Engineering Students Opinion On Pe 603100 Sports And Health: An Introductory Physical Education Course At The Hashemite University In Jordan
- Conference
- Location
-
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Publication Date
-
June 22, 2008
- Start Date
-
June 22, 2008
- End Date
-
June 25, 2008
- ISSN
-
2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
-
International
- Page Count
-
13
- Page Numbers
-
13.525.1 - 13.525.13
- DOI
-
10.18260/1-2--4286
- Permanent URL
-
https://peer.asee.org/4286
- Download Count
-
1396
Paper Authors
Aiman Kuzmar Pennsylvania State University-Fayette
AIMAN S. KUZMAR is an assistant professor of engineering at Penn State Fayette, the Eberly Campus. He holds a Ph. D. degree from Duke University. He has a Mastes degree from Rice University. His B. S. is from the University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia. All of his degrees are in civil engineering. His industrial experience includes working as an Engineer for the NCDOT. He is a registered engineer in North Carolina.
Abedalbasit Abedalhafiz Faculty of Physical Education and Sports Sciences, Hashemite University,
ABDELBASIT ABDELHAFEZ is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports Sciences at the Hashemite University, Zarqa, Jordan, and he is the Dean of Students' Affairs. He holds a Ph. D. degree from the University of Pittsburgh in Motor Behavior. He has a Master’s and a BS degrees from the Univ. of Jordan in Physical Education. He is a member in many committees inside and outside the Hashemite University.
Taima Alhiyari Al-Balqaa Applied University
Mrs. Taima Alhyari is an instructor in the Dept. of Special Education at Al-Balqaa Applied
University in Salt, Jordan. She received a B.A. degree in Arabic Literature in 1995 and an M. A.
degree in Special Education in 2000. Both are from the University of Jordan. She is about to start
her Doctorate program in Special Education. She worked as an educator in many places including
the Universal Academy of Pittsburgh and the Kinder Kinetic Program of the University of
Pittsburgh in the US.
Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract
Engineering Students Opinion on PE 603100 – Sports and Health: an Introductory Physical Education Course at the Hashemite University in Jordan
Abstract
In general, engineering curricula at most of the universities in the world do not require students to take Physical Education courses. There are a few exceptions, as some universities require such courses. Several engineering departments accept such courses to fill social, humanity and art requirements. This is despite the strong link between physical fitness and mental preparedness. It is acceptable to state that physical activities increase the learning capacity of all students including those in the engineering fields. The Department of Physical Education and Sports Science at the Hashemite University in Zarqa, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan offers various courses on physical education. The engineering departments at this university do not require their students to take physical education courses. Nonetheless, many engineering students take physical courses. Up to one third of the students are from engineering majors in introductory physical education courses. This seems to be a strong indication that physical courses are perceived well by engineering students. Qualitative statements like this need to be supported by quantitative assessments. Such assessments can then be used to decide the appropriate policies by various engineering departments on the inclusion or exclusion of physical education in their curricula. This paper at hand is on this specific topic.
The PE 603100 course of: Sports and Health is offered at the Hashemite University by the Department of Physical Education and Sports Science. In one particular section of this course, about 100 students are enrolled. Within this group, 30% of the students have engineering majors. A survey was distributed to these engineering students to gauge their opinions on this specific course. The survey aimed to understand why these students were taking this particular course and its relationship to their engineering education.
Besides gauging the opinion of the students on this specific course, a hypothesis was also formulated by the authors. One part of the hypothesis was the belief that students like this course because they see the importance of physical activities to their education process. It was a surprise however to see that this motivation was not the leading factor in the students decisions to take this course. Instead, the leading factor was to get a good grade in this PE course to balance the grades of the engineering courses they take. Nonetheless, the paper provided a lot of information which might be helpful to decide whether engineering programs should include mandatory physical education courses in their curricula or not.
Kuzmar, A., & Abedalhafiz, A., & Alhiyari, T. (2008, June), Engineering Students Opinion On Pe 603100 Sports And Health: An Introductory Physical Education Course At The Hashemite University In Jordan Paper presented at 2008 Annual Conference & Exposition, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 10.18260/1-2--4286
ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2008 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015