Recreational Sport in Higher Education Students, Research Paper Example

The value of recreational sport activities in higher education students

Overview of the study

This research paper is intended to provide a clear understanding of the value of recreational sports in college and university students. Recreational sports programs have been an integral part of the out of-class room experiences of college and university students for many years. Up to around 1970s, almost all, the colleges and universities in USA had received nominal funding to improve recreational sports facilities. Over the last 30 years, recreational programs in campuses has evolved and grown enormously into a big departments and administrative units involved in organizing sports activities for students and staff. This research paper will focus on the value of recreational sport in higher education and the need for recreational sports (Carini, Kuh, & Klein, 2006).

Rationale for the study

Recreational programs in many campuses have grown from humble beginnings as many of them began as mere intramural sport programs. Recreational sport activities encompass many areas, which include; aquatics, sports clubs, fitness, and outdoor pursuit programs. According to research done by Allexander Astins (1984), extra-curricular activities and recreational programs contribute positively to the students educational performance. The activities contribute to student’s recruitment and retention, enhance student’s experience, and contribute to the overall development of the student. Another research study by the national intramural-recreational sports association (NIRSA) reveals that cumpus recreational programs have a positive effect to the student’s academic performance. In addition, this research reveals that students who frequently make use of recreation centers score higher GPA grades than their counter parts who do not participate in any recreational programs in the campus. According to the research done by, Edwin bencraft (2009) physical activity has a very strong relationship with brain development and cognitive performance. Edwin argues, “Sensory and motor experiences play a prominent role in reinforcing… synaptic connections and neural pathways”. Eric Jensen’s 1998 research also revealed that the cerebellum part of the brain is dedicated to both motor activities, cognitive and sensory operations. This research further supports the strong relationship of the cerebellum to memory, perception, language and decision making pointing out physical activity as a way to enhance cognition. In summary, physical activity/ recreational activities improves cognitive functioning by increasing the number of capillaries serving the brain in removing carbon dioxide and supplying glucose and oxygen. Finally, physical activities reduce production of stress hormones that inhibit cognitive processing.

Kerr and Downs (2002)research report commissioned by NIRSA board of directors provides that recreational activities benefit higher education students in a number of way which include; stress reduction, self-confidence improvement, character building, leadership skills improvement, time management assistance, makes students feel part of the college community and improves interaction with different groups of people. This research study makes it clear that recreational activities have positive contribution to the student’s well being in the college. As well, helps the students to achieve their educational goals by promoting their growth and development and encouraging communal activities.

In addition to recreational activities improving student’s academic performance, it also enhances their health and fitness. This is according to reports published by the Surgeon General, U.S. Department of Health Services and American Heart Association in 1999 and 2002. The reports provides that, recreational activities, reduce the risk of heart diseases, keeps weight under control, improves cholesterol level, boosts energy level, improves self- image, increase muscular strength, release tension, improves ability to fall asleep, counters anxiety and depression and increases enthusiasm and optimism. Further, recreational activities prolong the quality of life by delaying and preventing chronic illness associated with aging. The studies above reveal that recreational activities / sports are beneficial to students both academically and physically (Collins, Valerius, King, & Graham, 2001).

Despite the benefits associated with recreational activities, some campuses have not endeavored to put in place recreational facilities in their colleges for student use. Some of the colleges receive funds from the government and well-wishers to improve recreational facilities but end up squandering the funds and not improving the facilities. This has led to the slowing rate of growth of recreations facilities in some campuses. For instance, Kerr downs (2002) report reveals that NIRSA invested about $11.69 billion from 1995 to 2000 in the new and renovated recreational facilities in USA across all higher education institutions but much was not achieved due to corruption (Kerr & Downs 2002).

In addition to some people not putting many efforts in creating recreational facilities in higher institutions of learning, students do not see the value of recreational facilities or the value of their participation in recreational sports. Many of them only concentrate on academic activities and leave alone recreation sports claiming that it wastes time.

From the above literature, it is evident that recreational activities play a great role in building the students’ both mind and body. This is the reason why I intended to carry out this research study to be able to investigate and ascertain the value of recreation in higher institution of learning (Moore, & Driver, 2005).

Research questions

1. Do recreational sport activities add value to higher education students?
2. How can higher education students benefit from recreational sport activities?
3. Is there a relationship between recreational activities and student academic performance/ cognitive growth?

Hypothesis

1. Recreational sport activities enhances students development and growth in academic performance
2. Students who participate actively in recreational sport activities scored higher GPA grades as compared with student who do not participate in recreational activities.
3. Recreations sport activities help build students academic performance and health fitness.

Composition of the sample

For the success of this research study, 40 university students will be selected and interviewed on their perspective or feeling about recreational sport activities. The students will be selected from four universities with each university producing 5 male student and 5 female students. The four universities will be selected based on the objectives of the research, financial resources available and the time limitations. The sample size of 40 students will be determined using the available budget and the rules of thumb. Non-probability method of sampling will be used to select students for interviews to represent the whole population. The interviews will be conducted at the specific universities, each student will be interviewed separately, and the information will be audio and video recorded for comparison and analysis. During the interviews, structured and semi- structured interviews questions will be used to be able to direct the interview and consequently source as much information from the respondents as possible. The interviews will be planned to take a maximum of 45 min to -1hr.

In addition to interviews, 10 questionnaires will be prepared and distributed online to students and staff from one university. Of the 10 questionnaire, 3 will be sent online to the university teaching staff, which comprised of 1 female and 2 male lecturer. The remaining, 7 questionnaires will be sent to 5 male and 2 female students from the university. Invitation online sampling technique will be used to inform the alerted respondents to fill online questionnaire which will be hosted on the researcher’s website. The respondents will be requested to fill the questionnaire, which will take them only five minutes.

Methods of data collection

Primary data will be collected qualitatively using interviews and questionnaires. Phenomenical in-depth Interviews will be selected because they provided first hand information about the student’s perception on the value of recreational activities. Structured questions will enable the researchers to guide the interview session and consequently source enough information concerning the research questions in case the interviewee strayed from the main interview question. Semi-structured interviews will be used to balance the interviews so that the students will feel free to respond and express their feeling about recreational sport activities in their college. The interviews will be audio recorded and transcribed for further analysis (Fontana, & Frey, 2005).

In addition to interviews, Questionnaires will be used to collect qualitative data about the value of recreational sport activities on university students. The design of the Questionnaires questions will properly reflect the research study questions. Before inviting respondents to fill online questionnaire, they will be informed of the importance of their participation on the study. The respondents will be given one week to read and fill the questionnaire at their own time. After one week, the researchers will open the website where the questionnaire was hosted and use it to carry out data analysis. The questionnaire will be selected since the resources for the study are limited and many data was needed to be collected from the students. Additionally, questionnaire was selected to gather information concerning knowledge, believes, attitudes and behaviors of students on recreational sports activities.

Data analysis methods

Data analysis is the process of inspecting, cleaning, transforming and modeling data to highlight useful information to be able to draw conclusions and make descriptions. Various techniques are used to analyze qualitative data. For the sake of this research study, content analysis method will be used to analyze qualitative data collected from the interviews and questionnaire (Creswell, 2007). Content analysis will involve analyzing the contents of an interview and the questionnaire to identify the themes that emerge from the respondent’s responses. This process will involve the following four steps;

1. Identifying the main themes
2. Assigning codes to the main themes
3. Classifying responses under the main themes
4. Integrating themes and responses into the text report

Content analysis involves analyzing the materials which the researchers ask people to produce through interviews, questions and verbal protocols. With this method of data analysis, sampling or deciding what to select from enormous amount of material collected is the first step.

The second step in content analysis will be constructing the coding units into which the information is to be grouped. This will require the researchers to have a considerable amount of knowledge of information to be employed in content analysis. Content analysis goes hand in hand with the hypothesis so that coding units can allow these hypotheses to be tested effectively. Categories will be very specific i.e. Or general like the themes of recreational sports activities. Students who indulge in recreational activities will be rated on a 7 point scale. Also coding will involve ranking the students statement in terms of the extent to which they indulged in recreational sports activities. Content analysis will provide a way of extracting rich information from the real world setting. Recreational sport activities enhance both student health and academic well being. so it will be important to analyze this facts in details.

Projected usefulness of finding / generalizability of findings

This proposed study will be able to provide the truth behind the recreational sport activities and its relationship to the student academic performance and health concerns. Considering the population which was selected for study, the results of the research study can be generalized since the number of the participants was many reflecting the perceptions of the whole population of study.

The study will be able to show the experience and the importance of the recreational sport activities to students in higher education in enhancing the quality of life, improving academic performance and providing a living laboratory for developing and maintaining active healthy lifestyles among the university members and the society (Clark, B.S. & Anderson, 2011). This proposed study will also be able to show the effects of recreational sport activity classes can have on student development at the university level. This will also enable future research to continue to look at the effects of recreational sport activity classes at other universities (Astin, 1984). Research should further explore the impacts for credit recreational sport activity classes have on students’ future vocational aspirations and endeavors. To provide examples that campus recreation plays a role in student development (Clark, B.S. & Anderson, and D.M. 2011).

Further, the study should also be able to provide that the studied concerning health and wellness of the society as well as the university community indicate that physical activities, good nutrition, and body weight controls are pillars of staying fit and health. Finally, the study will be able to show that, recreational sport activities have a very strong connection to student’s academic performance and wellness and health living.

Reference

Astin, A.W. (1984). Student involvement: A development theory for higher education. Journal of College Student Personnel, 25, 297-308.

Bencraft, C. Edwin. (2009). “Relationship between Physical Activity, Brain Development and Cognitive Performance.” Brain Research and Physical Activity: Maryland Physical Education Study Group Report. SPEAK Kit, Vol. 2. Reston, VA: American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.

Carini, R.M., Kuh, G.D., & Klein, S.P. (2006). “Student engagement and student learning: Testing the linkages”. Research in Higher Education, 47(1), 1-32.

Clark, B.S. & Anderson, D.M. (2011). “Id be dead if I didn’t have this class” The role of leisure education in college student development. Recreational Sports Journal, 35, 45-54.

Collins. J.R., Valerius, L., King, T.C., & Graham, A.P. (2001). “The relationship between college students’ self-esteem and the frequency and importance of their participation in recreational activities”. NIRSA Journal, 25(2), 38-47.

Creswell, J.W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. Thousand Oak, CA: Sage Publication, Inc.

Flowers, L.A. (2004). “Examining the effects of student involvement on African American college student development”. Journal of College Student Development, 45(6), 633-654.

Fontana, A., & Frey, J. (2005). The interview: From neutral stance to political involvement. In N.K.

Jensen, Eric. 1998. Teaching with the Brain in Mind. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Developmen

Kerr & Downs (2002). Research Report commissioned by the NIRSA Board of Directors

Moore, D., & Driver, B.L. (2005). Introduction to outdoor recreation: Providing and managing natural resource based opportunities. State College, PA: Venture Publishing, Inc.