Factors that Impact on Participation in Physical Education

Physical education uses or employs what modern society recognises as sport and other similar activities to deliver curricular content that requires students to be physically active. However, not all students are committed to participate. Disengaging, they sitaway from the activity, forgetting their kit or producing a note for the teacherrequesting no activity. The issue of non participation in physical education wasformally recognised at national government level in Scotland (Scottish Executive,2004) where the Ministerial Review Group recommended that schools be supported inimproving the quality of student experience in physical education so that currentlevels of participation would be increased. This study in one Scottish high schoolformed the first part of a wider schedule of research aimed at understanding andcreating autonomy supportive environments in physical education and as such had aclear strategic purpose to quantify students' levels of self-determination in relation totheir participation in physical education.