Students' Perceptions of Learning Life Skills Through the Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility Model: An...

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• Kinesiology
• Youth Development Studies

Background:

• Physical education (PE) programs often underutilize positive youth development (PYD) principles for teaching transferable life skills.
• Research and policy advocate for integrating life skills into the PE curriculum.
• There is a need to understand student perceptions of learning life skills within PE.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess student perceptions and experiences of learning life skills in physical education.
• To evaluate an intervention based on the Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR) model for promoting life skills in PE.

Main Methods:

• A quasi-experimental design with 122 adolescents in mid-western U.S. schools.
• An intervention group received PE instruction from a teacher trained in the TPSR model.
• A control group received standard PE instruction; pre- and post-surveys and observations were used.

Main Results:

• Students in the TPSR intervention group showed enhanced perceptions of learning life skills over time.
• Improved perceptions included problem-solving, emotional regulation, effort, goal setting, and social norms.
• The intervention group demonstrated enhanced in-class experiences with life skills compared to the control group.

Conclusions:

• Physical education is uniquely positioned to foster PYD through life skills instruction.
• The TPSR intervention facilitated the learning of personal and social responsibility in PE lessons.
• Further research should explore the transfer of these in-class skills to out-of-school contexts.