Fun and enjoyment in physical education: young people's attitudes

Fun and enjoyment are recurring themes in physical education literature, although there has been some debate concerning the distinction between the two concepts. Whereas enjoyment is generally regarded as helpful in fostering positive attitudes towards physical education, fun has not always been considered an appropriate outcome of physical education. This paper seeks to explore further the meanings young people give to the terms fun and enjoyment and how this relates to their attitudes towards physical education. The data reported in this paper are drawn from a study carried out over a three-year period that investigated the attitudes of children towards physical education during the transition between Key Stage 2 (KS2; 7- to 11-years old) and Key Stage 3 (KS3; 11- to 14-years old). Information was collected using a questionnaire, focus groups and interviews in one borough in England. Analysis revealed that fun and enjoyment featured prominently in reports on attitudes towards physical education, but that the meaning attributed to these concepts appeared to change as they progressed to KS3. Fun was found to be the single most frequently expressed reason for positive feelings associated with physical education at KS2. As such, fun appeared to be a critical factor for making physical education enjoyable. However, following transition, many children began to describe fun in terms of learning challenge rather than in relation to the hedonic response to playing games. This shift in the ways that the participants valued physical education at KS3 appears to indicate a more sophisticated approach to their learning.