Attitudes of elementary school teachers held toward physical activity as manifest in sports and games

A substantial amount of evidence exists which strongly suggests that elementary school teachers play a significant role in the socialization process through the inculcation of value and attitude systems in their students. Further, it is the teacher's own personal set of attitudes and beliefs that are either knowingly or unknowingly communicated. In this regard, the researcher undertook the systematic study of attitudes held by Vancouver elementary school teachers toward physical activity as manifest in sports and games, in an effort to gain some understanding of the role played by the elementary school system in influencing values held by children for physical activity. A sample of 135 non-specialist, elementary school, classroom teachers was drawn from the Vancouver Public School system. Each subject was requested to complete and return to the researcher, a copy of "Kenyon's Attitude Inventory." The data gleaned from the completed inventories was statistically analyzed through univariate analysis of variance techniques to determine what, if any, differences existed in teacher attitudes held toward physical activity, as a function of their sex, age and grade levels taught. With the exceptions of an age x level interaction effect for the ascetic subdomain for female teachers and a statistically significant, more positive attitude held by older as opposed to younger female teachers toward the vertigo subdomain, the attitudes held by Vancouver elementary school teachers toward physical activity failed to differentiate according to the sex, age, and grade levels taught criteria.Education, Faculty ofCurriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department ofGraduat