A Study on the Current Status and Impediments of Participation of Recreational Exercises by High School Teachers in Taipei County

[[abstract]]The primary goal of this research is to explore and discuss the status of recreational sport participation by high school teachers in Taipei County and its impeding factors. Through this research, high school teachers’ awareness toward recreational exercises can be raised so that schools and educational management agencies can place importance on the recreational lives of the teachers. It can also act as a reference for the government’s promotion of the teachers’ healthy recreational lives. The subjects of this research are high school teachers from both public and private high schools in Taipei County, whom serve as the population. Using the questionnaire method, 12 schools were randomly sampled to conduct cluster sampling. A total of 560 people were chosen to be the subjects for the issuance of questionnaires. Four hundred forty-seven valid questionnaires were recovered, with a retrieval rate of 79.8%. As for data analysis methods, descriptive statistics, independent sample t test, one-way ANOVA and other related analysis methods were used. From analysis result, it is discovered that for female teachers who participate in recreational exercises, most participants engage in exercises for 60 minutes or less per week. The time selected to conduct exercises also does not necessarily fall on the weekends. Most of them participate during the afternoon or early morning. On the expenditure side, most spend between 2,001-4,000 dollars. As for factors that recreational sports constrains, the accessibility or location of recreational exercise equipments is the greatest impediment on influencing the recreational sport participation. There are also significant variances on factors that impede the recreational sport participation by teachers based on different age groups, educational levels, job positions, and income level. Based on the results of the research, separate recommendations are made to the individual teachers, the schools, relevant government agencies and follow up researches in the future. It is hoped that this will benefit high school teachers in having fulfilling recreational exercises in their lives.