Attitude and practice of primary school pupils, teachers and head teachers in physical education in Kiambu county, Kenya

Abstract

Physical Education provides pupils with necessary attitude, knowledge and skills so as to perform a variety of physical activities and maintain physical fitness. This study aimed at assessing the attitude (Cognitive and Affective domains) and practice of primary school pupils, teachers and head teachers in Physical Education (PE) in Kiambu County. Independent variables for the study were: teachers, pupils, private and public primary schools while the dependent variable was attitude (cognitive and affective). The study hypothesized that there is no significant difference between primary school boys and girls on cognitive and affective domains of attitude towards learning of physical education in Kiambu County. It further hypothesized that there is no significant difference between pupils, teachers and head teachers in public and private schools on cognitive and affective domains of attitude towards learning physical education in Kiambu County. A Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select the respondents. Stratified sampling was used to get 12 sub-counties, class 7 and 8 pupils of the sampled schools, each class 16 pupils; of 8 boys and 8 girls from private and public schools making a total of 384 pupils as respondents. A similar procedure was used to pick 48 teachers, two school; a male and a female where it was possible while purposive sampling was used to get 24 head teachers, a total of 456 respondents. Questionnaires from Wear’s Attitude for Teachers and Adam’s Attitude for Pupils were used to collect data. Data was coded and analyzed using SPSS version 20. Mann Whitney U test was used to analyze attitude of boys and girls, male and female teachers and head teachers while Kruskal- Wallis test was used to analyze attitude of pupils, teachers and head teachers towards PE at a significant difference of 0.05. Kruskal Wallis and Man Whitney U Tests were used to find the relationship of pupils, teachers and head teachers and their attitude towards Physical Education. Descriptive findings showed that physical education is taught in very few schools with very low percentages in public schools. The attitude of pupils and teachers towards physical education were also established to be very low. Hypotheses testing showed no significant difference on cognitive and affective domains of attitude between boys and girls in private and public schools towards learning of physical education. Also, teachers and head teachers in both private and public schools showed no significant difference on cognitive and affective domains of attitude towards learning of physical education in primary schools in Kiambu County. Based on the findings, the study recommended that the Quality Assurance and Standards office ensure PE lessons are taught as recommended by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MOEST).The study recommended further study on quality assurance officers in physical education, benefits of physical education to the learners and a study on attitude of lower primary school pupils towards physical education