Physical Education Attitude of Adolescent Students in the Philippines: Importance of Curriculum and Teacher Sex and Behaviors.

The present study examined the attitudes of Filipino middle school students toward physical education (PE) and the associations between PE attitude and various personal and external correlates of PE. In total, 659 middle school students, aged between 12 and 19 years (M = 14.55; SD = 1.14), participated in the study. The Physical Education Attitude Scale (PEAS) was used to measure affective, cognitive, and motivational/behavioral attitudes of adolescent students toward PE. Results showed that middle school students had moderate general attitudes toward PE. Female students had more favorable attitudes toward PE when their teacher was male than female. When the teacher was female, male students were more satisfied with the PE curriculum than female students. When the teacher was male, female students were more comfortable with the PE curriculum than male students. Finally, students' PE attitude did not decrease as they got older, regardless of student sex. The findings provide a different perspective for the field and underscore the importance of not only the PE curriculum but also the student-teacher relationship. To prevent the decline in students' positive attitude and encourage positive behaviors toward PE and activities, teachers should be very considerate about their interactions with students of the same sex; school administrators (e.g., principal and PE department head), meanwhile, should focus at providing PE teachers with special training courses to enhance both their teaching and communication capabilities.

Relationships among age, experience, and observational learning of athletes based on types of model observed.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to examine the use of observational learning among athletes when they observed themselves (self-model) or their opponents (opponent-model). Furthermore, there was an emphasis on determining the relationships between age, experience, and the functions (i.e., skill, strategy, performance) of observational learning according to the type of model observed. METHODS: A total of 158 athletes (male=70, female=88) who competed in different team (N.=83) and individual (N.=75) sports participated in the study. They ranged in age from 17 years to 32 years. Their total years of sport participation ranged from one year to 18 years. RESULTS: Athletes reported significantly greater use of all three functions of observational learning for the self-model than for the opponent-model. Bivariate correlations revealed years of experience was significantly and positively associated with the skill, self, and performance functions of observational learning for the self-model. In contrast, age was significantly and positively related with the performance function of observational learning for the opponent-model. CONCLUSIONS: The finding provides the first empirical evidence to suggest that model type influences the use of observational learning in athletes. A positive relationship also exists between experience and self-observational learning as well as age and the opponent-performance function of observational learning. The results contribute to the observational learning literature and provide support to the Applied Model for the Use of Observation.

Leadership Preferences of Adolescent Players in Sport: Influence of Coach Gender.

The authors investigated the coaching behavior preferences and the relationships of these preferences with variables such as gender, type of sport, playing experience, competitive level, and coach gender among young athletes in the national badminton league. Participants were 167 elementary and high school badminton players (91 girls and 76 boys; age range = 9-18 years; M = 13.5 (SD = 2.22) years) competing in the badminton event of a national league. Players' preferences for coaching behavior were measured using athlete preference version of the LSS to evaluate the five dimensions of leadership behavior in a sporting context. Notably, young athletes strongly preferred training and instruction, followed by positive feedback, democratic behavior, social support, and autocratic behavior. An interaction effect of athlete and coach gender on the leadership dimensions of democratic behavior, autocratic behavior, and social support was found. Male athletes with female coaches preferred more democratic behavior, autocratic behavior, and social support behavior than did those with male coaches. Conversely, female players with male coaches favored more democratic behavior, autocratic behavior, and social support than did those with female coaches. This study provides valuable insight into understanding the dynamics of sport leadership environments among young athletes, and how crucial is the role of coach's gender in the athlete-coach dyad interaction.