GENDER INTERACTION IN COED PHYSICAL EDUCATION WITH QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE APPROACH: A CASE STUDY

 

Objective: The objective of this study was to examine teacher-student interaction and students’ experiences in coed physical education classroom focusing on gender stereotyped beliefs.

Methods: Participants in this study consisted of two physical education teacher and 32 eight grade students form one private school that situated in suburban of Ankara in Turkey. The modified observational instrument with the combination of TSI and INTERSECT was used to assess teacher-student interaction in classroom. In order to gain students’ experiences, focus group and individual in-depth interviews were also conducted.

Results: The finding of this study demonstrated that classroom interaction was mostly initiated by physical education teachers (70.5 % for female teacher and 79.8 % for male teacher) and directed to boys (46.6 % for female teacher and 70.2 % for male teacher). Through observations of teacher-student interaction and interviews with both teacher and students suggests that girls and boys are treated quite differently in coed physical education classroom and boys appear to dominate most of the classroom interactions. In addition, the gender-stereotyped beliefs of teacher and students seem to have an influence on this different classroom interaction.

Conclusion: As a conclusion, the findings of this study indicated that both female and male physical education teachers interact more frequently with boys and these different interaction influenced by both gender stereotyped beliefs of teachers and students.

 

Key words: gender, physical education, and classroom interaction

 

This study examines commonly expressed concerns about gender equity in coed physical education for boys and girls by focusing on the teachers’ and students’ gender stereotyped beliefs and its association or disassociation with teacher-student interactions.  Some researchers believed that the quality of classroom interactions affects the growth and learning of all students, and that teachers have a responsibility to model gender-fair attitudes in their classrooms (1,2).

In physical education context, there is evidence that student-to-student and teacher-to-student interactions show some levels of gender bias favoring boys (3, 4). Appropriate gender beliefs of teachers play a major role in determining their approaches to boys and girls in the classroom. In many studies, many teachers saw classroom discipline as a matter of power and control (5), which was frequently associated with masculine attribute, and the ideology of hegemonic masculinity (6, 7).

In this study, gender interaction in the physical education classroom is intended to be investigated in relation to the issue of power and control, therefore systematic classroom observations were conducted based on gender interaction. Many studies from general educational literature indicates that teachers tend to interact differently with boys than with girls (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15) and boys were involved in more interactions with teachers than girls (12, 15). Empirical research on classroom interaction states that boys receive more attention in class from teachers than do girls and boys are those more likely to influence the course of events in the classroom (8, 9, 16, 13).

A renewed interest in gender interaction in physical education classroom focusing on gender stereotyped beliefs of teachers and students could help to clarify the significance of more equitable physical education environment for girls and boys. Therefore, the first purpose of this study was to examine the frequency and type of which teachers and students initiate interaction in order to determine whether gender differences still exist. The second purpose was to investigate students’ experiences in physical education classroom focusing on gender-stereotyped beliefs.

Methods

The research was conducted during the 2003-2004 summer semester. Participants in this study consisted of two physical education teachers and 32 eight-grade students from one private school that situated in suburban of Ankara in Turkey. Our attention was focused on this age group, as it is well known that, with adolescence, social environmental factors and biological development lead to a changing of perception and behavior. Besides of this, in tenth and eleventh grade physical education lesson is overwhelmingly ignored.

 

Instruments

The modified version of Teacher-Student Interaction (TSI) form was used during classroom observations to record (1) the frequencies of student and teacher initiated interactions, (2) to whom teacher-initiated interactions were directed (to individual students, small groups, or the class as a whole), and (3) the nature of the teachers’ instructional statements (general or specific feedback, positive or negative instructional feedback) (17).

One way to study classroom interactions is through the use of the interactions for sex equity in classroom teaching (INTERSECT) observational instrument, developed by Sadker et. al. (1984). This instrument aids in the conversion of general classroom interactions into organized, measurable elements (18).

A slightly modified observational instrument with the combination of first two part of TSI and INTERSECT was developed for this study. The present observational instrument involved coding teacher student interactions by (a) initiation: teacher or student; (b) receiver: student, class, group, or teacher with gender; (c) evaluative type: praise, criticism, remediation and acceptance.

In order to gain a deeper understanding of students’ experiences, the qualitative method was also conducted. Focus group discussion with students, individual interview with students and teachers were carried out. An interview guide approach was used to structure the interviews (19), and the length of the interviews averaged approximately 30 minutes. Interviews were designed to gain a view of students’ perception of gender and whether teachers’ approaches and interactions with boys and girls differed from each other.

Procedure

Data were collected over a 10-week period using a variety of data sources in two eight-grade physical education classrooms of two physical education teachers. Two audio taped teacher interviews, four audio-typed student focus group discussions (two groups for girls and two groups for boys) and 20 audio-typed student interviews (10 with girls and 10 with boys), 19 class observations (10 in one classroom and 9 in one classroom) were conducted during three months. Teachers conducted lessons involving tennis, gymnastics, track and field and rhythmic activities.

Data Analysis

The first purpose of this study was to determine the levels of teacher-student interactions for girls and boys. To accomplish this, the percentage of observed frequencies of teacher-initiated statements and student-initiated statements were determined firstly. Then, the direction and types of the interaction between teacher to students were determined for both girls and boys in all types of teacher-student interaction (teacher-girls, teacher-boys, teacher-group of boys, teacher-group of girls, teacher-whole class).

Content analysis was conducted to analyze qualitative data. Theme has been identified for discussion by virtue of their frequency and their relevance to the focus of this study.

Results and discussion

The present study looked at how physical education classroom interactions are related to the gender of both teachers and students It was found that both female and male physical education teachers initiated more statements than students and directed more interactions toward boys than girls.

Teacher/ student- initiated statements

The researcher recorded 70.5 % (female teacher) and 79.8 % (male teacher) teacher-initiated statements and 29.5 % (in female teacher class) and 20.2 % (in male teacher class) student-initiated statements in two physical education classrooms. In female physical education teacher’s classroom, 27.4 % student-initiated statements came from males, whereas 2.1 % from girls. In male physical education teacher’s classroom it was found that there is no girls student-initiated statement.

Evaluative types of teacher-student interactions

For female physical education teacher

The teacher to student interactions was broken down into evaluative types to see which types were used most often. Criticism accounted for the greatest number of interactions, 67.2 %. This was followed by remediation that accounted for 13.4 % of the interactions, then praise. That accounted for 7.2 %, and acceptance that accounted for 1.4  % of the interactions.

For male physical education teacher

Criticism accounted for the greatest number of interactions, 47.1 %. This was followed by remediation that accounted for 31.7 % of the interactions, then praise. That accounted for 19.7 %, and acceptance that accounted for 0.5 % of the interactions.

 

Gender of students and types of evaluative teacher-student interactions received

 

Table 1. Gender of students and types of evaluative teacher-student interactions received for female and male physical education teachers

 

Physical Education Teacher	Praise			Criticism			Remediation			Acceptance
	G	B	WC	G	B	WC	G	B	WC	G	B	WC
Female	2.1 %	5.1 %	0.0 %	4.5 %	40.4 %	22.3 %	2.1 %	6.2 %	5.1 %	1.4 %	0.0 %	0.0 %
Male	1.4 %	14.9 %	3.4 %	4.3 %	37.5 %	5.3 %	6.7 %	13.9 %	11.1 %	0.0 %	0.5 %	0.0 %

 

G: Girls

B: Boys

WC: Whole class

 

It can be seen from Table 1, males received more praise, criticism and remediation than girls from both female and male physical education teachers. Similarly, in the junior high school settings, results with the observational instrument (INTERSECT) revealed that boys received more praise, remedial, acceptance and criticism interactions (20). Previous studies (8, 20) have suggested that the greater number of teacher interactions directed toward boys might be due to boys initiating more interactions. In addition, because students who frequently initiate teacher-student interactions are more likely to receive teacher-initiated attention (21). Although the finding of this study showed that boys did initiate more interactions than girls did toward teachers, the findings from group discussions and individual interviews indicated that gender stereotyped beliefs of teachers and students might have an influence on this different gender interaction.

 

Gender stereotyped beliefs of teachers and students

The results from the observational analysis show that gender patterns in physical education classrooms largely consistent with findings of previous studies boys have a more prominent position. A core theme evident in teacher and student interviews and class observations was that boys were more dominant in the class. There is widespread agreement among both girls and boys and teachers that girls were most subtle were less likely to be in open conflict with teachers. It was agreed by most of the girls and boys that, as far as classroom discipline was concerned, boys were more likely to get into trouble. In addition teachers suggested that the ambience of the classroom, the tone of interaction, the atmosphere for teaching and learning were more likely to be influenced by boys than girls. On the other hand, most of the boys prefer their own relations with other males and make little contact with the girls in the classroom. These males take a large portion of teacher time and dominate much of the communication, which are consistent with the discursive positioning in hegemonic masculinity discourse. In statistical analysis of interaction in the classroom, it became apparent that the boys made little contact with the girls.

The comments of PE teachers clearly indicated that their approaches to classroom discipline depended on the gender of the students and their beliefs of gender-appropriate behaviour. Physical educators have expressed very strong opinions concerning the different abilities of girls and boys, laden with patriarchal stereotypes of appropriate masculine and feminine behaviour (5, 22). For example, male physical education teacher in the present study said that girls should be more polite and more controllable, less aggressive than boys.

Another important finding from teachers’ interview that the notion of discipline and controlling the classroom was the most important and critical role of PE teachers. Female PE teacher reported that she should take as an authoritarian position to control students and to make teaching effectively. Similarly, many teachers saw classroom discipline as a matter of power and control (5), which was frequently associated with masculine attribute, and the ideology of hegemonic masculinity (6, 7).

As a conclusion, the findings of this study indicated that girls are nearly invisible, as both female and male teachers interact more frequently with boys and these different interaction influenced by both gender stereotyped beliefs of teachers and students. Gender relations in a patriarchal society are structured around power imbalances. A consequence of patriarchal consciousness in educational settings is the silencing and alienation of girls (22).  This study indicates the need for gender equitable classroom interaction and gender equity training for in-service physical education teachers. Future research may wish to focus on different types of interaction (verbal and non-verbal), types of student-student interactions in different grade physical education classrooms.