The purposes of this study are not only to discuss how School sports club activities class is being actually conducted at every middle school in South Korea since the second semester of 2012 but also to search for ways to improve this school sports cl...
The purposes of this study are not only to discuss how School sports club activities class is being actually conducted at every middle school in South Korea since the second semester of 2012 but also to search for ways to improve this school sports club activities class as the study analyzes perceptions and types of students and instructors participating in the class. This class has been basically practised in order to ‘prevent school violence by strengthening the personality education’.
The study applied the convenience sampling method to selecting three schools (a boys’ middle school, a girls’ middle school and a boys and girls’ middle school) as research participants based upon characteristics of students’ organization. The study, then, analyzed various cases of how each school is actually conducting the school sports club activities class, looking into perceptions and types of the students and the instructors joining the class.
Of the research participants, the second graders and the third graders answered the open questionnaire. The study used the purposive sampling method, and of those loyal respondents, eight students from each school were determined as the research participants. There, what the study took into consideration was that in which grade the students’ are, how their P.E. grades are, gender, types of the instructors and lastly, the students’ likes and dislikes for physical activities. In terms of the instructors as in the research participants, the study selected sports instructors, P.E. teachers and even those teachers who teach other subjects as the research participants, and these people appeared to be in charge of the school sports club activities class targeting those students participating in this study.
The study gathered basic references through literature research, in-depth interviews and participant observation, and the basic references were processed with the open coding method. The results of this basic reference analysis are summarized as follows.
The three participating middle schools increased and secured lesson hours for the ‘2013 school sports club activities class as they added some creative experience activities into the class. There, the schools operated the class focusing on a type of a sport. However, in 2014, the schools would either increase the creative experience activities or change the class to P.E. class as the class is operated not focusing on a type of a sport but by class. The decrease in the budget to support labor costs on sports instructors is considered the biggest cause for this change.
Meanwhile, the students had four positive ideas and five negative ideas about this school sports club activities class. As for the positive ideas, they perceived the class as ‘a chance to get rid of stress’, ‘a chance to cooperate with others’, ‘a chance for advanced learning’ and ‘a chance to experience sports’. Regarding the negative ideas, the students seemed to wonder ‘if anyone cares about anybody else’, ‘if we have any place to run or play as much as we want’, ‘if anyone listens to what we think’, ‘if there is any professional instructor’ and ‘if there are any fixed standards’.
When it comes to the types of students joining the school sports club activities class, the study categorized the students into six types which were ‘the warrior’, ‘the fish in water’, ‘the one who only cares about what one likes’, ‘the get-together’, ‘the one-sided love’ and ‘the one who seems uninterested in whatsoever’.
As to the perceptions of the instructors towards the school sport club activities class, the study investigated how each of them, the sports instructors, the P.E. teachers and the teachers in charge of other subjects, would think about the class. The positive perception of the sports instructors was observed to include three topics which were ‘improving the drive to realize one’s dream’, ‘preventing and reducing school violence’ and ‘the absence of evaluation: running the class at the discretion of the instructor’. The negative perception was dealt with under these four topics which were ‘the equivocal relation of the class with the regular P.E. class’, ‘the difficulties with running the class’, ‘the sports instructors’ training programs focusing only on theories’ and ‘the doubts about the instructors’.
The positive perception of the P.E. teachers was divided into two topics which were ‘the class to be conducted flexibly’ and ‘the positive changes in the students’. For the negative perception, one topic was extracted, and that was ‘the demand to change the class to the regular P.E. class’.
The positive perception of the teachers teaching other subjects included two topics which were ‘preventing and decreasing school violence’ and ‘having a chance for new experiences’. Other two topics were drawn from the negative perception, and they were ‘the difficulties with running the class’ and ‘the doubts about the existence of the class’.
The types of the instructors in charge of the school sports club activities class were grouped into three types which were ‘the introspective’, ‘the judge’ and ‘the permissive’.
What the study has found so far will be used by any following research as a basic reference when this research tries to talk about the school sports club activities class, and that will improve the quality of this class as strengthening the position of the class in the real field, school.