1

The Quality of Sportsmanship

Megan Marshall
PED-105
Carol Wilson-Robbins
4/2/14












2
Abstract
Over the years, the health of Americans has decreased rapidly. Physical education in
elementary schools has been an area that has been cut out of childrens everyday schedule.
Cutting out that extra thirty minutes of exercise is leading to serious health problems, such as
childhood obesity. Research has proved that promoting pro-social behaviors in a classroom
setting will exhibit an increase in physical activity. Teaching the children how to use good
behaviors towards their classmates will help them not only mentally, but emotionally. Spending
their time arguing and showing bad sportsmanship will make children not want to participate in
daily activity and can really destroy their self-esteem. Bad sportsmanship not only will make a
child not want to play, but it can lead them down an unhealthy lifestyle. Children need to be
taught that by being a good sport, it can benefit them in more ways than one.








3
One of the biggest epidemics now facing Americans today is the amount of daily
exercise they do to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Having a healthy lifestyle can reduce your risk of
heart disease, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure and certain cancers. Normally, only one in
three people get little or any physical activity in their lifetime. As a teacher, its very important to
make every activity fun for the children because it can encourage them to want to participate and
add more physical activity in their daily routines. The way children behave can also trigger the
way they cooperate with their peers. Promoting positive behaviors in a classroom setting, such as
good sportsmanship, can increase their activity level.
Studies have shown positive effects resulting from the demonstration through influences
of emotional development. Unpleasant experiences involving poor sportsmanship have caused a
lack of physical activity in children increasing serious health problems, like obesity. Physical
movement can increase cerebral capillary growth, blood flow, growth of nerve cells and
development of nerve connections. Teaching children good behavioral actions can heighten their
ability to have fun and it will also encourage them to adopt physical activity into their everyday
routines outside of a school setting. Physical health allows children to be able to function better
in a classroom too. My main focus was to look at how well children in a school aged
environment are influenced by good behaviors while playing to boost their movement. Children
at this age are still understanding the basics of jumping, throwing and catching so always be sure
to set realistic expectations for them. When it comes down to setting realistic expectations, its
important to know how much the children can handle mentally and physically. Too much
competition for the kids can make them become frustrated, resulting in the lack of wanting to
participate.
4
The concept of win at all costs is unrealistic and it creates an unhealthy environment
for children. Students academic performances are being negatively affected by bad
sportsmanship inside the classroom. Children that spend more time fighting and arguing lose
more time actually being able to be active. At this age, children learn a lot more about their self-
esteem. As a teacher, its important that you consider a childs fitness personality. Genetics and
athletic abilities are both huge roles that can affect kids attitudes toward whether or not they
want to participate. Through a recent study on fifth graders at a public elementary school in
Illinois, it showed that sportsmanship is a huge problem at the school. After doing a conducted
survey of checklists, the teacher decided that weekly interventions including role-playing,
journaling and discussions would allow the students to have a type of ownership in the
classroom. Doing these types of exercises helped the children handle class situations and set
goals. After a month of this study, the teacher saw an improvement in the students ability to
have positive sportsmanship behavior.
Physical education for children should not just be about giving children time out of their
learning environment to run around, but should be about promoting a healthy lifestyle. Children
are at the age where they need to increase their cardiovascular fitness, strength and flexibility
while learning lifelong skills. Childhood obesity is becoming such an issue, especially in
children, that the only way to help reduce the risk is through positive reinforcements. Teaching
children at a young age that being healthy can also be a fun experience for them is very
important. If children arent getting taught positive ways to act, it leads to them not wanting to
partake in play with other children causing that lack of activity they desperately need.

5
References
Wells, M., Ellis, G., Paisley, K., & Arthur-Banning, S. (2005). Development and
Evaluation of a Program to Promote Sportsmanship in Youth Sports. Journal Of Park And
Recreation Administration, 23(1).
Shulman, M. D. (2013, May 1). Increasing Positive Sportsmanship in Elementary
Physical Education Using Prosocial Behavior Interventions. Online Submission,
Kovar, S., Combs, C., Campbell, K., Napper-Owen, G., & Worrell, V. (2012).
Elementaryclassroom teachers as movement educators. (4th ed., pp. 2-7). New York, NY:
TheMcGraw-Hill Companies.