The Relative Importance of Various Physical Education Objectives for Grades K-2

Abstract

Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine the relative importance of various physical education objectives for grades K-2 as perceived by specialists in the field. After reviewing the literature, the physical education objectives for K-2 were divided into five general areas: mental development, body handling pattern development, object handling pattern development, physical development, and social development. Twenty specific behavioral objectives representing each of the five general areas were then developed. Sixty-three elementary physical education specialists representing widely differing geographical locations indicated their perceptions of the relative importance of the 100 objectives by use of a Q-sort. The rating of importance of the 20 items in each area were summed and a repeated measures ANOVA design was used to test for equality of the composite ratings. A significant difference was found at the .01 level. Tukey's contrasts revealed that social development, mental development, and body handling pattern development objectives were perceived by the 63 educators to be more important than object handling pattern development and physical development objectives. A repeated measures ANOVA design was used to determine whether the 20 objectives within each of the five major areas were perceived to be of equal importance. The results indicated substantial differences in the importance of the 20 objectives within each of the five major objective areas.