The Implementation of Personal and Social Resposibility Model in Physical Education Classes: An Action Research

Abstract

Participation of students in physical education classes provides them with the opportunity to experience moods such as competition, a sense of disagreement and confrontation, despair and joy while at the class and, then, to evaluate their own reactions. The idea that physical education and sports have a role in the development of socialization and morals is generally accepted by many researchers. The positive impact of physical education and sports upon social and moral development will not occur automatically by participation in classes. It is more likely to think that it will come through by taking advantage of the opportunities gained by the carefully designed experience. Hellison’s Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR) is one of the programs in which these values are successfully applied through sports during physical education classes. The purpose of this study is; to examine the effects that may arise from the intervention of the TPSR by determining the needs of the 9th grade students for fair play behavior within the framework of Kohlberg's moral development theory. In the study, the action research approach was employed and the data were obtained from video records, student reflections, and semi-structured individual interviews. The study was conducted with 30 students in the 9th grade of a medical vocational high school in Ankara and 6 focus students selected by the purposeful sampling method were evaluated. The obtained data were analyzed by content analysis. The findings of the study are grouped under 3 themes. And these are; 1) I can escape from punishment and care only about my own interests, 2) Reciprocal Relations: “They also supported our team”, 3) I am listening to my own conscience: I care about my competitor and respect him. The findings prove that fair play descriprions of students and attitudes are at the preconventional level according to Kohlberg’s moral development theory while descriptions and attitudes after the implementation are mostly at the conventional level or the postconventional level and students can internalize the concept of fair play and can make decisions in accordance with their own moral judgments. As a consequence, TPSR is a very effective model in providing fair play to students when used as a (frisbee) tool. However, the model does not lead to change in children’s thoughts about the behaviors of their favorite teams not in accordance with fair play while influencing the children to acquire values related to and for themselves.