An Alternative View Of University Physical Education: Flow Theory

This study evaluates current Chinese university Physical Education class teaching and students'learning experience. The study employed a Table Tennis class from Tsinghua University as a case study. The study used Flow Theory (Csikszentmihalyi, M.) to measure students'experience in the class for evaluation. Flow Theory is a psychological state of total involvement in an activity that is so absorbing and enjoyable that the individual forgets anything else that is not activity-related.The result indicated that there is a low-negative or inverse correlation between Flow experience and students'overall academic grades. However, there is a much stronger correlation between the Flow experience and students'competition grades in the class. Further, the study indicated that these four particular elements of Flow experience: CHALLENG-SKILLS BALANCE, MERGING OF AWERNESS AND ACTION, CLEAR GOALS and SENSE OF CONTROL have the highest correlation with students'competition experience. The educators and coaches could apply Flow experience in university Table Tennis class starting with these particular four elements of Flow; Further, this research method could be employed to improve other fields of higher education learning simply due to the"Universal"characteristic of the Flow Theory.Current research provided a psychological point of view in modern University Physical Education, so that the university educators and coaches can encourage students to obtain the optimal learning experience in their classes.