Pupils’ attitudes and motivation towards PE in the transition from Primary to Secondary school

Abstract

Growing up, my great passion in life has always been sport. To this day, this is true. I have always had a great desire to participate in sport and in throughout my entire school life I always looked forward to PE lessons. Looking back on my school life I vividly remember that when I was in primary school, my peers always brought their kit and always participated in PE. When I look back on my PE experiences in secondary school, I clearly remember many negative attitudes towards PE, with a number of my peers often purposely not bringing their PE kit to school, so that they did not have to partake in PE lessons. This is something that I have never been able to understand because I have always taken great joy in sport. By visiting primary and secondary schools to work with pupils and speak to teachers, I have remarked that there is still a big difference in primary school pupils’ attitudes towards PE and secondary school pupils’ attitudes towards PE. Primary school pupils always seem so eager to get their kit on and partake in a PE lesson, whereas for many secondary school pupils, the idea of a PE lesson often seems like an awful chore. Because of my great passion for sport and my understanding of the importance of participation in physical activity, I feel a strong desire to discover reasons for this. I want to find out why pupils’ attitudes towards PE changes when they are in secondary school, and hopefully help to alter these negative attitudes.