and coded using the child-identified TPs. Teachers regularly performed a substantial number of these TPs during their PE lessons. However, TPs such as the use of cooperative learning, instructional methods to promote children's (social) learning process, an emphasis on children's individual improvements, and consciously grouping were rarely observed. Moreover, PE specialists showed TPs supporting exploratory learning and children's individual learning processes more frequently than generalists. In addition, PE specialists provided challenging, differentiated tasks with a creative use of equipment more often than generalists. Including children's perspectives contributes to a comprehensive understanding of PE enjoyment and TPs that can promote enjoyable PE experiences. Children's voices need to be heard continuously by PE teachers to ensure enjoyable PE experiences for all children.