| This study was designed to find out if students felt negatively about physical fitness testing and understood the purpose of conducting it. Another hypothesis of this study was to discover if those students that felt negative about physical fitness testing also performed poorly when actually taking the physical fitness tests. Finally, it was hypothesized whether or not students were comfortable with their environmental surroundings while taking the physical fitness tests and if this had any impact on their performance. Each subject was tested in four physical fitness tests; the PACER test, the Sit-and-Reach test, the Pull-Up/Arm-Hang test and the Sit-Up test. After each subject had been physically tested they were given a 40-item likert based questionnaire to assess their opinions and attitudes towards the physical fitness testing. The sample population used in this study consisted of 97 students (52 males and 45 females) from a suburban middle school in New Jersey. While the participants in this study reported they understood the purpose of physical fitness testing and felt positive about the testing experience, the data analysis indicates that the student perception about physical fitness testing does not strongly affect their performance. In three out of the four physical fitness tests administered this particular population scored below average within the physical fitness testing standards. In addition, it was found that the subjects did not feel uncomfortable with their surroundings or environment while being physically tested. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that there is little or no correlation between how students feel about physical fitness testing and how they actually perform. |
