A Comparison of Attitudes of Male Students Toward Required Physical Education at South Dakota State College :1963 and 1959

Physical education has been accepted by the majority of institutions of higher learning as an integral part in the college curriculum. The physical education instructor has a major task of guiding the individual student as a person whose feelings, attitudes, knowledge, skills, understandings, and values are influenced by his physical education experience. Physical education instructors have placed great emphasis on the learning of skills in a physical education class and during the learning of a skill there are many other learning experiences taking place that are overlooked. It is the learner, not the teacher, who controls the learning situation and students will learn what they want to. Attitudes influence students’’ reactions in physical education classes and it must be determined why students have favorable opinions toward certain aspects of physical education and unfavorable opinions toward other phases. This study was designed to evaluate the attitudes of the male students of South Dakota State College toward physical education. A period of five years has elapsed since a new expanded program was introduced for the male student in physical education which was previously examined in Sluiter’s study conducted in 1959. This study will determine the attitude of male students toward the required physical education program and compare results to Sluiter’s stud