An ethnography of a physical education class : an experiment in integrated living

The purpose of this study was to investigate physical education classes as episodes within which implicit and explicit learnings occur. An ethnographic description of indirect and unintended instructions conveyed to students was compiled. The descriptive data were analyzed through application of anthropological theory. The research technique utilized for this descriptive study was that of participant observation and formal and informal interviews. The data were collected during the researcher's participation in the physical education lessons of selected fifth and sixth grade classes throughout the four month period from February through May, 1975. A projective test was administered for purposes of eliciting children's rules restricting entry into an informally organized basketball game. Data were reviewed and organized into categories reflecting major events and conditions around which life in the physical education classes centered. Basic categories drawn from student interviews and observations of actual class occurrences were these: Sitting at Attention, Squad Work, Free Play, New Special Equipment, Physical Fitness Tests, Tumbling Club, and Field Day. Additional categories judged by the researcher to make significant contribution to the descriptive account of the physical education class were Leadership, Entry into a Game, and Gym Class in the Total Curriculum