Factors that Impact on Participation in Physical Education

Introduction/Purpose
Physical education uses or employs what modern society recognises as sport and other similar activities to deliver curricular content that requires students to be physically active. However, not all students are committed to participate. Disengaging, they sit away from the activity, forgetting their kit or producing a note for the teacher requesting no activity. The issue of non participation in physical education was formally recognised at national government level in Scotland (Scottish Executive, 2004) where the Ministerial Review Group recommended that schools be supported in improving the quality of student experience in physical education so that current levels of participation would be increased. This study in one Scottish high school formed the first part of a wider schedule of research aimed at understanding and creating autonomy supportive environments in physical education and as such had a clear strategic purpose to quantify students’ levels of selfdetermination in relation to their participation in physical education.