52 | PART B. SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL of ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. 5. No. 3. May, 2013 I. Ozmutlu, A.H. Sivrikaya, A.C. Gurkan, M. Dalkilic. An investigation into secondary school students’ attitudes towards physical education and sports lessons (the example of Kars province). International Journal of Academic Research Part B; 2013; 5(3), 52-57. DOI: 10.7813/2075-4124.2013/5-3/B.9 AN INVESTIGATION INTO SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND SPORTS LESSONS (THE EXAMPLE OF KARS PROVINCE) Ilker Ozmutlu 1 *, A.Haktan Sivrikaya 2 , Alper Cenk Gurkan 3 , Mehmet Dalkilic 4 1 Kafkas University, School of Physical Education and Sports 2 Balıkesir University, School of Physical Education and Sports 3 Gaziantep University, School of Physical Education and Sports 4 Kilis University, School of Physical Education and Sports (TURKEY) *Corresponding author: ilkerozmutlu@hotmail.com DOI: 10.7813/2075-4124.2013/5-3/B.9 ABSTRACT The purpose of the present study is to investigate the attitudes of secondary school students (6 th , 7 th and 8 th graders) towards physical education and sports lessons in terms of several variables. The sample of the study is composed of randomly selected 412 students (192 females and 22 males) studying in secondary schools affiliated with the Provincial Directorate of National Education in Sarikamis, Kars. Physical Education Lesson Attitude Scale for Children (PEASC), developed by Sherrill and Toulmin (1977) and later adapted into Turkish by Ozer and Aktop (29), and personal information form were used as the data collection instruments in this study. To to test whether the data were normally distributed one-way Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was carried out. Based on the results of this test, the data were not normally distributed, so Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis test were used to analyze the data. The internal reliability coefficient of the scale was calculated to be Alpha=0.667. The results of the study indicated that there was a significant difference between the learner’s attitude scores in terms of age and gender variables, while no significant differences between the learners’ attitude scores were found in terms of educational background of parents and whether the participants did sports or not. Key words: Learners, Physical Education and Sports, Attitudes 1. INTRODUCTION The notion of attitude often refers to an individual’s perception of or response to a phenomenon or an object in his/her environment. An attitude can be defined as positive or negative responses to individuals, places, events or ideas (Simpson et al., 1994). In other words, it refers to possible behavioral responses that an individual is expected to exhibit towards a situation, event or phenomenon (Incelioglu, 2010). Attitudes are one of the most significant factors that shape human behavior. Individuals’ attitudes have significant impacts on their behaviors and emotions such as love and hatred (Morgan 1991). There are quite a few scientific definitions of attitudes. According to Allport (1935), an attitude is an emotional or intellectual state of readiness that is formed as a result of shared knowledge and experience and that has a leading and dynamic impact upon the individual’s behaviors towards related objects or situations (Guven and Uzman, 2006). An attitude with its cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions is a psychological structure that is considered as a critical predictor of an individual’s behaviors (Anderson 1988, cited in Kan and Akbas, 2005). It is a cognitive, affective and behavioral predisposition that an individual possesses based on his/her experience, motivation and knowledge towards an object in the environment, a social issue or event (Inceoglu, 2005:5). According to the definition accepted by social psychologist, an attitude belongs to an individual and makes his/her emotions, ideas and behaviors concerning an object more unified and consistent (Tavsancil, 2005). Though the definition of attitudes change from one field of study to another, it is often considered as a person’s negative or positive posture on an object, situation or event in question. Attitudes towards an event might be at different degrees from the most negative to the most positive. Negative attitudes might make themselves clear in the form of having negative beliefs about objects or notions, rejecting, insulting or hating them. Positive attitudes, on the other hand, might be seen in having a positive belief about objects or emotions, embracing and loving them (Demirhan and Altay, 2001). Attitudes are related to coping with the emotions that emerge during learning and taking them under control; they have critical role in directing human behavior. Positive or negative attitudes that develop based on a value or belief system have a direct impact on learning processes, and they shape the prospective lives of individuals (Seferoglu, 2004; Sunbul et al., 2004).