For formative evaluation of teaching, it is essential to consider students’ perception of teaching. This study aimed to investigate the effect of the order of units in a physical education class on students’ perception. The subjects were 126 freshmen enrolled in a general physical education course. The course units were arranged in the following manner: badminton, volleyball, and basketball. At the end of the course, the students described their thoughts regarding it. We analyzed the documented responses via text mining. The results showed that the order and characteristics of the course units, specially arranged for this study, progressively affected the students’ perception

Nakazawa, Ken

Nishihara, Yasuyuki

Niigata Regional Repository

21
Abstract
　For formative evaluation of teaching, it is 
essential to consider students’ perception of 
teaching. This study aimed to investigate the effect 
of the order of units in a physical education class 
on students’ perception. The subjects were 126 
freshmen enrolled in a general physical education 
course. The course units were arranged in the 
following manner: badminton, volleyball, and 
basketball. At the end of the course, the students 
described their thoughts regarding it. We analyzed 
the documented responses via text mining. The 
results showed that the order and characteristics of 
the course units, specially arranged for this study, 
progressively affected the students’ perception.
Introduction
　Lesson plans and reflective teaching and 
learning are what help achieve the effects of 
physical education. The basic goal of all health 
and physical education courses is to develop 
cognitive and social skills related to the body 
and overall self [1]. In order to achieve this goal, 
teaching material selection and the sequence of 
units must be emphasized. In other words, when 
a teacher designs a class, it is important for him/
her to consider the characteristics of the teaching 
materials. Furthermore, the most noteworthy point 
is students’ perception of a physical education 
class. This study aims to investigate students’ 
changing perception throughout the course of a 
physical education class.
Methods
1. Subjects
　The subjects were 126 freshmen from the 
department of science and engineering enrolled 
in a general physical education course. The male-
to-female ratio was roughly 9:1, with 111 male 
students (86.5%) and 15 female students (13.5%).
2. Course details
　The physical education course was a graduation 
requirement. The number of students in one class 
was 40. Class assignments were carried out at 
random. The course lasted from the end of April to 
the end of July 2014. 
3. Course unit configuration
　Siedentop (1983) pointed out the importance 
of creating a normal course of action during the 
early stages of the class [2]. Creating a normal 
course of action helps avoid the risk of the trouble 
of unexpected action and makes the progress of 
the instruction easy. In addition, this provides a 
prospective educational effect [3]. 
Original article
Formation of students’ perceptions of physical education
Ken Nakazawa1, Yasuyuki Nishihara2
1Graduate school, Niigata University of Health and Welfare, Niigata, Japan
2Department of Health and Sports, Faculty of Health Science, Niigata University of Health and Welfare, Niigata, Japan
Key words:  students’ perception, physical education, text mining, formative evaluation
Received: 27 November 2015/Accepted: 16 September 2016
Corresponding author: Ken Nakazawa
Graduate school, Niigata University of Health and Welfare, 1398 Shimami-cho, Kita-ku, Niigata 950-3198, Japan
TEL: +81-24-237-2741, FAX: +81-24-237-2751, E-mail: nakazawa@u-aizu.ac.jp
22
Running head: Formation of students’ perceptions of physical education
Iwata (2013) pointed out that there are many 
decision-making opportunities in a goal sport 
because players share a court with their teammates 
and the opposing team and the fluid changes in the 
space and freedom of action create difficulties for 
them [4]. 
　Therefore, the course units were arranged 
considering classroom management and decision-
making difficulties. The order of course units and 
the points of consideration for teaching are shown 
in Figure 1. Before starting the units, a physical 
activity readiness questionnaire (PAR-Q) was 
conducted for screening diseases, which was 
followed by a fitness test. A badminton unit was 
conducted first. As it was conducted during the 
period soon after admission, students were still 
not familiar with each other. Badminton is a court 
game that involves a net (net sport); it can be played 
either one-on-one or two-on-two. While playing 
doubles badminton requires cooperation with own 
partner, there is no risk of injury due to contact 
with the opposing players. A volleyball unit was 
conducted next, a month after university admission. 
As students did not frequently communicate with 
each other at this stage, their relationship was still 
limited. A team sport, volleyball is also a court 
game that involves a net (net sport). In volleyball, 
players are required to maintain a certain distance 
from their teammates. Moreover, cooperation 
among teammates is necessary. There is little risk 
of injury due to contact with the opposing team’s 
players. A basketball unit was the last one to be 
conducted. Two months had passed after university 
admission. Although the students knew each other 
at this stage, their relationships with each other 
were still not so intimate. Basketball is also a 
court game and a team sport that involves scoring 
baskets (goal sport). In basketball, cooperation 
is required among teammates. There is a risk of 
injury due to contact with the opposing team’s 
players, and therefore strict compliance with the 
rules of the game is required.
Figure 1. Course unit order and points of consideration for teaching
PAR-Q & Fitness Test
Badminton
Net sport, Interpersonal
Volleyball
Net sport, collective
Basketball
Goal sport, collective
Not familiar with each other
Control injury risk with partner
Requires cooperation
with partner
Limited relationship
Control injury risk inside team
Requires cooperation
among  players
Relationship is not intimate
Control injury risk not only inside  
team but also among opponents
Requires cooperation
among players
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Niigata Journal of Health and Welfare Vol.16, No.1
Results
　First, we identified the 20 most frequently 
occurring words, and then isolated 11 words that 
were common to all four categories; these 11 
words were “events”, “think”, “game”, “person”, 
“fun”, “sports”, “I”, “others”, “practice”, “team” 
and “lesson”.
　Second, we created eight codes corresponding 
to the most frequently occurring words in the 
physical education field. These eight codes were: 
4. Research protocol
　Figure 2 shows the research protocol. We 
asked the subjects to record simple notes after 
every class. At the end of the course, they were 
allowed to refer to these notes while describing 
their thoughts, which were classified into four 
categories-one per course unit and one labeled 
“throughout the course”. We analyzed the 
documented responses via text mining. KH coder 
was used for this purpose.
Figure 2. Research protocol
Record 
simple
notes
after
class
Look back at the P.E. 
class notes and write 
about your thoughts 
regarding the classes 
throughout the P.E. 
course .
Also write about your 
feelings regarding your 
relationship with your 
peers.
4 Categories① Badminton② Volleyball③ Basketball④ Review 
(Throughout 
the course)
Analysis of the documented responses via text mining
Table 1. Coding rules
Codes Examples of text
Educational materials Badminton, Volleyball, Basketball
Group cohesiveness Team, Group, Fellow, Class
Play skills Pass, Block, Service, Shoot
Game Game, Doubles
Interaction Communicate, Talk, Concern
Others Opponent, Person
Self I, Think
Positive emotion Fun, Happy, Good, Important
24
Running head: Formation of students’ perceptions of physical education
The frequencies of the codes “educational 
materials” and “play skills” were significantly 
higher in the Volleyball and Basketball units, 
categorized as “team sports”. The frequency of the 
code “interaction” was the highest in the Volleyball 
unit, while the frequency of the code “others” was 
the lowest in this unit. The frequencies of the 
codes “interaction” and “positive emotion” were 
lowest in the Basketball unit, while the code “play 
skills” had the highest. 
The frequencies of the codes “game” and “play 
skills” were significantly lower in the Review unit. 
While the code “interaction” displayed higher 
frequency in the Review unit and the Volleyball 
unit, the “positive emotion” code had a higher 
frequency in the Review unit than Basketball unit.
Discussion
1. The units
　The eight selected codes were used as a 
“educational materials”, “group cohesiveness”, 
“play skills”, “game”, “interaction”, “others”, 
“self” and “positive emotion”. Table 1 displays 
the coding rules by presenting examples of words 
for each code.
Third, we compared the frequencies of 
occurrence and non-occurrence across the four 
categories in each codes after verifying the data 
through cross tabulation, and using Pearson’s 
chi-squared tests, complemented by adjusted 
residual analysis, to assess associations between 
the categories. Results summarized in Table 1 and 
Table 2 include only frequencies of occurrence.
The amount of significantly high frequencies 
in the Volleyball unit was compared to the other 
categories.
　The frequency of the code “game” was the 
highest in the Badminton unit, while the codes 
“educational materials”, “group cohesiveness” 
and “self” were the lowest.
Table 2. Cross-tabulation of each of eight codes with four categories
education 
materials
group 
cohesiveness
play skills game interaction others self
positive 
emotion
total
(case)
Badminton 28(22.22%) 54(42.86%) 42(33.33%) 52(41.27%) 45(35.71%) 45(35.71%) 70(55.56%) 80(63.49%) 126
Volleyball 77(61.11%) 89(70.63%) 63(50.00%) 42(33.33%) 73(57.94%) 25(19.84%) 80(63.49%) 71(56.35%) 126
Basketball 73(57.94%) 80(63.49%) 83(65.87%) 48(38.10%) 41(32.54%) 43(34.13%) 84(66.67%) 66(52.38%) 126
Review 55(43.65%) 73(57.94%) 13(10.32%) 16(12.70%) 67(53.17%) 49(38.89%) 92(73.02%) 93(73.81%) 126
Total 233(46.23%) 296(58.73%) 201(39.88%) 158(31.35%) 226(44.84%) 162(32.14%) 326(64.68%) 310(61.51%) 504
Chi-square value 47.72** 21.68** 89.07** 29.02** 24.23** 12.34** 8.72* 14.11**
n.s. : not significant,    * : p < 0.05,   ** : p < 0.01 
Table 3. Results of the residual analysis
education 
materials
group 
cohesiveness
play skills game interaction others self
positive 
emotion
Badminton -6.2▽ -4.2▽ -1.7　 2.8▲ -2.4▽ 1.0　 -2.5▽ 0.5　
Volleyball 3.9▲ 3.1▲ 2.7▲ 0.6　 3.4▲ -3.4▽ -0.3　 -1.4　
Basketball 3.0▲ 1.3　 6.9▲ 1.9　 -3.2▽ 0.6　 0.5　 -2.4▽
Review -0.7　 -0.2　 -7.8▽ -5.2▽ 2.2▲ 1.9　 2.3▲ 3.3▲
▲ significantly high, p < 0.05   ▽ significantly low, p < 0.05 
25
Niigata Journal of Health and Welfare Vol.16, No.1
and facilities were specific to the university where 
the study was conducted. Furthermore, the sports 
types that were taught in this course were limited 
to Badminton, Volleyball, and Basketball because 
of lack of research materials, skills and knowledge.
Acknowledgements
　We are grateful to all the delegates who attended 
the 20th Annual Congress of the European College 
of Sport Science, at which a part of this paper was 
presented, for their encouraging reception of the 
paper [6].
References
1.　 Gallagher J. Teaching and learning: New 
models. Annual Review of Psychology. 1994; 
45: 171-195.
2.　 Siedentop D. Developing teaching skills in 
physical education. Mountain View, California:
Mayfield Publishing Co. ; 1983; 55-56.
3.　 Kounin J. Discipline and group management 
in classrooms. New York: Holt, Rinehart and 
Winston ; 1970; 143-145.
4.　 Iwata Y. Considerations on the explicit 
exaggeration of teaching material for goal-
type game in elementary school physical 
education. Journal of Physical Education. 
2013; 61: 74-75.
5.　 Van Manen M. On the epistemology of 
reflective practice. Teachers and Teaching: 
Theory and Practice. 1955; 1: 33-50.
6.　 Nakazawa K, Nishihara Y. Formation process 
of students’ perceptions of physical education. 
20th Annual Congress of the European College of 
Sport Science. 2015; 270.
framework to investigate students’ reflection 
processes in relation to the three units including 
volleyball, basketball, and badminton. 
　The results of the Badminton unit, which was the 
first unit taught in this course, suggest that students 
were interested in the game without needing to 
communicate with each other because they were 
still not familiar with each other. The results from 
the Volleyball unit, which was taught second in the 
course, indicate that students’ communication was 
activated and group cohesiveness was promoted 
through engagement with the unit. Students’ 
increased levels of communication were evident 
in the results due to the fact that the code “others” 
showed the lowest frequency. 
　As the course progressed, results showed that 
students were only involved in “play skill” in 
the Basketball unit, which was based on “group 
cohesiveness”, initially constructed in the 
Volleyball unit.
2. Review of the entire physical education course
　The Review unit represents the review of 
the entire physical education course. The high 
frequencies of “positive emotion”, “interaction” 
and “self” in the Review unit suggest that students 
experienced high levels of positive emotion as well 
as the value of autonomous interaction through the 
course. Furthermore, the perceptions of the review 
of the entire physical education course were based 
on the perceptions expressed in the individual 
units. 
　These results showed that the order and 
characteristics of units affect students’ perceptions 
of the overall course. However, other factors might 
also be influencing students’ perceptions. An 
appropriate teaching approach based on reflection 
can foster a favorable perception of education 
among students [5]. The overall teaching process 
seemingly caused the high frequency of “positive 
emotion” identified in the review of the entire 
course.
　A limitation of this study is that the subjects 


Formation of students’ perceptions of physical education

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