Survey on Use of and Attitude Toward New Physical Fitness Test Among Elementary School Teachers

Abstract

The decline in children's physical fitness has become a widely recognized problem in recent years. To address this issue, the Japanese government introduced the New Physical Fitness Test in 2008. The latest report shows that more than 80% of elementary schools throughout Japan have been complying with this directive. According to the Japan Sports Agency, 71.1% of the schools were using the test results to help develop their yearly plans; however, as the questionnaires were answered by each of the schools, it is unclear whether the elementary school teachers were actually using the test results effectively or not. The purpose of this research is to identify elementary school teachers' attitude toward the physical fitness test, and to determine how they are utilizing it as an educational tool to stimulate and promote students' personal fitness goals. The research was conducted among 840 teachers who are currently working at elementary schools across Japan. The questionnaires consisted of a total of 11 questions, of which nine required descriptive answers. The KJ method was used to categorize each answer into smaller groups of similar answer. The results showed that the elementary school teachers had both positive and negative perceptions of the physical fitness test, and the two major findings were as follows: (1) Although some of the teachers used the fitness test in their class, they were unable to identify a relationship between the education guidelines and the fitness test; therefore, they could not utilize the test results effectively. (2) Teachers felt burdened by the limited time they have to prepare and manage the New Physical Fitness Test. According to these findings, there should be clearer guidelines on how to use the test effectively, so that both teachers and students will be able to utilize the assessment and implement it to improve their fitness.