The purpose of this case study was to examine the validity of a physical education class, which emphasized the teaching of group forming process during the course. The study was conducted with a basketball unit for 33 students in junior high school. We divided the students into two groups, then established an experimental group and a control group. Greater emphasis was placed on the group forming process for the experimental group than for the control group.
The results obtained from comparing the two groups were as follows:
1) The experimental group produced more spontaneous changes of deviant students' attitudes than the control group.
2) All members of the experimental group showed greater improvement of both individual skills and group skills in basketball than the control group.
3) There was no difference in the knowledge of basketball between the experimental group and the control group.
4) The experimental group changed the ideas of all members in the class about a group more, and strengthened the cohesiveness of their classroom group more than the control group did.
We concluded that an emphasis on teaching the group forming process in a physical education class might be a valid means for character building in students.