primary school teachers' attitudes to sport and the quality of teaching sport education

Teachers have a very important role in shaping pupils' lifestyle. We must bear in mind that teaching with examples is of upmost importance, as this is the most effective way of influencing a child's development, especially at a very early age. Exercise, sport and everything related with it should have a notable place in our lives – as with children as well as with adults. A healthy lifestyle enables the strengthening and taking care of health. Therefore also teachers must find time for exercise in their free time as this improves the quality of their lives. It is a known fact that the lack of exercise is becoming a major risk factor which endangers our health. Physical inactivity and sedentary lifestyle are very closely connected with health problems such as excessive weight, weakening of the heart and veins problems, high blood pressure, excessive and bad fats, reduced breathing capacity, diabetes and generally reduced resistance to different illnesses. Raising awareness about a healthy and active lifestyle must already start with pupils in the first triad, and even earlier – in the preschool period. This is without a doubt one of the main tasks of a sport education teacher. Also other teachers and childcare workers must set an example to their pupils, as in school as well as outside it. However, many teachers nowadays spend a lot of their free time in front of the computer, on vocational training and the like. Thus the question arises, do teachers take the time to be active also in the field of sport and are they at the same time a role model to the young? Increasing expectations of the society to provide quality education continuously set new roles and demands for educational organizations and teachers. At the same time, new modern devices “force” people into a sedentary positon. Lack of time and excessive amount of work often lead to less daily exercise. Each individual must realize that sports activity is essential for a healthy development and keeping of one’s health. The teacher’s attitude towards the importance and benefits of exercise greatly contributes to the transmitting of his opinion on the pupils. In order to better understand the effects, influences and consequences of a sedentary lifestyle, these have to be presented adequately and in a quality way also in school, during sport education lessons. Due to the awareness of the teachers’ importance in transmitting attitude on the pupils, the focus of the research was on the following segments of sport education lessons and the assessment of differences according to individual quality indicators (lesson planning and execution, teaching methods and forms, checking and evaluation, individualisation and differentiation, constant teacher professional development and training, inclusion in school as well as out-of-school activities, work conditions and satisfaction with one’s own work) of the teaching sport education in relation to the teachers’ age, their title, residential environment (rural and partly rural, urban environment) and their years of service. One of the research goals was to find out, whether there are differences regarding primary school teachers’ attitudes in relation to their age, title, residential environment (rural and partly rural, urban environment) and their years of service. Furthermore, we wanted to know whether there are differences in attitudes regarding sport between primary school teachers who have been involved in a sport or are now, and the teachers who have never done any sport. We also tried to establish if there is a correlation (if yes, of what kind) between the attitudes regarding sport and individual quality indicators (lesson planning and execution, teaching methods and forms, checking and evaluation, individualisation and differentiation, constant teacher professional development and training, inclusion in school as well as out-of-school activities, work conditions and satisfaction with one’s own work) of teaching sport education. The MA consists of two parts – theoretical and empirical. In the theoretical part, concepts and starting points on the basis of previous research in relation to attitudes are presented: what influences the formation and modification of attitudes, what are their functions and the correlation to the quality of teaching sport education. The primary school teachers’ attitudes towards sport were defined, positive and negative attitudes towards sports were closely examined, and their influence on the realisation and quality of sport education lessons in the lower grades of primary school was established. In the empirical part, using quantitative method, the results of a questionnaire regarding the basic statistics were examined and presented, as well as the results of statistically significant differences. The questionnaire was filled in by primary school teachers who teach sport education in grades one to five. It was established that a third of the surveyed teachers was involved in sport in the past, however less than a half of them are involved now. In the past competitive team sports prevailed, whereas now they prefer sports in the nature such as running and cycling. The majority of teachers do sports 2-3 times a week. Also about a half of their family members are involved in sports. The analysis of the state of teaching sport education showed that teachers in preparing daily and yearly lesson plans most frequently use sport education objectives and the syllabus, but tend to put less focus on the results of the Physical Fitness Report testing and descriptive grades from the previous school year. They most commonly cooperate with their colleague primary school teacher. The most commonly used teaching method is direct demonstration (the teacher himself), the most common teaching forms are circuit training, obstacle courses, relay races and all-round exercising. When forming a learner’s grade, teachers usually consider the progress the learner makes, their effort, cooperation during the lessons and their gained knowledge. When considering differentiation and individualisation, teachers most commonly talk about helping learners when they feel that they are falling behind and paying attention to all learners equally. Teachers rarely take part in permanent professional development seminars and meetings of professional work groups. However they frequently attend in-school professional work group meetings and take part at organizing, realization and evaluation of sport days and Physical Fitness Report testing. The majority of teachers work in sport equipment but they very rarely receive their own personal equipment in school. They are satisfied the most with the cooperation of primary school teacher colleagues in the field of teaching sport education. It was also established that there are statistically significant differences between teachers regarding individual criteria or quality indicators of teaching sport education (lesson planning and execution, teaching methods and forms, checking and evaluation, individualisation and differentiation, constant teacher professional development and training, inclusion in school as well as out-of-school activities, work conditions and satisfaction with one’s own work). The same applies for their attitudes towards sport (regular exercise, school and sport, innovations and cooperation with others) in relation to their age, title, residential environment and years of service. All the set hypotheses were rejected as due to the sheer amount of variables individual hypotheses could not be confirmed nor rejected with a 100% certainty – the differences emerged with less than half of all the variables included in the testing.