Thomas Burge

1
PHYSICAL ACTIVITY COURSES BASED ON STUDENT
PREFERENCES
Thomas Burge Catherine Milner Guilford College
Table 1 Table 2
Introduction
Measures Our method of measurement was a qu
estionnaire designed specifically for the study.
There are three sections that comprise the
questionnaire. The first section includes
demographic questions that consists of open,
closed, and filter questions (i.e. Do you play a
team sport? Yes or No. If Yes what sport?). The
second section is based on the interests of
students and includes a Likert-type scale ranging
from 1(least likely) to 5(most likely) (i.e. If
this course were to be offered at Guilford, how
motivated would you be to enroll in the class?
Basketball). The third section consists of a
ranking question and open ended question that is
also based on student interest (i.e. Of the
classes listed please select the five in which
you are most interested in participating. Please
rank them one through five in preferential order,
one being the highest). Physical Activity Class
- a class with a professor that involves
instruction and participation in a physical
activity or group of multiple activities (i.e.
basketball). Motivation- statistical analysis
of a Likert-type scale in which people rank
interest and likelihood of participating in a
physical activity courses.
Physical activity is very beneficial to a
persons health, however, there is a noticeable
trend in declining physical activity among
adolescents, young adults, and older adults.
According to research done by the Centers for
Disease Prevention and Health, individual
participation in physical activities decline as a
person gets older and it has been reported that
60 of all adults do not participate in the
suggested amount of activity (Physical Activity
and Health, 1999). Still, universities and
colleges can help bend the laziness trend by
offering a variety of classes that teach students
how to play sports and maintain good health while
exercising and participating in physical
activity. Courses that involve physical activity
are considered physical activity classes, which
we have defined as a one or two credit class
where students participate and learn about
specific activities. Even though colleges and
universities already offer such classes, research
has shown that American universities marginalize
their physical activity curriculum (Evaul
Hilsendager, 1993 and Hensley, 2000). Because
these courses are perceived as less important
than other undergraduate programs, they are
taught by non-tenure tract faculty and receive
less financial support. Yet, a diverse physical
activity curriculum can be found at many
universities and colleges. We are interested in
why particular physical activity courses are
offered however, we have not found any studies
that provide specific reasons.
To determine what class a student will be likely
to participate, we measured their motivation
towards certain physical activity classes.
Motivation is defined as the direction and
intensity of ones effort (Weinberg Gould,
1995). Related to motivation is the
Self-determination theory, which discusses the
basic psychological needs of people competence,
autonomy, and relatedness. Physical activity can
be rewarding in such a way that it promotes
self-determination because intrinsic motivation
amplifies with the perceived notion of internal
behavior (Weinberg Gould, 1995). For colleges
and universities to offer a beneficial physical
activity curriculum, they must base their course
offerings on classes students want to take.
We explored which physical activity courses were
the most appealing for students at small liberal
arts colleges. We have selected Guilford
College, a small liberal arts college, as our
sample for conducting research. We questioned
whether the physical activity courses met the
motivational needs of the students enrolled at
Guilford College. Our research question is What
courses offered by a liberal arts college will
motivate is students to participate in physical
activity classes?
Results
Descriptive Statistics Results from a descript
ive statistic analysis of the Likert-type scale
showed 15 of the 37 courses whose mean was
greater than 2.50. See Table 1.
Results of a factor analysis revealed 8 factors
with a range of values greater than 1, which
explains approximately 66 of the variance. The
names of the factors and the corresponding
activities are in Table 2.
Discussion
The top five classes that motivated students at
Guilford College were yoga, self-defense,
bowling, weight training, and general
conditioning. Three of these course are
currently offered as part of the Spring 2006
curriculum. This leads us to believe that
Guilford College is satisfying the students
motivational needs for physical activity classes.
Also, the data suggests that males are motivated
towards weight training classes and females are
motivated toward yoga classes. Two courses that
should be considered as additions to the physical
activity curriculum are rock climbing and
self-defense because of the high interest shown
by traditional and CCE students, respectively.
Participants showed the most interest in studio
and fitness/ exercise classes. Therefore, small
liberal arts colleges should base their physical
activity curriculum on these types of courses.
Although our study provided us with information
about student motivation and interest towards
physical activity classes it was limited to
Guilford College which does not allow us to make
a strong generalization about small liberal arts
schools. Our survey offered a wide variety of
physical activity courses to choose from however
the large number of variables made correlations
between motivation and interest hard to
determine. The participant sample was limited to
the professors who agreed to donate class time to
our study. Resulting in a significant
representation of the upper class population. We
cannot determine how our data would have been
affected with more underclassmen.
This research provided us with a basic knowledge
of student motivation towards physical activity
at this particular time. However, fitness
follows trends and college students graduate.
Resurveying the student population every four to
eight years will provide updated and relevant
information in choosing an appropriate physical
activity curriculum.
Main Analysis A Spearman-Rho correlation coeffi
cient was calculated to determine the
relationship between students answers to the
Likert-type scale and their answers to the rank
order question. A correlation was found between
answers for five classes. A moderate negative
correlation was found between the answers for
tennis (rho(18) -.622, p
(rho(36) -.385, p
-.663, p
-.535, p
relationship between students motivation and
likelihood of enrolling in a particular class. A
strong negative correlation was found between the
answers for indoor hockey (rho(7) -.896, p
.01), indicating a strong relationship between
students motivation for the physical activity
class and likelihood of enrolling in the class.
A comparative means test was ran on the Likert-t
ype scale data and found traditional students
scored rock climbing the highest (N 3.19, sd
1.39), CCE students scored self-defense the
highest (N 3.24, sd 1.34), females scored yo
ga the highest (N 3.66, sd 1.44), and males
scored weight lifting the highest (N 3.10, sd
1.41).
Method

• Participants
• N 149 students enrolled at Guilford College
• Traditional students, N 72 (male 34 female
  38)
  
• CCE students, N 77 (male 25 female 52)
• Age ranged from 18 to 61 years (M 27.95, SD
  9.22)
  
• Procedures
• We used a random cluster sample to select classes
  from the Guilford College Spring 2006 curriculum.
  The random sample included 6 day and 6 night
  classes to ensure representation of traditional
  and CCE students. With permission from professors
  we visited each class and handed out
  questionnaires.

Presented at the 2006 small scale study
presentation for Research Methods for Sports
Studies Guilford College, Greensboro, NC. Apprec
iation is extended to Lavon Williams for the
guidance and time donated to us for this study.