Application Of Mathematical Concepts In The Teaching And Learning Of Physical Education In Secondary Schools In Former Lugari District, Kakamega County; Kenya

ABSTRACT

In school, activities in each subject area can identify and draw upon experiences in other subjects; hence mathematics also identifies experiences in other subjects. This study sought to investigate the application of mathematical concepts in physical education in Secondary schools in former Lugari District, Kakamega county; Kenya. Physical education is a popular subject. The same cannot be said about mathematics, yet there is a lot of mathematics in their world. In the teaching and learning of physical education, the mathematics involved is not explicitly mentioned. Students learn physical education in the classroom or on the fields of play and move on to the next classroom for the following lesson which could be mathematics. By delivering the curriculum in this format, subjects lack coherence and students become disconnected. The main objectives of the study were to establish mathematical concepts applied in physical education, after this to investigate teachers’ and students’ awareness of these concepts and the opinion of teachers to integration of physical education and mathematics to support teaching and learning. The study was based on the connectionist theory of learning by Edward L. Thorndike which states that “When any response has been connected with many different situations alike in the presence of one element and different in other respects the response is thereby bound to that element so that when that element appears, even in a totally different situation, it will tend to evoke that response.” Transfer of learning occurs when a person’s learning in one situation influences his learning and performance in other situations. In the literature review the researcher read through books to find the application of mathematics across the curriculum and application of mathematical concepts in physical education. This study adopted a descriptive survey. Qualitative research used interviews to collect information on teachers’ opinions and attitude at connection and integration of mathematics and physical education to support learning. Quantitative research used questionnaires to determine awareness of the mathematical concepts applied in physical education. The target population for this study included teachers and students. Purposive sampling was used to select ten schools for the study because the schools were those teaching at least four ball games. From the ten schools, stratified sampling was used to select four physical education teachers and four mathematics teachers from each school and eight students for each ball game in each of the school. Statistical data was presented using frequency distribution tables and charts and analysis used percentages and mean. The study found out that Mathematical concepts are applied in the teaching and learning of Physical Education and teachers are aware of these Mathematical concepts. However a small percentage of students are aware of the Mathematical concepts meaning that teachers do not draw the attention of learners to the important role of Mathematics in Physical Education, hence the two subjects are taught in isolation. The study recommended that curriculum developers and teachers should come up with ways of making Mathematics more practical and interesting by associating it to Physical Education. Through workshops, teachers should come up with ways of integrating Mathematics with other subjects in the curriculum for learners to realize its crucial importance