Awareness of olympic issues and evaluations of the olympic concepts among the school of physical education and sport students

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to determine the awareness of Olympic Issues and evaluations in relation to Olympic concepts among the school of physical education and sport students. In the study, descriptive method was used and the "Olympic Information Form" which was developed by the researchers was used to collect data. The form included "Olympic games" "history", "persons" and "institutions", "symbols", "concepts" and "Olympic ideals". 726 students  from 11 different schools of physical education and sports in six different regions participated in the study. Also the qualitative methodology was used to gather data from the written evaluations through open ended questions. In order to increase the reliability and to decrease the subjectivity of the study the qualitative data obtained through open ended questions were numerically grouped. Therefore it was possible to make a comparison between the themes found and categories. Four researchers worked independently on qualitative analysis and the results were compared to reveal the similarities and differences. For the validity of the study the findings were combined to gather meaningful and consistent data. As a result 77.8% of the students were aware that the Olympic Games take place every four years. However 69.7% of them did not know when the first Olympic Games were organized. 78.9% of the students did not know the organization which represents the Olympic Movement in the world and 71.1% of them did not know it for Turkey. Findings for symbols showed that the Olympic Rings were mentioned in the first place both verbally and visually. In the analysis of the Olympic concepts, sport and organization were found. In the concept of Olympism, organization and management and ideas of Olympic Games, and in the concept of Olympic Movement physical movement and Olympic Ideas were found.  It was also found that among the first five con­cepts the initial reaction of the students when the Olympic Games were mentioned were: sports/sport branches (38.14%; 10.34%; 7.73%) in the first, second and fourth place; and the other two concepts competition (8.35%) and success (6.42%). For the ideals in sports, the themes such as fair play and winning were dominant whereas in the answers related to fair play, respect and friendship in sport were dominant. In conclusion it may be argued that the students did not have an adequate level of awareness in Olympic Issues and they tended to focus on sport and competition in the evaluation of the Olympic concepts.