Author(s)

Ningning Sheng^1*, Jiandong Ding², Yoshio Sugiyama²

¹Department of Physical Education, Dalian Ocean University, Dalian, China.
²Faculty of Human Environment, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.

This study explored the influences of physical education (PE) teachers’ social behaviors on students’ social skills in PE classes through investigating a sample of Chinese college freshmen. First, we developed a scale to determine teachers’ social behaviors enacted while teaching PE. Items of the scale were selected from the pre-version of Teacher’s Social Skills Self-report Scale and changed from a teacher self-report to a student-evaluation style based on the specificity of PE context and the native culture of China. Students (n = 366, 194 male, 172 female, mean age = 18.6 years) from two universities in China completed a survey using a questionnaire contains the selected items. Through performing factor and reliability analyses, the scale was demonstrated to have acceptable internal consistency reliability and good content validity for measuring college students’ evaluations of their PE teachers’ social behaviors in PE classes toward two sub-domains named expressivity and control. Then, the developed scale and the 11 Item of Social Skills Inventory were administered to a sample of freshmen (n = 302,157 male, 145 female, mean age = 17.7 years) to examine their high school PE teachers’ social behaviors while teaching PE and their social skills in current PE classes, respectively. Correlation and regression analyses were performed to determine the relationships between the two variables. Results of correlation analyses indicated that teachers’ social behaviors had a significant correlation with both male and female students’ nonverbal skills (r = 0.221, p < 0.01; r = 0.147, p < 0.05). Results of multiple regression analysis revealed that teachers’ control behaviors had a positive and significant influence on both male and female students’ nonverbal skills (β = 0.373, p < 0.05; β = 0.315, p < 0.05). At the end, implications of the findings were discussed.

Influences, Teacher, Social Behaviors, College Freshmen, Verbal Skills, Nonverbal Skills, Physical Education Classes

Sheng, N. , Ding, J. and Sugiyama, Y. (2018) Exploring Influences of Teachers’ Social Behaviors on Students’ Social Skills in Physical Education Classes: An Example with Chinese College Freshmen. Advances in Physical Education, 8, 35-45. doi: 10.4236/ape.2018.81005.