Middle School Students' Perceptions of Caring and Attitudes Toward PE

Background/Purpose: According to Noddings (1992), the ethic of caring can occur when a connection is made between the ‘one-caring’ and the ‘cared-for’, and "Caring is the very bedrock of all successful education (p. 27)." Teachers are effective when they care for student learning. Qualitative studies have shown that teachers’ caring behaviors were associated with students’ attitude toward physical education (PE) and engagement (e.g., Ennis et al., 1997; Cothran et al., 2003; Larson, 2006). However, limited research has been conducted to quantitatively investigate how students’ perceptions of caring are linked to their motivation in PE. Students’ attitudes toward PE strongly predict their engagement and learning. Therefore, this study was to examine the relationship between students’ perceptions of caring and attitudes toward PE.

Method: 179 6^th-8^th graders enrolled in PE from a USA Mid-West region volunteered to participate in the study. PE teachers at the selected two suburban schools were experienced and committed to teaching. Participants completed a package of surveys including 42-item perceptions of caring with a 7-likert scale (Li & Kim, 2014), demographic information (gender, ethnicity, grade, and age), attitudes toward PE (Subramaniam & Silverman, 2007), and other surveys for research purposes during their scheduled PE time. Instructions were provided to participants. It took participants about 30 minutes to complete the survey package.

Analysis/Results: The construct validity of perceptions of caring were validated in a Li and Kim (2014) study. Participants with missing data for perceptions of caring and attitudes toward PE were excluded from data analysis. The internal Cronbach Alphas for caring, enjoyment subscale, and usefulness subscale were.98, .94, and .94. Two Multiple regressions with either enjoyment or usefulness as a dependent variable were conducted to examine the relationship between perceptions of caring and attitudes toward PE by accounting for gender, ethnicity, and grade effects. The independent variables included perceptions of caring, gender, grade, and ethnicity. The normality assumptions were met after deleting one outlier, which had no impact on the results. Participants reported that their PE teachers cared for them (M=5.23, SD=1.27). Students’ perceptions of caring significantly predicted their attitudes toward PE: Usefulness, F(1, 141)=135.39, p<.0001, R-square=.58 and enjoyment,  F(1, 141)=146.55, p<.0001, R-square=.59.

Conclusions: Students who perceived that teachers cared for them had better attitudes toward PE. It is suggested that PE teachers should employ effective strategies to foster a caring learning environments. These strategies include making task adaptations, building interpersonal rapport, and creating a positive, motivating climate.