University students’ participation in sports and its implications for academic performance
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Date
2016
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
The University of Dodoma
Abstract
The study was on university students' participation in sports and its implications on
academic performances. The study had four following objectives; firstly to explore
rationale of introducing sports among university students, secondly to investigate the
perceptions of university about participation in sports ,thirdly to find out the extents
to which university students participate in sports and lastly to establish contributions
of students‟ participation in sports on academic performances. The study was
conducted in selected universities in Dodoma, Kilimajaro and Arusha region.In
addition the current study was built around the Astins‟(1984) Theory of Student
Involvement and Drive theory in sports psychology by Hull (1943).Moreover the
study employed mixed approach both quantitative and qualitative approach under
descriptive survey design and methods. Besides the study used questionnaire,
interview schedule as well as likert scale for collecting data. The sample of the
study included, 200 university students, 2 deans of students and 4 college sports
tutors. Random sampling and purposive sampling strategies were used during the
study. These two sampling strategies were employed for selecting the university
students as well as college sports tutors and deans of students. The study mainly
found the followings: firstly, it was reported that sports in the university were
introduced for positive academic achievements to university students‟ welfare. The
responses from university students, college sports tutors and deans of students
affirmed that sports in the university plays an important role in fostering students‟
mindset career, for socializations, to maintain disciplinary actions, in attaining good
health and sports is for academic wellbeing of students. Secondly the responses from
the university students, college sports tutors and dean of students obtained through
interviews and questionnaires exposed that majority of the university students had positive perception on participating in sports. They recognize many positive benefits
of participation in sports that involving in sports was associated with a range of
physical, emotional, social, educational and other benefits.
Thirdly, it was found for the third research objective that, about 65% of the
respondents were reported that they frequently participated in various forms of sports
ranging from indoors to outdoor ones. However the extent of participation differed
from one university to another depending on the facilities available, thus some had
few facilities like grounds, balls and stretched studying timetable. Lastly the findings
from the fourth research objective of the study revealed that, participation in sports
contributes to academic performances. In fact it was discovered that academic
learning and sports participation were complements to each other as it was revealed
that students who participate in sports performed better academically than those who
did not participate in sports. Finally the study provided recommendations in terms of
improving policies, practices as well as furthering research in the studied area.
Description
Dissertation (MA Education)
Keywords
Sports, Games, Academic performances, University students’ sports, Performance, University students’ games
Citation
Machange, J. (2016). University students’ participation in sports and its implications for academic performance. Dodoma: The University of Dodoma.