Interdisciplinarity in Physical Education: Effect on Students’ Situational Interest

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the effect of interdisciplinary teaching in physical education (PE) on the interest of upper secondary students by considering the extent to which different disciplines are integrated. Three interdisciplinary projects are studied and compared to their discipline-based counterparts. Depending on the extent to which the disciplines are integrated, some sequences are considered interdisciplinary (project 1), while others are considered multidisciplinary (projects 2 and 3). The experimental design includes a total of 90 students and six teachers. Student interest is measured using a situational interest (SI) scale and an individual interest (II) scale. Paired t-tests show significant differences for Maintained-SI Feelings in PE (p = 0.008) in favor of the interdisciplinary sequence for project 1 (PE and art), as well as for Maintained-SI Feelings (p = 0.004) and Maintained-SI Value (p = 0.002) in art (project 1). However, when integration is limited (projects 2 and 3), higher Maintained-SI Feelings (p < 0.001) are measured in the disciplinary sequence during the PE lessons. These results show that interdisciplinary sequences have positive effects on students’ interest when the disciplines are sufficiently integrated, indicating that training must be initially developed and maintained accordingly.