Health, Exercise, and Sports Sciences ETDs

Publication Date

Spring 4-25-1969

Abstract

It was· the purpose of this study to determine if there was a difference in sportsmanship between junior high school boys who received formal sportsmanship instruction and junior high school boys who received no formal sportsmanship instruction. The study also attempted to determine if there were effects due to teacher differences which influenced sportsmanship and if there was interaction between instruction and teacher effects. It was also the purpose of this study to deter­mine the relationship between two methods of measuring sportsmanship.

Two intact physical education classes were used in the experiment. Sportsmanship was taught by the regular instructor, and by a student teacher. One class contained seventh grade boys while the other class contained ninth grade boys. All of the boys in each class were used as subjects in the experiment, and randomly assigned to either experimental or control groups.

The experimental group received six short sports­manship instructional periods at the beginning of physical education classes on six consecutive school days. Each period was ten minutes in length, which resulted in the experimental groups receiving a total of one hour of sportsmanship instruction. While the experimental group received instruction pertaining to sportsmanship, the control group received health instruction.

On the six selected days for sportsmanship and health instruction the regular assigned instructor taught one of the groups while the student teacher taught the other group. After their respective instructional periods the two groups came together to form their usual physical education class. There was no attempt to control or restrict the teaching methods used when the groups came together after ten minutes of instruction. However, identical lesson plans were used by both ·the regular instructor and the student teacher for sportsmanship and health instruction.

After completion of the instructional units the subjects responded to the Sportsmanship Preference Record (SPR) and a peer group rating scale. Ten health questions were randomly distributed· in the SPR to disguise the objective of the test. The peer group rating was used to measure sportsmanshiplike behavior. After a six weeks lapse with no formal sportsmanship instruction the sub­jects were again asked to respond to a peer group rating.

An analysis of the data revealed no· significant differences between the scores of the experimental and control groups on the SPR or the peer group ratings. This was true of the peer group ratings following instruction and after a six weeks delay. Data also indicated no significant differences between teachers. However, there was a significant interaction effect on the peer group ratings between teacher and treatment.

It was concluded that sixty minutes of formal sportsmanship instruction, alone, did not significantly influence the scores on the SPR or the peer group rating. The interaction indicated that a combination of instruc­tion and teacher experience might influence sportsman­ship behavior.

Document Type

Dissertation

Level of Degree

Doctoral

First Committee Member (Chair)

Lloyd Robert Burley

Second Committee Member

Harold E. Kenney

Third Committee Member

Morris A. Forslund

Fourth Committee Member

James Clark Moore

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