The physical educator as a role model to primary school children

Abstract

The aim of this observational study was to investigate the impact that the physical educator's behaviour may have upon school children through personal modelling. This long essay comprises two major sections. The first section includes various theoretical perspectives brought under the main chapter which contains the literature review. The latter is characterized by a brief overview of the data obtained from controlled research and natural observations from various authors regarding modelling and the effect it has upon the subjects who are exposed to modelling. It also comprises various different theoretical aspects that characterize the impact that the physical educator's behaviour may have upon children during physical education sessions. The second section comprises the methodology and a qualitative analysis of the data collected during the observations of five physical education sessions. The method used to collect data was live video recordings. The analysis showed that children imitated both the positive and negative behaviour of the physical educator, resulting in the latter being considered as a model by the former.