College students perception on physical education classes during their high school days

Abstract

This purpose of this study is to identify and investigate whether there are similarities or differences between genders regarding the perceptions on physical activities of college university students in one of the largest University in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The focus was on three main categories, namely general knowledge, physical education and scientific basis of physical activities. Each category contained questions which serve to evaluate their perceptions about physical activities. The questionnaire was adapted from a journal article on a study done by Mowatt, DePauw and Hulac (1988). This study investigates the perceptions of 113 students (55 males; 65 females) aged between 19 and 25 about physical activities, using the above-mentioned categories. Results of the t-test showed significant differences for general knowledge, t(23) = 3.9, p<0.05 between male students (M = 20.05, SD = 2.13) and female students (M = 18.51, SD = 2.20). Significant differences between gender were also found for scientific basis, t(23) = 2.25, p<0.05. However, in the physical education category, t(23) = 1.61, p>0.05 no significant differences in means were found between the male and female students.