FROM THE SPORTS HALL INTO

THE CLASSROOM:
Learning Life Skills through Sport

A thesis submitted for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy
by
Georgia Allen

School of Sport and Education

Brunel University

6th September 2013

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ABSTRACT
This study draws upon a wide range of research to examine
underachievement in UK schools. With underachievement continuing to be present
within the UK’s educational system, it is essential that a remedy is found. The notion
that physical activity is linked to an increase in academic performance is not a new
concept; however researchers are still trying to determine the scope of such a claim.
There is a widespread belief that sport can be used as a vehicle to promote positive
youth development. In particular, using sport to teach adolescents various life skills
has become popular over the previous decade. However, little research has looked at
the transfer of life skills into other academic and life domains. Therefore the
overarching purpose of this study was to determine if an after-school, sports based
life skills programme had any impact on male underachievement within the UK
education system.
The Transfer-Ability Programme (TAP) was a multi-faceted intervention,
which sought to teach twenty underachieving, male students life skills through sport.
The results have been presented in three phases with Phase 1 determining the impact
of TAP on academic performance in Science, Phase 2 examined the perceptions of
the twelve-thirteen year old participants on whether they transferred life skills from
the sports hall into the classroom during TAP, and Phase 3 explored the enablers and
barriers that facilitated or prevented life transfer. Statistical results indicate that the
intervention groups’ academic grades significantly improved during the intervention
to a level above teaching prediction. This suggests that teaching life skills through
sport may reduce male underachievement. T-tests show that the participants in the
intervention group perceived their learning of life skills to significantly increase pre-
post TAP. Interview data also supports the notion that the intervention group
participants perceived to have learnt the life skills and then transferred them into
other academic domains. Phase 3 highlighted five themes that enable or prevent life
skill transfer; Support from peers, Pride, Opportunities, Rewards and Transfer
experience. These themes are collectively referred to as the SPORT model. The
results show that young adolescent males can learn and transfer life skills if
deliberately taught to do so. Finally, the findings are discussed with reference to how
teachers and physical educators may teach life skills within their lessons, and how
life skill transfer may be supported.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it.
(William Arthur Ward)

Despite my imagination and dreams, this PhD would not have been possible
without the help and support of many people. Special thanks go to my supervisors,
Professor Valsa Koshy and Dr Daniel Rhind for their time, support, guidance and
most importantly their patience. I thank you both for enduring the countless drafts
and revisions. It has been an honour to work with you both! I would also like to take
this opportunity to thank Dr Jacqueline Hebron, whose vision started this PhD.
Special thanks go to the students and staff involved in this study. Not only
did you allow me into your school but you accepted me into your community and
this PhD is only complete thanks to you all.
Thanks go to my friends in the RFO. Gary Dear, your wit and humour
definitely kept me entertained. Thank you for showing me how to be a true
professional! Coral Hankins and Genevieve Dewez, thank you for all your support.
Julie Bradshaw, your continued support and guidance throughout the last three years
has been invaluable. Thank you…. again! I would also like to thank the School of
Sport and Education at Brunel University for providing me with a studentship and
the opportunity to complete my PhD.
Thank you to all my PhD friends Dr Hayley Barton, Dr Nicola Theis, Dr
Leighton Jones, Nicholas Tiller, Andrew Simpson, Steven Trangmar, Scott Chiesa,
Adam Cocks and Sean Williams who have provided endless support. Christopher
Stock, thank you for your support and friendship. Thanks also go to Dr Noel
Kinrade, who taught me deadlines are meant to be broken and for helping me on the
road to becoming a new academic.
My biggest thanks go to my fiancé Rob, who encouraged me to become a
mature (?) student and fulfil a dream. It has been an adventure you have also had to
endure. I thank you for your endless support, especially during the difficult times
when I thought this study would never get off the ground let alone be finished. You
made the difficult times easier and the easier times more enjoyable. Thank you for
sharing my dream!
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Kris and Rory, I thank you both. You guys are a double act that can always
make me laugh. I am so very proud of you both! Finally, I dedicate this PhD to my
Mam and Dad. You have always believed in me, even when I didn’t believe in
myself. Without your constant and continued support this would never have been
possible. Thank you for everything!
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CONTENTS PAGE
1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1

1.1 The Importance of Sport for Youth Development .......................................... 1

1.1.1 Adolescents, youths, and young people ................................................... 2
1.1.2 Positive youth development ..................................................................... 2
1.2 Political Agenda and Influence on School Sport ............................................ 7
1.3 School Sport Interventions .............................................................................. 9
1.4 Physical Education and the Role of Physical Educators ............................... 11
1.5 The Need for this Study ................................................................................ 11
1.6 Aims of the Study ......................................................................................... 13
1.7 Structure of Thesis ........................................................................................ 14
2 Literature Review............................................................................................... 15

2.1 Underachievement......................................................................................... 15
2.1.1 Defining underachievement ................................................................... 16
2.1.2 The impact of underachievement ........................................................... 18
2.1.3 Underachievement in practice ................................................................ 19
2.1.4 Causes of underachievement .................................................................. 23
2.1.4.1 Gender ............................................................................................. 23
2.1.4.2 Differences in ethnicity ................................................................... 26
2.1.4.3 The role of social class .................................................................... 28
2.1.4.4 The effects of poverty ..................................................................... 30
2.1.4.5 The potential consequences of family structure .............................. 31
2.1.5 Summary relating to the aspects of underachievement .......................... 33
2.2 The Impact of Sport, Exercise and Physical Activity ................................... 35
2.2.1 Impact of sport on academic achievement ............................................. 35
2.2.2 How sport may improve academic achievement ................................... 37
2.2.2.1 Physiological factors ....................................................................... 37
2.2.2.2 Psychological factors ...................................................................... 37
2.2.2.3 Sociological factors ......................................................................... 38
2.2.3 Motivation related to participation ......................................................... 39
2.3 Life-Skills...................................................................................................... 42
2.3.1 Definition of life skills ........................................................................... 42
2.3.2 Life skills in sport .................................................................................. 43
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2.3.3 Caught or Taught.................................................................................... 46

2.3.4 Transfer of skills .................................................................................... 47
2.3.5 Existing life skill programmes ............................................................... 50
2.3.5.1 GOAL.............................................................................................. 50
2.3.5.2 SUPER ............................................................................................ 52
2.3.5.3 Evaluations of life skill interventions ............................................. 54
2.4 Summary ....................................................................................................... 55
3 The Transfer-Ability Programme .................................................................... 57

3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 57

3.2 Rationale for Sport Intervention.................................................................... 58
3.3 Life Skills Taught in TAP ............................................................................. 59
3.4 How the Life Skills were Taught .................................................................. 60
3.5 Frameworks used in TAP .............................................................................. 63
3.6 The Case Study School ................................................................................. 64
3.7 Inclusion Criteria ........................................................................................... 66
3.7.1 How underachievement was defined for this study ............................... 67
3.8 Participants .................................................................................................... 67
3.8.1 The intervention group ........................................................................... 68
3.8.2 The comparison group............................................................................ 69
3.8.3 Ethnicity ................................................................................................. 69
3.9 Teacher Interaction and Teaching Styles ...................................................... 70
3.10 Summary ....................................................................................................... 70
4 Methodology ....................................................................................................... 71

4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 71

4.2 Philosophical Perspective.............................................................................. 71
4.3 The Mixed Methods Approach ..................................................................... 73
4.3.1 Convergent parallel design ..................................................................... 75
4.3.2 Learning Perspectives ............................................................................ 77
4.4 Methods ......................................................................................................... 78
4.4.1 Case study .............................................................................................. 78
4.4.1.1 Types of case studies ....................................................................... 79
4.4.1.2 Generalisation of case study research ............................................. 80
4.5 Focus Groups ................................................................................................ 82
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4.5.1 Focus groups in TAP .............................................................................. 83

4.6 Interviews ...................................................................................................... 83
4.6.1 Interviews in TAP .................................................................................. 84
4.6.2 Critical evaluation of qualitative methods ............................................. 84
4.6.3 The transferable skills questionnaire ...................................................... 87
4.7 Other Data Collection Methods .................................................................... 89
4.8 Piloting .......................................................................................................... 89
4.9 Validity, Reliability, Trustworthiness and Triangulation ............................. 91
4.9.1 Validity................................................................................................... 91
4.9.2 Reliability ............................................................................................... 92
4.9.3 Trustworthiness ...................................................................................... 93
4.9.4 Triangulation .......................................................................................... 94
4.10 Qualitative Data Analysis ............................................................................. 95
4.11 Quantitative Data .......................................................................................... 98
4.12 Ethics ............................................................................................................. 98
4.12.1 Confidentiality ..................................................................................... 98
4.12.2 Informed consent .................................................................................. 99
4.12.3 Withdrawal from the study................................................................. 101
4.12.4 CRB disclosure and coaching experience .......................................... 101
4.12.5 Permission to publish ......................................................................... 101
4.13 Summary ..................................................................................................... 101
5 Results and discussion ..................................................................................... 103

5.1 Phase 1 ........................................................................................................ 103

5.1.1 Methods ................................................................................................ 104
5.1.1.1 Data collection .............................................................................. 104
5.1.1.2 Statistical analysis ......................................................................... 104
5.1.2 Results .................................................................................................. 105
5.1.2.1 Academic performance ................................................................. 106
5.1.3 Discussion ............................................................................................ 108
Phase 2 ................................................................................................................. 111
5.2 Introduction ................................................................................................. 111
5.2.1 Method ................................................................................................. 111
5.2.1.1 Data collection .............................................................................. 111
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5.2.1.2 Questionnaire analysis .................................................................. 112

5.2.1.3 Interviews ...................................................................................... 112
5.2.1.4 Interview analysis.......................................................................... 113
5.2.2 Results .................................................................................................. 114
5.2.2.1 ANOVAs ....................................................................................... 115
5.2.3 T-tests and interview data for each life skill ........................................ 116
5.2.3.1 Discipline ...................................................................................... 116
5.2.3.2 Communication ............................................................................. 117
5.2.3.3 Teamwork ..................................................................................... 118
5.2.3.4 Self-confidence and positive self-talk ........................................... 119
5.2.3.5 Concentration ................................................................................ 120
5.2.3.6 Persistence ..................................................................................... 121
5.2.3.7 Goal Setting................................................................................... 123
5.2.3.8 Teacher, parent, and student comments ........................................ 124
5.2.4 Discussion ............................................................................................ 126
5.3 Phase 3 ........................................................................................................ 129
5.3.1 Introduction .......................................................................................... 129
5.3.2 Method ................................................................................................. 129
5.3.2.1 Data collection .............................................................................. 129
5.3.2.2 Interview analysis.......................................................................... 130
5.3.3 Results .................................................................................................. 131
5.3.3.1 Support from peers ........................................................................ 131
5.3.3.2 Pride .............................................................................................. 134
5.3.3.3 Opportunities ................................................................................. 135
5.3.3.4 Rewards ......................................................................................... 140
5.3.3.5 Transfer experience ....................................................................... 141
5.3.4 Discussion ............................................................................................ 142
5.3.5 Chapter summary ................................................................................. 145
6 Conclusion......................................................................................................... 147

6.1 Aims of the Study and Key Findings .......................................................... 147

6.2 Contribution to Theory................................................................................ 149
6.3 Contribution to Existing Research .............................................................. 153
6.4 Contribution to Practice .............................................................................. 156
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6.4.1 Government and policy ........................................................................ 156

6.4.2 The PE National Curriculum (NC) and PE teachers ............................ 157
6.4.3 Guidance for schools ............................................................................ 160
6.4.3.1 Information for Schools implementing life skill programmes ...... 161
6.5 A critical evaluation and reflection of the intervention .............................. 165
6.5.1 Problematizing the concept of Underachievement ............................. 167
6.6 Limitations .................................................................................................. 168
6.7 Further Research ......................................................................................... 171
6.8 Concluding Remarks ................................................................................... 174
6.9 Final Comment ............................................................................................ 175
References ............................................................................................................... 176
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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1 – The Five Cs ............................................................................................. 3

Table 1.2 – Benefits of Sport Participation .............................................................. 6

Table 2.1 – Overview of GOAL Workshops .......................................................... 51

Table 2.2 – Overview of SUPER Workshops ........................................................ 53

Table 3.1 – Life Skills and Sports Included in TAP .............................................. 60

Table 3.2 – TAP Planner ......................................................................................... 62

Table 3.3 – OFSTED Information on Case Study School .................................... 65

Table 3.4 – Ethnicity Groups of Participants ........................................................ 69

Table 4.1 – Interpretive and Positivist Approaches .............................................. 73

Table 4.2 – Eight Questions of Trustworthiness ................................................... 94

Table 5.1 – Means and Standard Deviations ....................................................... 105

Table 5.2 – Means and Standard Deviations ....................................................... 114

Table 5.3 – SPORT Model ..................................................................................... 131

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1 – Gould and Carson’s Theoretical Framework .................................. 45

Figure 4.1 – Convergent Parallel Mixed Method Design in TAP ........................ 76

Figure 4.2 – Case Study Data Collection Model .................................................... 82

Figure 4.3 – Data Collection Overview .................................................................. 90

Figure 4.4 – Data Analysis Model ........................................................................... 97

Figure 5.1 – Trajectory of Academic Grades ...................................................... 107

Figure 5.2 – Perceived Ability to use Life Skills .................................................. 116

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LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix 1 – Semi-structure Interview Guide.................................................... 206

Appendix 2 – Transferable Skill Questionnaire – Participant .......................... 208

Appendix 3– Transferable Skill Questionnaire – Teacher ................................. 209

Appendix 4 – Ethics Approval .............................................................................. 210

Appendix 5 – Research Information Sheet .......................................................... 211

Appendix 6 – Assent Form .................................................................................... 215

Appendix 7 – Consent Form ................................................................................. 216

Appendix 8 – Demographic Data Form ............................................................... 217

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1 INTRODUCTION

We can reach far more people through sport than we can

through political or educational programmes. In that way, sport
is more powerful than politics. (Nelson Mandela)

Physical activity and sport are widely used as vehicles to promote the
development of young people. For over a decade UK central governments have had
an interest in youth sport and physical education policy, which has resulted in sport
receiving unprecedented funding from 2001-2010 (Harvey and O’Donovan, 2011).
Sport has been used in an attempt to cure a range of social issues such as public
health, social exclusion, and academic performance (Green, 2006). Whilst sport can
have a positive effect on academic attainment, results at present remain inconclusive.
This thesis sought to provide clarification through examining the impact of a sport-
based life skills intervention on academic performance.
This chapter introduces the topics surrounding school sport and outlines
current government policies. The role of physical education, physical educators, and
the National Curriculum are introduced. The rationale for this study is outlined and
the main research aims that this study will address are presented. Finally, the
potential implications of this research are highlighted and the research questions this
study will explore are presented.

1.1 The Importance of Sport for Youth Development

Sport has long been linked with positive youth development (Fraser-Thomas
et al, 2005; Wells and Arthur-Banning, 2008; Wright and Li, 2009) and social
inclusion (Coalter, 2007; Collins, 2004; Waring and Mason, 2010). Sport has
received growing interest and support over the last forty years. It is assumed that
participation in sport and physical activities can lead to social and economic
regeneration, can reduce crime and positively impact on health and education
(Coalter, 2007; Hoye et al, 2010; Sandford et al, 2010). It is understood that sport is
far-reaching irrespective of gender, social background and ethnicity. The concept
that sport builds character and promotes positive youth development are the main
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reasons why a plethora of sport initiatives have been implemented in order to fix
many problems in the UK (Sandford et al, 2010). Growing evidence suggests that
sport has an immediate and sustained impact on young people who participate, which
makes sport a popular choice when working with youths (Sandford et al, 2008;
2010).

1.1.1 Adolescents, youths, and young people

It is important at this point to discuss the terminology used when referring to
youths, adolescents and young people. Although the terms are often used
interchangeably, there are age guidelines available to distinguish between
adolescence, youths and young people. Adolescence is typically viewed as the
second decade of human life (Lerner and Steinberg, 2004), usually beginning with
biological indicators such as puberty and ending with the enactment of adult roles in
society such as full-time employment. However these guidelines are changeable,
mainly due to changes in society. Adolescence is now viewed as a longer period than
in previous decades with adolescents remaining in full time education and not
acquiring adult roles until their early to mid twenties.
The United Nations (2005) also acknowledge ambiguities in chronological
age as adolescence is largely a Western concept that does not exist in all cultures. As
a result, United Nations rarely use the term adolescence but propose the use of labels
such as young people and youths to classify individuals going through the
transitional periods of their lives. United Nations use the term young people to
represent individuals aged between 10-24 years and youths to represent individuals
aged between 15- 24 years. The participants in the current study are aged 12-13 years
and therefore the term young people will be used in relation to the sample.

1.1.2 Positive youth development

Positive youth development (PYD) has become a popular term in research
and is increasingly being referred to as the cure to youth-related problems. The main
ethos of positive youth development (PYD) is that all youths have the ‘potential for
successful, healthy development and that all youths possess the capacity for positive
development’ (Lerner et al, 2005: 20). Young people are no longer seen as damaged
or a problem to be managed but rather as resources that can be developed (Lerner et
al, 2005; Roth and Brooks-Gunn, 2003).
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PYD is a complex term that has many definitions but a consensus amongst
scholars has not yet been achieved. During its development in the 1990s PYD
became an umbrella term, as it is a field of interdisciplinary research (Benson et al,
2007). This has caused problems when trying to define PYD. No definition has been
able to include all the elements that PYD encompasses. Youngblade and Theokas
(2006: 58) believe PYD is based on the theoretical constructs known as the 5 Cs (see
table 1.1) and state that PYD is the ‘active promotion of adolescents’ competence,
confidence, character, caring, and connection’. It has been suggested that when these
five Cs are all present then a young person will demonstrate positive behaviour and
live well with society (Lerner et al, 2005).

Table 1.1 – The Five Cs

Working Definition of the Five Cs of Positive Youth Development (Lerner et al,
2005: 23)

Five Cs Definition
Competence Positive view of one’s actions in domain specific areas
including social, academic, cognitive and vocational. Social
competence pertains to interpersonal skills (e.g., conflict
resolution). Cognitive competence pertains to cognitive
abilities (e.g., decision making). School grades, attendance,
and test scores are part of academic competence. Vocational
competence involves work habits and career choice
explorations.

Confidence An internal sense of overall positive self-worth and self-

efficacy; one’s global self-regard, as opposed to domain
specific beliefs.

Connection Positive bonds with people and institutions that are reflected
in bidirectional exchanges between the individual and peers,
family, school, and community in which both parties
contribute to the relationship.

Character Respect for societal and cultural rules, possession of

standards for correct behaviours, a sense of right and wrong
(morality), and integrity.

Compassion or A sense of sympathy and empathy for others.

Caring
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Life skills are a concept that falls under the umbrella term of PYD. Although
life skills are discussed in more detail in Chapter 2, it is generally accepted that life
skills are defined as ‘those skills that enable individuals to succeed in the different
environments in which they live, such as school, home and in their neighbourhoods’
(Gould and Carson, 2008: 59). It is argued that by making young people aware of life
skills, they become better equipped to deal with various life situations. Many life
skill programmes aim to teach young people skills such as decision-making, time
management, goal setting and teamwork, whereas other programmes aim to prevent
certain behaviours such as drug and alcohol use and pregnancies in young people.
Sport has long been recognised as a vehicle to facilitate positive youth
development through teaching life skills but there is nothing special or magical about
sport (Danish et al, 2004; Petitpas et al, 2008) so what is it about sport that can have
a positive impact on young people? Roth and Brooks-Gunn (2003) state that youth
development programmes increase the opportunities needed for healthy
development. It is commonly believed and widely accepted that sport can provide
young people with the skills and values needed to prepare them for their life ahead
(Danish et al, 2004; Fraser-Thomas et al, 2005).
However, many sport programmes or interventions are often badly structured
and/or implemented and therefore the learning of life skills and positive development
is unachievable (Danish et al, 2004). Theokas and Lerner (2006) state that although
youth programmes for skill building have not been quantitatively or qualitatively
measured and/or examined, there is agreement that such programmes are needed for
positive development. Sport is seen as a valued social activity that most youths will
engage with at some point (Camiré, Trudel and Forneris, 2012); using sport to
develop life skills is becoming a growing trend not only advocated by the sport
community but also through youth development campaigns and schools (Gould and
Carson, 2008).
Youth participation in structured sports programmes has been positively
linked with adolescents’ physical, psychological, social and behavioural development
(see Table 1.2) as well as positively impacting on academic-related achievement
including increased school attendance and college enrolment (Zarrett et al, 2008).
Although the vast majority of research shows sport participation to be a positive
developmental activity for youths, it must be noted that this is not the case for all
young people and sport participation can result in negative outcomes for a minority.
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The relationship between coaches and peers can be poor and not necessarily positive.
This can result in negative influences, possibly including inappropriate behaviour and
jealousy (Dworkin and Larson, 2006; Fraser-Thomas and Côté, 2009). It is also
acknowledged that youth participation in sport can lead to increases in stress levels
(Dworkin and Larson, 2006; Fraser-Thomas and Côté, 2009).
If youths experience too many negative effects then ultimately they will drop
out of sport (Dworkin and Larson, 2006). This suggests that mere participation is not
the answer to positive youth development but rather the individual experience
(Goudas and Giannoudis, 2008). In summary, this section has highlighted that sport
can have both positive and negative influences on academic performance but it is
generally thought the negative influences only impact a small minority of students.
The next section of this chapter outlines the impact the political agenda has on school
sport.
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Table 1.2 – Benefits of Sport Participation

The development benefits of sport participation (cited President’s Council on
Physical Fitness and Sports, 2009)

Physical Assets
Motor skill competencies and movement literacy
Sport-specific competencies
Physically active lifestyles
Knowledge about physical activities, sports and games
Physical Fitness
Physiological capacities
Physical health
Psychological Assets
Self-determined motivation and physical activity
Positive values towards physical activity
Feelings of self-determination, autonomy and choice
Positive identity, body image and self-esteem
Perceived physical competence and self-efficacy
Positive affect and stress relief
Moral identity, empathy and social perspective-taking
Cognitive functioning and intellectual health
Hope and optimism about the future
Social Assets
Support from significant adults and peers
Feelings of social acceptance
Close friendship and friendship quality
Leadership, teamwork and cooperation
Respect, responsibility, courtesy and integrity
Sense of civic engagement and contribution to community
Resistance to peer pressure to engage in risky behaviours
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1.2 Political Agenda and Influence on School Sport

It is important to note that during the development and implementation of
TAP many education policies surrounding physical education were changing and
many financial cuts were being made in the sport provision sectors. Sibley and Etnier
(2003) state that in financially difficult times, schools will sacrifice Physical
Education (PE) classes in favour of more academic subjects. This is mainly due to
the cost of facilities, specific equipment and the insurance needed for PE. In practice
many schools cut PE time in order to deliver more core academic subjects due to the
pressure schools experience with regards to league tables (Sibley and Etnier, 2003).
In recent years many modern schools within the UK were built without sufficient
sport space or facilities resulting in meaningful physical education classes being
impossible (Dills et al, 2011). Many older schools have recently found their playing
fields have been sold off by central government. Dills and colleagues (2011) argue
that children in the 1970s received more physical education classes at school than
children do today.
If sport participation does have a positive impact on academic achievement
(Bailey, 2006; Carlson et al, 2008; Coe et al, 2006; Eitle, 2005; Marsh and Kleitman,
2003; Sibley and Etnier, 2003) and budget cuts continue to lead to fewer physical
education classes being delivered then out of school sport participation is going to be
vital for child development. However, if research can demonstrate that physical
activity may have a positive impact on academic achievement then retaining physical
education classes and extra-curricular programmes may become a priority (Grissom,
2005).
Traditionally in the UK, local and national governments have had little
impact on sport policy. It was not until the late 1960s that the British government
recognised sport as their responsibility (Houlihan, 2011). Since then sport has
received higher political salience but is now more controlled by politicians who often
have different agendas (Hoye et al, 2010). The primary focus of sport has changed,
more rapidly so in the last ten years. Originally sport was used to tackle complex
social issues such as anti-social behaviour, crime and underachievement, now
however; sport is used to tackle childhood obesity and to improve the nation’s health
(Houlihan, 2011). This has resulted in many policies aiming to increase youth
 Page | 8

participation being implemented within the primary care, community and family
sectors (Atkin et al, 2011), possibly at the expense of school sport provision.
Hoye and colleagues (2010), and Phillpots (2011) agree that governments
now use sport as a tool to fix many non-sport problems such as public health, social
welfare and national regeneration at a relatively low financial cost, which has led to a
complex overlapping of policies and agendas. Physical Education classes however,
are heavily reliant on government funding and support, with over £1 billion spent on
school sport during the New Labour government (Phillpots, 2011). The Coalition
Government (Conservatives and Liberal Democrats) who were elected in May 2010,
have now reduced school funding, and dissembled the School Sport Partnership
developed under the New Labour government.
Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Education, announced in October
2010 in a letter to Baroness Sue Campbell that the Coalition Government were axing
the £162million school sport funding (Bardens and Gillie, 2011). The government
believed the cut in funding was the best way to stop ring fencing and give schools
more control over the sport they deliver (Bardens and Gillie, 2011). Yet, despite the
reduction of funding, the Coalition Government had a strong desire to change the
sport ethos in schools. The UK government have embedded a new approach to PE
and school sport, which goes against the approach of previous governments. School
sport is now designed to have competition at its heart, moving away from the sport
for all approach. This new approach is not without its critics; it has been suggested
that the introduction of competition in all PE lessons is a masculine discourse that
will fail to motivate many students (Harvey and O’Donovan, 2011).
In 2012, Jeremy Hunt, who at the time was the Secretary of State for Culture,
Olympics, Media and Sport, announced the Coalition Government’s plans for the
new Youth Sport Strategy, which was designed to encourage young people to
continue to participate in sport throughout their lives. £1 billion was pledged in order
to deliver on Lord Coe’s promise of a sporting legacy post the London 2012 Olympic
Games. In terms of school sport, 2010 saw the Collation government introduce a new
initiative known as the School Games, a national Olympic and Paralympic-style
sports competition for schools. Jeremy Hunt wanted the School Games to boost the
promotion of competitive sport in schools and that the initiative would be a key part
of the 2012 Olympic sporting legacy. The aim of the School Games is for schools to
compete against each other in leagues at a local level. The winning athletes and
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teams from up to 60 counties then compete to qualify for the national finals. Schools
are also being encouraged to host in-house Olympic-style sports days so that children
of all abilities have the opportunity to compete. In addition, a Paralympic element is
to be included at every level of the competition for young people with disabilities.
The problem with current policies for physical activity today is their limited
focus. The ‘Sport for All’ campaign, which began in the early 1970s, has long since
been forgotten, argues Green (2006). A shift in policy has led sport policies away
from ‘sport for all’ and now policies tend to focus on two specific strands. The first
concentrates on children and young people with an aim of reducing longer-term
public health costs and increasing the contribution made by individuals to the
economic well being of the United Kingdom (Green, 2006). The second strand has a
sole focus on elite athletes and the accumulation of Olympic medals. £97 million of
public money was used to support the elite athletes who attended the Beijing
Olympics in 2008. Green (2006) argues that doing sport for fun may be a better
rationale for increasing participation in physical activity but this seems to be lost in
recent government policies, as there appears to be a distinct lack of a ‘sport for all’
ethos. Whilst this section has explained the government’s current plans for school
sport, the next section will explore the use and potential of school sport interventions.

1.3 School Sport Interventions

In recent years, governments and policy makers have targeted sport as a cure
all approach to social issues and problems (Green, 2006). Thus sporting interventions
have become increasingly popular when dealing with troublesome children and
adolescents. In particular, sport has been used to initiate a reduction in youth crime
and contribute to social inclusion strategies (Green, 2006; Kelly, 2011). Yet the idea
of increasing the time youths spend doing school sport in order to increase academic
achievement is not popular with parents (Bailey, 2006). This section will review the
literature surrounding academic achievement and youth sport.
In 2004, a report published by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport
(DCMS) stated that:

Getting school children into sport- and keeping them involved- is

especially vital as regular participation can reduce obesity,
 P a g e | 10

improve fitness levels and, by improving concentration and self-

esteem, can help attendance, behaviour and attainment (p. i).

Using sport interventions and programmes that target young people has
become extremely common but Astbury and colleagues (2005) suggest that although
the use of sport is common, it is also contentious. Many of the critics of such
interventions and programmes claim the efficacy of sport programmes still remains
unproven (Astbury et al, 2005). However, the general consensus is that the vast
majority of research shows sport participation to be a positive developmental activity
for youths and young people (Zarrett, 2008).
It has become increasingly recognised by schools, government, councils and
sport providers that after-school programmes are a positive way to develop young
people (Hall et al, 2003). After-school programmes also allow schools to deliver
additional organised sport lessons as recommended by the PE and Sport Strategy for
Young People (PESSYP) strategy. The PESSYP is a government initiative launched
in 2008 and is aimed at improving the quantity and quality of physical education and
sport undertaken by young people aged 5-19 in England. PESSYP builds on the
success of the PE, School Sport and Club Links (PESSCL), which was established in
2003.
Directly after-school is deemed a critical time for young people (Atkin et al,
2011). It is during this time that many children and adolescents have the most
freedom in terms of how they spend their time. Free from academic commitments
and parental curfews that may prevent activities in the evening, young people have a
choice on what activities they do during this time (Atkin et al, 2011). By offering
out-of-school sport programmes, schools have begun to realise they can capture and
encourage a large audience to participate in more active exercise and sport (Spittle et
al, 2008). The need for intervention programmes delivered after-school and on
school premises is increasing, especially programmes that promote positive youth
development. This study addressed this need by promoting the transfer of life skills
developed in an after-school programme, delivered on school premises, into the
classroom. The next section discusses the role of physical education and the role of
PE teachers.
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1.4 Physical Education and the Role of Physical Educators

Two hours of physical education (PE) per week is a compulsory component
of the National Curriculum (NC) in England. The PE and Sport Strategy for Young
People (PESSYP) states each child should receive at least five hours of physical
activity per week. It suggests two hours should be allocated through curriculum PE,
one hour should comprise of sport activities delivered by schools on school sites and
a further two hours should consist of a mixture of school and community/club-
organised sport either on school premises or at community sites. The NC declares
that PE in schools is important as it helps students to develop personally and socially,
it develops students’ competence and confidence, it allows students to enjoy and
succeed in many physical activities and allows students to make informed decisions
about lifelong participation in physical activity.
Scholars have argued that all subjects, but particularly PE, play an important
role in the social and moral development of children (Jacobs, Knoppers and Webb,
2013). PE allows for significant interaction to occur between pupils but also between
pupil and teacher (Bailey, 2006). However, social, psychosocial and moral
development does not automatically occur, Bailey (2006) argues development of
such areas during PE is dependent on PE teachers. Bailey (2006) also suggests that
social development is dependent upon the action and interactions of the teacher and
pupil and whether teachers recognise the importance of such development. Whilst
widely accepted, there is little scientific evidence that social and psychosocial
development actually occurs during physical education classes. Jacobs, Knoppers
and Webb (2013) argue that the educational policy and PE teacher education
programmes throughout Europe do not equip teachers with sufficient knowledge to
systematically integrate social development into their lesson plans. PE teachers are
not formally trained to socially and psychosocially develop children and the NC
provides little guidelines on how to accomplish such teaching. The aim of this study
is to inform PE teachers on how to implement life skills teaching in their own
practice. The next section explains the need for this study.

1.5 The Need for this Study

Teaching life skills is popular in many fields in an attempt to deal with
common issues experienced during adolescence such as alcohol prevention and
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tobacco prevention (Botvin and Kantor, 2000); drug prevention (Botvin and Griffin,
2004); suicide prevention (LaFromboise and Howard-Pitney, 1995); and school
violence (Botvin, Griffin and Nichols, 2006). Life skills programmes are not a
panacea for solving all the problems young people face in todays’ society but such
programmes can be part of the solution to potentially solve some problems (Danish,
2002a).
Teaching life skills through sport has been commonly used since the early
1900s, where sport was considered to develop sportsmanship and other essential
values that prepared children for the rest of their lives (Danish, 2002a). Although
there is now a debate within literature as to whether sport programmes can be used to
teach life skills, the general consensus is sport can and does teach participants
various life skills. What is not known is how do children learn these skills and how
do they transfer such skills into other areas of their lives. How do children transfer
skills in to other aspects of their lives? As the answer to this question is not fully
understood, it was hoped that the qualitative element of this study would provide
some insight.
The intervention sought to address some of the gaps that exist within current
literature and contribute to knowledge. Such gaps include limited evidence of life
skill interventions that include British participants as many studies are conducted in
the United States with American college students (the equivalent to English
University students). The USA have a different education system, a different sport
structure and ethos towards school sport, and a different ethnic diversity to the UK.
Therefore it is reasonable to assume that research programmes completed in the US
may not be easily replicated in the UK. Furthermore, many studies use University
(American College) athletes to determine if sport has any impact on academic
achievement. The present study will focus on males in the early stages of
adolescence (12-13 years old) in order to see if an impact can be found earlier in the
education system.
Many American studies use participants who are already athletes, who have
already self-selected to participate in sport and with many of the athletes having
gained a University place due to their sporting ability. The participants in TAP are in
the early years of secondary education and although many of them did play various
sports, they did not identify themselves as athletes. TAP also used a multi-skill,
multi-sport programme in order to give the participants exposure to a variety of
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sports and events. This was to increase the likelihood that the participants would find
a sport they enjoy and increase the possibility of prolonged sport participation once
the study has ended (Kirk, 2005).
Unlike previous studies completed by Bailey, 2006; Coe et al, 2006; Eitle,
2005; Marsh and Kleitman, 2003; Sallis et al, 1999; Shephard, 1997, this study did
not alter the time the participants spent in PE lessons. TAP was delivered after-
school, which meant the children had to attend school before they could participate
in the sport intervention. TAP was an extra sport session that was not tied by national
curricular guidelines and had the potential to introduce new sports and life skills to
the participants.
Finally, this study has the potential to inform current literature and practice in
relation to government policy and school sport interventions, the role of PE and the
National Curriculum, recommendations for teacher education and continual
professional practice (CPD), and provide guidance to schools that wish to implement
similar inventions.

1.6 Aims of the Study

The overarching aim of the Transfer-Ability Programme was to develop an
understanding of the impact a sport based, life skills intervention may have on
academic performance. More specifically, this study wanted to determine whether
young people can learn life skills through sport participation and then transfer the life
skills into other academic domains, such as the classroom. These aims were then
used to formulate four specific research questions:

1. What is the impact of a sports programme on participants’ academic

performance in Science?
2. What is the impact of a sports programme on participants’ perceived use of
the life skills?
3. To what extent (if any) do the participants perceive they transferred the life
skills from the sports hall into other school domains?
4. What factors do the participants’ perceive to be enablers and/or barriers of
life skill transfer from the sport halls into other school domains?
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1.7 Structure of Thesis

This thesis comprises of six further chapters. This chapter introduced the
study, the context, the relevance, and the need for this research. This section has also
highlighted the implication of this research to future sport and education policy and
has outlined the aims of this study and presents the research questions relating to the
Transfer-Ability Programme.
Chapter two provides a comprehensive and critical overview of existing
literature with reference to underachievement and the use of sport and life skill
interventions. Each component is discussed, highlighting existing knowledge and
gaps within the literature. The literature review was used to inform the design of
methods and the fieldwork.
Chapter three presents the Transfer-Ability Programme. The intervention
itself is discussed in greater detail; the seven life skills used and the sports used to
facilitate life skill learning are presented. Participant information is also provided
within this chapter. Chapter four presents the rationale for the Case Study
methodology adopted to address the research questions highlighted in chapter two.
Chapter five presents and discussed the results from this research. The results
are presented in three phases. The first phase examines the impact TAP had on
academic performance. The second phase explores at the participants’ perception of
learning during the programme. Each participant rated his ability to use each life skill
before and after the intervention. Phase three addresses the participants’ perceptions
of enablers and barriers in relation to life skill transfer.
Chapter six provides an overall conclusion and considers the implications and
contributions for theory, research and practice in terms of underachievement and the
potential impact of life skills interventions. The limitations of this study are
discussed and the recommendations for future research are presented. Chapter 6
concludes by highlighting the personal learning of the researcher.
 P a g e | 15

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter is split into three main sections. The first section examines the
existing and relevant literature that relates to underachievement. Within this section
underachievement is defined, underachievement in practice is discussed and the most
commonly cited causes of underachievement are examined. Due to the complexity of
the topic, many factors can contribute to underachievement and parameters must be
set; a full debate on underachievement goes far beyond the scope of this study.
Topics discussed therefore, relate to the relevance of this study only and not all
aspects of underachievement are discussed. This review aims to consider
underachievement in a multi-dimensional context by critically analysing and
reviewing the literature and examining some of the key causes that are regularly cited
as contributing to underachievement within the UK educational system
The second section of this chapter explores the rhetoric on the impact sport
may have on academic performance, with a focus on government policy and school
sport. The concept of Positive Youth Development (PYD) is further discussed and
finally, the possible mechanisms that may promote a positive impact on academic
performance are explored.
The third section of this chapter focuses specifically on factors relating to the
learning and transfer of life skills. In particular, using sport as a vehicle to teach life
skills to young people is examined. This section concludes with an overview of
existing life skill programmes.

2.1 Underachievement
Underachievement has become a popular discourse over the last twenty years
in the United Kingdom (UK) resulting in mass media and political attention. It is
difficult to fully ascertain whether the actual prevalence of underachievement has
increased over the past two decades or whether underachievement has just
experienced more intense scrutiny. Either way, a vast amount of taxpayers money is
spent every year trying to eradicate with what has become a moral panic surrounding
underachievement (Gorard and Smith, 2004; Smith, 2010). Previous years have seen
policies and remedies are implemented by governments and schools in order to
produce a quick and quantifiable fix and recent government policies have continued
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to put pressure on schools to raise achievement, however, underachievement still

exists in schools today and as such no quick fix remedy has been found.
Underachievement is an international phenomenon affecting many countries,
although Moreau (2011) argues that no other country debates underachievement in
the same manner or to the same extent as the UK. It must then be asked, is the UK
developing an unsubstantiated underachievement debate or does underachievement
actually pose a threat to our children, our school and our whole educational system?
The answer is not one that can be easily answered and many debates continue to
argue this point. Underwood and colleagues (2009) suggest a vast number of children
leave school with no qualifications and that does pose a real threat to our children
and society as a whole but does this relate to underachievement or low achievement?
Although statistics on low achievement can be readily produced, gaining
reliable statistics on underachievement is more problematic. It may be that
underachievement is so complex that statistics are difficult to determine and no
single strategy or initiative will ever eradicate underachievement in its entirety. The
distinct lack of published interventions that show a significant positive impact
highlights the difficulty in eradicating or even reducing underachievement. The next
section of this chapter explores the existing definitions of underachievement and
presents the working definition used in this present study.

2.1.1 Defining underachievement

Defining underachievement is not an easy task as there is no universal
definition of underachievement. Whilst this section explores the concept and
definitions of underachievement, it is important to highlight how underachievement
was defined in this study. Despite the lack of a universal definition, it appears many
attempts to define underachievement have provided a sufficient working definition,
particularly for the purposes of this study. Underwood and colleagues (2009)
recognise that underachievement is often defined as the gap between predicted
achievement targets and actual student achievement, discovered by teacher
observation and grades achieved in academic work and examinations. This was the
definition that most closely represented the way in which the Case Study school (for
more details see Chapter 3) predicted underachievement in their students. The school
defined underachievement in their own pupils by comparing a student’s target grade
(based on teacher prediction) and the grade the student achieved in formal
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assessments. If the student failed to reach teacher prediction, the student was deemed
to be underachieving. This study looked at the participants’ assessment performance
versus teacher prediction and therefore only focusing on changes in academic
performance.
Underachievement however complex should not be confused with low
achievement. It is often the case that underachievement and low achievement are
terms that are used interchangeably but Smith (2007) argues this cannot happen.
Underachievement is concerned with a student’s potential and not a lack of ability
(Jones and Myhill, 2004a). Low achievement is essentially about low ability and low
intelligence. Children who try their best in examinations (when all realistic variables
known to influence academic attainment are accounted for), cannot be labelled
underachievers whatever grade they obtain (Smith, 2007). In 2007 a report on low
achievement was published which announced that ‘nearly half of all low achievers
are White British males’ (Cassen and Kingdon, 2007: xi) but this is not the same
concept as White British males who are deemed to be underachievers. As Smith
(2007) acknowledges a male student, who achieves a level four in his Key Stage 2
exams instead of his predicted level 5 cannot be considered a low-achiever but would
be labelled as an underachiever, despite the high level he obtained.
Wallace (2010) uses the term achievement to mean learning, perseverance,
self-belief, encouragement and the outcome of effort and therefore underachievement
is seen as the opposite. Achievement is the experiencing of challenges, making
discoveries, learning from mistakes and then reaping the rewards for that effort
(Wallace, 2010). Wallace’s (2010) definition of underachievement appears to be
somewhat vague and does not discuss the complexity of achievement. Black-
Hawkins et al, (2007) argue achievement is the progress made by students over time,
which allows students to achieve well if their starting point was substantially low but
still not achieve any qualifications. Again this appears to be a rather vague concept as
it is unlikely that any student will complete compulsory education without learning at
least one piece of new knowledge. That is not to say they have achieved at school as
this information could have been learnt after attending only one day and the child
would ultimately be capable of acquiring more information.
Underachievement involves social perceptions, interactions and expectations;
these all need to be explored in academic literature in order to understand this
complex phenomenon. As well as the confused and simplistic definitions of
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underachievement, there is confusion regarding how it is measured and its

application as there is still no clear way of defining or measuring underachievement
(Smith, 2003a; Bush, 2005). Confusing matters further, it appears the potential
causes of underachievement are the same as those that may cause low achievement
such as poverty, social class, ethnicity and the home learning environment.
Essentially more care needs to be taken by academics and teachers when discussing
and differentiating between low and under achievement. Even when low
achievement has been accounted for, every teacher has experienced at least one child
who could do better at school. However, due to the reasons mentioned (i.e. lack of
definition and measurement tools) it is not known at what level the discrepancy
between ability and actual achievement becomes significant (Preckel et al, 2006).
This makes underachievement practically difficult for schools to recognise and use
accurately.
In summary, underachievement is an important discourse and one that has
dominated and continues to dominate the education domain. Due to using various
definitions and methods to identify and determine underachievement, a consensus
seems impossible to achieve. What has become apparent from existing research is
that due to the complexity of underachievement multiple constructs must be
researched and examined in order to truly understand the underlying causes. A vast
range of social and political issues need to be examined and understood, as they are
all crucial factors when considering academic achievements and educational
outcomes. This section will now discuss the possible impact of underachievement on
individuals and on society.

2.1.2 The impact of underachievement

Crucial questions to consider when regarding achievement is why is it
important? Why does underachievement matter? Who does it affect? High academic
achievement has many potential personal gains such as job satisfaction, higher
annual salaries and better life chances (West and Pennell, 2003). There are also gains
to society in terms of economy and social cohesion (West and Pennell, 2003).
However, whilst the gains of high achievers are important to the individual and
society as a whole, the costs of underachievement to the individual and society are
much bigger (West and Pennell, 2003). For the individual there is the financial loss,
lower job opportunities, potentially lower life-chances and lower expectations (West
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and Pennell, 2003; Kingdon and Cassen, 2010). There is also a huge direct and
indirect impact on society in terms of crime, benefit payments, social care costs,
schooling costs, loss in taxes and increased health costs (West and Pennell, 2003).
Research from the US indicates that low-income students are six times more likely to
drop out of school due to low achievement than their middle-class peers (Wilson,
2006). Worryingly, half of the people in the USA who are claiming welfare benefits
and half of the people in state prisons are high school dropouts (Wilson, 2006; Glenn
and Van Wert, 2010).
Sociologists are now suggesting that males are becoming less educated and
therefore less employable than women (Glenn and Van Wert, 2010). This is causing
potential problems with relationships as many women view such men as less
appealing and not husband material, this makes them a greater burden to themselves
and to society (Wilson, 2006; Glenn and Van Wert, 2010). Whilst this section
discussed the general impact of underachievement on individuals and society, the
following section discusses underachievement in practice and the difficulties teachers
may experience identifying underachievement and examines underachievement in
gifted and talented students.

2.1.3 Underachievement in practice

Research shows there have been antagonistic views from teachers, schools,
politicians and academics over the definition of underachievement (Gorard and
Smith, 2004). It became apparent in the 1990s that there was confusion when
attempting to define underachievement and low achievement (Gorard and Smith,
2004; Underwood et al, 2009). Myhill and Jones (2004) state boys are twice as more
likely to be labelled as underachiever but do teachers fully understand the term
underachievement? The difficulty in defining underachievement, the different types
of underachievement and how underachievers are seen in schools today is apparent
in all research literature (Gorard, 2000; Underwood et al, 2009). It is precisely due to
the lack of a definition that underachievement is problematic to teachers and it is
easy to see why many children are perhaps incorrectly labelled as underachieving.
There are seven background factors that are used to predict underachievement
at the age of eleven; this is when children in the UK start secondary school. These
factors according to West and Pennell (2003: 8) include:
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 Eligibility for free school meals (common indicator of poverty)

 Large family size
 One-parent family
 Semi-skilled or unskilled manual parental occupation or
unemployment
 Pupil’s behaviour
 Lack of fluency in English
 Ethnic background

The above list is not a definitive list by any means but it does include the
main factors that are suggested to contribute to underachievement and is used as a
guideline by schools and governments. It is common practice to try and group
underachievers into types, often seen in literature on personality (Montgomery,
2009). Grouping individuals together is often seen as a way for teachers to clearly
identify underachieving pupils and use their characteristics in order to develop a
diagnosis and cure (Wallace, 2010). The problem with typologies is that some
children will fall into more than one group by demonstrating a complex range of
characteristics. This makes the diagnosis and cure stage more difficult. By using the
typology categories, effective schools should be able to intervene before the
behaviours become ingrained and problematic (Montgomery, 2009).
It is worth noting that underachievers will not necessarily display all the
behaviours in each typology but are likely to show several behaviours from several
typologies. Although different typologies of underachievement exist, Jones and
Myhill (2004b) found that male and female underachievers are not dissimilar which
is important when trying to understand the debate of boys underachievement and
more important when trying to fix the issue. Combining the work of Montgomery
(2009) and Wallace (2010) the following typologies have been developed, although
it should be noted that typology names might vary:

 Conforming coasters are ‘invisible underachievers’ who are well behaved,

complete set work, unlikely to ask questions or supply answers voluntarily
but can do both when asked and rarely make contributions to class
discussions.
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 Impatient or Overactive inattentives are also known as butterfly learners who

may appear not to listen but always know the answer, are disruptive in their
behaviour and in group work, are impatient and easily distracted, act the
‘class-clown’, and reluctant to complete written work.
 Apathetic non-engagers are also known as ‘mental absentees’ as they are
likely to appear bored in all lessons, not interested in what is happening and
sit day-dreaming, not interested in achievement, appear lethargic, tired,
withdrawn and attend irregularly.
 Risk avoiders are also known as the ‘safe players’ who appear to lack self-
confidence, self-efficacy and decision making skills, they often avoid new
and/or challenging situations, rely on others, reluctant to volunteer and do
not like leadership role.
 Disaffected disengaged are also known as the ‘hard to reach’ group who are
anti-school and anti-learning, impatient, defensive, bad-tempered,
perceptively humorous, disregard the rules, attend irregularly and rarely
complete school work and homework.
 Doubly exceptional or masked gifted are learners who suffer from some
form of disability such as a specific learning difficulty (dyslexia or attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder, (ADHD)) or communication and interaction
disorders such as Asperger’s syndrome or Down’s syndrome (Wallace,
2010). Learners may also have physical, sensory and/or medical difficulties
(PSM) or social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD).
(Montgomery, 2009: 29; Wallace, 2010: 8-11)

Several of the participants in this study were classified as gifted and talented
in their school but were still underachieving in relation to teacher expectations and
predicted grades; therefore it was deemed an important aspect to consider. The term
gifted and talented itself is a complex concept and one that is not explored or debated
within this study. However, underachievement can be even more complicated when
the underachieving child is regarded as a gifted learner (Seeley, 2004). This is mainly
because the variance of ability and performance is greater than with students who
have an average or below average ability (Preckel et al, 2006). Whilst the literature
regarding this population has spanned across many years, the little depth in existing
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research has led to many more questions being asked and little understanding being
obtained. Gifted underachievement is often seen as more problematic and of larger
concern than children with average ability underachieving (Preckel et al, 2006).
The problem many gifted underachievers will experience concerns the
assumptions that teachers, educators and schools will make. When talented children
begin to underachieve they are often labelled lazy, unmotivated, or worryingly told
that they have behavioural problems, and schools largely place the blame for their
underachievement on the student and their parents, avoiding any responsibility
(Seeley, 2004). This is a problem that must be addressed if schools are to provide an
education that will meet students potential. Especially as many of the gifted
underachievers, represent at-risk groups such as low-income families and ethnic
minorities (Seeley, 2004).
Common indicators of gifted and talented children who academically
underachieve include a large gap between oral and written work, failure to complete
schoolwork and homework, poor execution of work, refusal to do work,
dissatisfaction with own achievements, avoidance of trying new activities,
perfectionism and extreme self-criticism, setting unrealistic goals and aspirations,
they often do not function well in groups, experience lapses in concentration, and a
poor attitude to school (Montgomery, 2009: 6).
Gifted children who underachieve academically will not necessarily show all
the above indicators but they will form clusters of several indicators that are likely to
become persistent (Montgomery, 2009). What is common is the number of able
students who underachieve when large quantities of written work is required
(Montgomery, 2009). This may explain why many able boys underachieve in today’s
education system as writing has traditionally been considered as a girl’s subject. It is
argued that as many as 40% of gifted students are at risk of underachievement, which
makes underachievement in gifted students a common problem across UK schools
(Preckel et al, 2006).
This section has discussed underachievement in practice and some of the
difficulties both underachievers and teachers experiences when attempting to identify
and understand underachievement. The most common types of underachievers, the
background factors used to predict underachievement and the typologies of
underachievement have all been highlighted above. The difficulties children and
teachers face when the child is regarded as gifted and talented were also examined
 P a g e | 23

within the above section. The next section of this review discusses and examines the
main causes of underachievement such as gender, ethnicity, social class, poverty, and
family structure.

2.1.4 Causes of underachievement

As already discussed the reasons for underachievement can be vast and
varied. Many factors may be at play and the cause(s) of underachievement vary
depending on the individual and the circumstances in which they are faced. School
practices, peer interactions, family relationships and community experiences are all
crucial factors when looking at academic achievements and educational outcomes
(Hubbard, 2005). Social status, laddish behaviour, teaching styles and parental
involvement (Deforges and Abouchaar, 2003) have also been cited in recent
literature (Mulholland et al, 2004; Clark et al, 2008a; Clark et al, 2008b). However,
the most commonly cited causes of underachievement within the literature are
gender, ethnicity, social class, poverty, and family structure and these causes are
examined below.

2.1.4.1 Gender
Boys seem to be more easily distracted than girls. Some boys find it hard to cope or
concentrate. Boys seem to be more laid back and relaxed… not worried about
education
(Amandip, cited in Bush, 2005: 69)

As early as 1996, Chris Woodhead, the former Chief Inspector for Schools
for England claimed that failing boys were ‘one of the most disturbing problems
facing the education system’ (Strand, Deary and Smith, 2006: 464). The British
newspapers, in particular The Times and The Sun picked up on the announcement
and instigated a media debate about underachieving boys. However, Smith (2003a;
2003b) stated that the problem of underachievement did not climax until 1998. It was
in 1998, at the 11th International Conference for School Effectiveness and
Improvement that ‘laddish’ anti-school attitudes were blamed for negatively
influencing academic progress (Smith, 2003b) and prompted a new wave of media
and political interest in underachieving boys.
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Male underachievement continues to be the focus of attention when annual

GCSE results are published. For the past several years, boys have consistently
achieved lower grades than girls in national tests at the ages of eleven and sixteen
(Strand, 2010; 2011) despite both sexes having equal cognitive ability (Steinmayr
and Spinath, 2008). It appears that many interventions are failing to produce a
reduction in male underachievement rates and statistics suggest the achievement gap
between males and females continues to widen in the UK. But is male
underachievement as big a problem as the media and politicians suggest? It is
apparent that boys achieve more extreme results than girls at GCSE and A-level
(examination taken at the end of further education in the UK), resulting in more boys
than girls with A grades but boys also have higher failure rates (Gorard, Rees and
Salisbury, 1999). More males will achieve a first-class university degree but males
also gain more third class or unclassified degrees. However, contrary to previous
research Hansen and Jones (2010) have recently found that more girls were at the top
distributions than boys, which may suggest the gender gap is continuing to widen.
Based on media reporting it appears there are no underachieving girls (Jones
and Myhill, 2004b). The debate seems to be solely and exclusively about boys but
not all researchers agree with the gender gap phenomenon. Even as early as 1999,
Gorard, Rees and Salisbury argued that the underachievement gap might be
misrepresented due to confusion when conducting quantitative research. The lack of
differentiation between percentages and percentage points when publishing
quantitative data leads to inaccurate, misinterpreted results and shows a higher
underachievement gap (Francis 2006). Strand, Deary and Smith (2006) maintain that
the differential gap is not substantial and boys being more greatly represented in
special need populations and amongst those who fail to achieve any GCSEs may
partly explain the gap.
The school environment has provided much debate within the literature, with
a particular focus on male students. It is claimed that boys are not culturally and
biologically suited to the current school setting and they have less positive attitudes
towards school than their female peers (Van Houtte, 2004). Girls on the other hand
seem to have thrived in an environment that is more conducive to female learning
styles (Skelton, 2012) and is possibly why girls fair better in their GCSE’s, which are
predominately essay and extended writing based assessments (Strand, Deary and
Smith, 2006).
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Educational achievement and commitment to education is antithetical to boys

who want to display typical masculine macho behaviour; to be popular and
masculine, educational achievements must be deemed as feminine behaviour (Van
Houtte, 2004). Smith (2010) suggests it has become widely recognised that boys
prefer subjects that show their masculinity, such as information technology, science
and physical education and are therefore less likely to enjoy subjects regarded as
feminine such as creative writing and reading (Smith, 2010). In 2006, the largest
achievement gap was found in reading and literacy and the most popular explanation
was that whilst girls are superior at writing, boys just are not biologically made for
literacy (Strand, Deary and Smith, 2006).
According to Myhill and Jones (2004), teachers tend to stereotype children
into ideal pupils with girls often fairing more favourably than males. In terms of
boys’ behaviour within the classroom, female teachers often use more negative terms
whereas male teachers use significantly more positive responses (Klein 2004). Gray
and Wilson (2006) and Klein (2004) found that teachers’ responses to girls’ and
boys’ behaviour was very different not only in terms of classroom management but
also in the level of support and attention. Teachers, female teachers especially, tend
to be less patient with boys and are more likely to punish what they perceive as
unreasonable behaviour (Klein, 2004). One strategy implemented to tackle classroom
management and reduce underachievement was the increase of single-sex
classrooms. In 2000, Sukhnandan, Lee and Kelleher published a paper stating single-
sex classes had a more positive effect on boys than girls due to the changes in
teaching approaches. As the main aim was to manage difficult male students, single-
sex female classrooms were just a by-product of the strategy (Martino, Mills and
Lingard, 2005). Disputing any positive findings, Gray and Wilson (2006) argue that
single-sex classrooms have failed to raise academic standards, particularly in boys
and the initiative itself does not improve classroom behaviour. Martino, Mills and
Lingard (2005) argue that it is not the single-sex class policy per se that is effective
but rather the skills and attitudes of the teachers that make single-sex classrooms
successful.
Feminised school environments and a lack of male teachers, have resulted in
a lack of male role models, particularly in primary/infant schools and is one possible
cause of male underachievement (Carrington and McPhee, 2008; Watson, Kehler and
Martino, 2010). Skelton (2009; 2012) believes that government initiatives aimed at
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producing male primary school teachers have failed mainly due to the feminine
ideology associated with teaching and therefore the rescue of boys has so far proved
futile. Yet, there is strong evidence to suggest that children who have almost
completed primary school will respond more positively and are more likely to have
optimistic attitudes towards school if taught by a female (Carrington, Tymms and
Merrell, 2008). Boys and girls have different learning styles and matching the gender
of pupils and teachers has shown positive impacts on learning activities and teaching
styles so policy-makers are continuing to use gender-matching approaches to combat
male underachievement, especially with the young black population (Carrington and
McPhee, 2008). Interestingly, research demonstrates that pupils think teacher gender
is not important (Carrington and McPhee, 2008). Thus, matching pupil-gender may
be another government policy failing to tackle underachievement.
In summary, there appears to be a lack of consensus on the scale and causes
of the gender gap in terms of underachievement. Is this just a differential gap
between males and females or are boys underachieving under the current curriculum?
Gender issues are problematic within schools, with policy initiatives such as single
sex classrooms and teacher matching having had limited success. This leaves
policymakers with more questions than possible solutions and gender is not the only
potential cause of underachievement. Strand, Deary and Smith (2006) warn against
the danger of labelling underachievers based on gender differences alone as ethnicity
and other factors discussed below are also cited as common causes of
underachievement.

2.1.4.2 Differences in ethnicity

Underachievement in ethnic minorities became a popular research focus in
the 1970s, has since received much literature attention, and continues to be a focus of
concern (Demie and Lewis, 2011). The Swan Report (1985) was the first official
publication that identified certain ethnic groups to be achieving less well
academically than their white peers (Strand, 2010). Pupils from ethnic minority
backgrounds (along with the working-class) are still experiencing the largest
inequalities in the modern educational system (Smith, 2003b). The reasons for ethnic
underachievement vary but Demie (2003) maintains ethnic heritage does not pre-
suppose academic underachievement. Although underachievement is apparent in
many ethnic groups, explanations include unintentional racism, prejudice from
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teachers and/or schools, and difficulties schools and teachers my experience when
trying to fully understand Caribbean and Black children (Crozier, 2005; Stevens,
2009), pupils fluency of the spoken language in the school, inappropriate curriculum
and resources and poorer employment prospects (Walsemann and Bell, 2010).
Stevens (2009) and Walsemann and Bell (2010) state black students who
attend predominately minority schools often have poorer resources, unsuitable
curriculum and inferior teaching staff compared to predominately white schools as
they are often serving more disadvantaged communities (Strand, 2010). The race of
the teacher is also suggested as a determining factor when teaching black students.
Downey and Pribesh (2004) acknowledge previous research and suggest that black
students are often labelled as misbehavers within the classroom compared to their
white peers. However, they argue this is not the case when the teacher’s race is
matched to their students, suggesting students either do not misbehave in the
classroom when they have a black teacher or white teachers are too readily labelling
black students.
Over a decade ago, Blair (2001) argued Black students were the unhappiest
ethnic group at school as they often experience school as overly controlling and often
deaf to their needs. Black students often report that school has little or no meaning
for them and are often felt confused and angered about their education. He also states
black males are deemed to feel the most disappointed by the education system.
African Caribbean pupils were highlighted as one of the lowest achieving ethnic
minority groups in the UK (Demie, 2003; Crozier, 2005). In 2006, national test
review data showed Black Caribbean, Black African, Black Other and Bangladeshi
students were below the mean of their White British peers (Department for
Education and Skills in England, 2006; Strand, 2011). However, current research
labels white working-class boys as one of the biggest groups of underachievers
(Demie and Lewis, 2011). White working class boys are now performing worse than
previous problem groups, a growing concern which has been present for the past
decade (Clark et al, 2008a).
For over two decades researchers, politicians and other interested groups have
looked at the achievement gap between minority and non-minority students. This
singular definition ignores the within-group differences that occur which could mean
current policies are not relevant in terms of closing the gap (Carpenter II, Ramirez
and Severn, 2006). Literature suggests that different strategies work more effectively
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with different ethnic groups (Murphy, 2009) and it may be that a variety of initiatives
are needed to reduce underachievement in different ethnic groups. The most
frequently cited explanation for ethnic underachievement is the substantial
differences in socio-economic status and social class differences between Black and
White groups (Strand, 2011). This suggests ethnicity may not be a cause of
underachievement but rather the social and economic status is a bigger influence.

2.1.4.3 The role of social class

Despite the changes made to modern England and the social reform, which
has shaped our current policies and practices, social class still remains one of the
strongest influences and predictors of academic achievement (Berridge, 2007;
Greene and Anyon, 2010). Underachievement in Britain’s modern education system
is still highly racial and a class phenomenon with the “continued polarisation of the
wealthy and the poor” (Sutton, 2009, 277). As previously discussed social class is an
important and decisive factor in early cognitive development (Berridge, 2007) and
those children from working-class backgrounds have higher rates of
underachievement in early schooling than other classes (Underwood et al, 2009).
Underachievement in England can be evident when children are as young as 22
months and will continue to widen as the child gets older (Department for Education
and Skills, 2002).
As early as 1998, McCulloch claimed the educational system in England had
systematically failed the working-class for over a hundred years. Yet even to this day
schools are still designed to appeal to the middle-class (Nesbit, 2006) mainly through
the way in which the curriculum is presented. School policies and the whole
education system tend to be designed and developed by middle-class politicians who
have little understanding of working-class students (Ball, 2003). Maybe it is no
wonder that working-class students are set up to fail from the very beginning of their
education experience.
Affluent families are continually gaining places in better schools, which adds
to the already existing educational inequalities between the rich and the poor (Sutton
2009; Coldron, Cripps and Shipton, 2010). This leads to the polarisation of extremely
popular and extremely unpopular schools with the majority of poor children going to
the unpopular school, resulting in a decline of social interaction between different
class backgrounds causing inequalities of opportunity and social justice (Cheng and
 P a g e | 29

Gorard, 2010; Coldron, Cripps and Shipton, 2010). Results have shown that poor
children in concentrated schools with other poor children are less likely to progress
in the same way they would in a school which had a more balanced intake (Coldron,
Cripps and Shipton, 2010).
In 1999, a flagship policy known as Excellence in Cities (EiC) (DfEE, 1999)
was implemented. Initially launched in over 400 secondary schools, the policy
quickly expanded to include more schools including primary schools (Machin,
McNally and Meghir, 2004). The policy targeted disadvantaged urban schools and
although the policy included many strands and stated aims, the overarching aim was
to raise standards in urban schools. Despite being on the political agenda for many
years and the EiC policy showing promising results, the overall results have been
poor. Governments and educational professionals appear to have failed to narrow the
achievement gap of working class children as national statistics still show that
middle-class children leave secondary school with higher grades and more
qualifications than working-class children (Dunne and Gazeley, 2008). Although
working-class children make up 50% of the population for their age group, only 30%
will go to university (Bradley and Miller, 2010). Many working-class children who
are underachieving at Key Stage 2 will struggle to close the gap by Key Stage 3
examinations. These children are likely to achieve less than five A*-C GCSE grades
(Dunne and Gazeley, 2008). Although extensive mobility has been seen since the
start of the post-war period, this social mobility does not always positively impact
the working-class. It may be possible for many working-class students to gain
increased social mobility by only completing compulsory education or completing
vocational courses. Therefore the academic achievements and aspirations of the
working-class are often lower than the expectation of the middle-class.
The reasons for academic failure and the lack of working-class students in
further and higher education are suggested by two different concerns. Firstly, parents
of working-class children are less likely to have attended university or gained good
grades at school and therefore lack knowledge to pass onto their children in the way
middleclass parents can (Davis-Kean and Sexton, 2009). Secondly, the educational
choices made by youths and their parents regarding transitional points and
educational careers are different to middle-class families. Middle-class families are
more willing to promote university and further education than working-class families
(Dunne and Gazeley, 2008). It is argued that changing the curricular alone will not
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address the working class failure and their lack of value for knowledge. Rather than
introducing new policies and making schooling changes in relation to social class, it
may be that alleviating poverty will have a bigger impact on reducing the prevalence
of underachievement.

2.1.4.4 The effects of poverty

Poverty and parental educational success are regarded as the most influential
predictors of child achievement (Davis-Kean and Sexton, 2009). Unfortunately,
children in low-income families are unlikely to live in an environment that stimulates
academic achievement (Demie and Lewis, 2011). Children who live in poverty often
learn at a slower rate, demonstrate slower progress, and gain lower GCSE results
(Greene and Anyon, 2010).
Neihart (2006) suggests families living in poverty may not think higher
education is worth the financial sacrifice and may simply not know about the aid and
resources available to help financially. Some families require their children to be
more concerned about basic survival than academic achievements. The environment
and neighbourhood in which some families live pose a real threat of danger and
academic achievement is just not a priority. Some families require children to be
earning a wage from as early as possible due to economic demands or social burdens
therefore excluding children from higher education and lowering the need for
academic achievement. Although Neihart (2006) highlights some of the issues
regarding family support, she does state family dynamics are a larger influence on
academic achievement than demographic variables.
There are several facets of underachievement in relation to family resources.
Disadvantaged families have fewer books around the home and are unlikely to access
libraries, poor children access school with more limited language and communication
skills and have less developed social skills (Wilson, 2006). Some facets are more
influential on children’s early development, research has previously shown that
children who live in poverty and are undernourished are more likely to be irritable
and disengage with some curricular activities such as physical education (West and
Pennell, 2003). This disengagement often leads to a lack of further interest in school
and result in underachievement.
In summary, the discussion above suggests working-class children are more
likely to fail academically because they come from a low socioeconomic
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background. As the research above also demonstrates, some working-class children

do go to university and achieve success (Dunne and Gazeley, 2008; Bradley and
Miller, 2010). This shows not all working-class children fail compulsory education
suggesting that social economic status alone does not predict academic achievement.
It could be argued that family impact and support may be more influential than
socio-economic status (Strand, 2011).

2.1.4.5 The potential consequences of family structure

It has become widely accepted that the family are the most important
influence on a child’s early development and behaviour. Desforges and Abouchaar
(2003) and Kordi and Baharudin (2010) believe if children are to maximise their
potential they will require the full support of their parents and therefore parental
involvement is a major factor when looking at academic achievement. Parents who
are involved in their children’s education and who help, advise and monitor their
children’s homework have a higher positive significant influence on their children’s
academic achievement (Kordi and Baharudin, 2010). Interestingly though, parental
involvement has been found to be strongly influenced by their child’s level of
attainment. The higher the child’s attainment levels the more likely parents will show
an interest in their education and become involved (Desforges and Abouchaar, 2003),
resulting in a possible cause/effect situation.

Large family size. Children living in large families are over represented in
underachieving groups (Underwood et al, 2009). This has mainly been attributed to a
lack of resources. Many large families have been found to have less material
resources and spend less time with each individual child. Children who are born first
or earlier than their other siblings are more likely to be higher achievers than their
later born siblings. Children who are born later often access a dwindling pool of
resources and are unlikely to dominate their siblings for parental affection
(Fergusson, Horwood and Boden, 2006).
However, it is suggested that the most influential factor in large families is
lower levels of socioeconomic status and not material resources (Desforges and
Abouchaar, 2003; Marks 2006). If resources were the important factor, research
would show that a child with no siblings (commonly known as an only child) would
outperform their peers with siblings by a large margin. However, this pattern is not
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reflected in the literature, studies show that children who live in two-child homes do
as well as their only child peers. Blake suggested academic performance only starts
to drop if the family is larger than two children in as early as 1981. Booth and Kee
(2009) argue birth order is more complex than Blake suggests as parents’ age,
maturity, income and the time lapses in between births are all contributing factors but
generally children from larger families demonstrate lower levels of academic
attainment.

Single Parent versus Two-Parent Families. With single parents becoming an

increasing trend, there is increasing concern that children living in such families are
becoming educationally disadvantaged. Lee and Kushner (2008) claim
approximately a third of European marriages end up in divorce in modern societies.
Many social scientists suggest that single parent families and families involving
stepparents provide a greater academic risk to children than two-parent biological
families (Musick and Meier, 2010; Shriner, Mullis and Shriner, 2010).
Children from single-parent families seem to have higher school dropout,
poorer attendance records, poorer achievement levels, and lower university
attendance than their peers who live within two-parent families as do children who
live with both parents who extensively argue (Hampden-Thompson, 2009; Musick
and Meier, 2010). Scott (2004) recognises that single mothers have received
particularly negative attention in the media. Although single-mums are more
common, single-father families are the largest growing family structure in the US;
however very few studies look at the academic impact when living with a single-
father (Lee and Kushner, 2008).
Scott (2004) recognises working mothers are often the focus of attention and
are regularly labelled as missing mums, with many considering them selfish.
Traditional gender roles dictate that women should stay at home and raise children,
as this is deemed most beneficial for the child’s development. This may be true as
some research shows that children who have working mums often do less well at
school compared to their peers who have stay at home mothers (Scott, 2004).
Hampden-Thompson (2009) states children from single parent families have been
found to be educationally disadvantaged in many countries such as Sweden,
Netherlands, England and Switzerland, with the biggest gap between single parent
and two-parent families occurring in the USA. However, this area of research
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remains inconclusive, with only weak support for this hypothesis, it is difficult to
determine if single parent status alone effects child achievement. Musick and Meier
(2010) argue that two-parent families are not always better than single-parent
families. Their research suggests children who live with high conflict married parents
fare poorer academically than children who live with low conflict married parents.
Although single parents can and do get involved in their child’s schooling, they often
experience greater limitations such as time resources (Jeynes, 2005).
To summarise, the literature on family structure and potential causes of
underachievement remains inconclusive. It is unclear whether living in a single-
parent family is more detrimental than living with both biological parents, especially
if the parents argue extensively. Family size appears only to be an issue if sibling
size is over two and socio-economic appears to be more important than material
sources. More research is needed to understand the relationship between family life
and underachievement.

2.1.5 Summary relating to the aspects of underachievement

It is beyond the scope of this review to list every possible cause of
underachievement but it does discuss the more common contributing factors.
Underachievement has become a problematic, complex issue in the UK and the
extent literature appears to raise more questions than answers. Surely, we have to ask
ourselves if underachievement will ever be eradicated within the UK educational
system. In spite of the rhetoric, there are no practical solutions to underachievement
and therefore it appears underachievement will be a prominent discourse in schools
for many years to come.
One can speculate that the problem is not a lack of government money spent
trying to reduce this national issue or the lack of research that has been conducted
over the past two decades but rather the sheer complexity of underachievement. The
causes of underachievement are not often singular nor can they be easily identified,
addressed, and resolved. Children live complex lives that can lead to multiple
contributing factors resulting in underachievement. Therefore, it is not difficult to
understand why quick fix policies are failing. The lack of initiative and policy
success may be due to many of the government programmes targeting either all or at
least large populations of children. It may be that more interventions are needed that
target smaller specific groups. There is a definite need for more effective
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interventions which address underachievement whilst monitoring academic

trajectory. The second major issue is that not all children with contributing factors
will underachieve for example not all working-class boys living with a single parent
will underachieve despite the literature identifying them as likely victims but middle-
class children from wealthy backgrounds, with involved parents may underachieve.
The unpredictability of which children will underachieve makes the
development and implementation of a solution difficult, especially as many of the
contributing factors are difficult for children to change. Factors such as socio-
economic status, parental education, family structure, gender, and ethnicity are
factors that cannot be readily changed. It may be easier to address factors that can be
changed such as school environment, teacher gender and attitudes and the National
Curriculum. However, these changes will require fundamental change, resources, and
time. The introduction of new government policies and strategies will need to be
implemented. Future research should seek to find a solution that considers the
complex and multi-dimensional aspects of underachievement with an aim to
influence policy change. Having identified a lack of interventions within policy and
literature, future research should seek to address such gaps.
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2.2 The Impact of Sport, Exercise and Physical Activity

This section of the literature review examines the influence and impact sport
may have on academic performance, with a focus on government policy and school
sport. The concept of Positive Youth Development (PYD) is further discussed and
finally, the possible mechanisms that may promote a positive impact on academic
performance are explored and the role of motivation is highlighted.

2.2.1 Impact of sport on academic achievement

During the 1990s, many researchers such as Shephard (1997) and Marsh
(1993) discussed the impact of sport and physical activity on academic performance
in schools. The general view was physical activity could provide children with
academic benefit; however in practice it is not that simple. Bailey (2006) highlights
that sport and physical activity in schools had previously been regarded as less
important than other academic subjects. This trend is still apparent in many schools
and has been highlighted by parents and indeed some teachers as a source of concern
(Bailey, 2006; Taras, 2005). Many state funded schools (in particular) adopt a
negative attitude towards P.E and the curricular time it occupies, not to mention the
limited sport facilities and budget difficulties many schools experience (Holt et al,
2012). The simple truth is many parents would rather their child spent their time
studying perceived academic subjects than wasting their time doing P.E (Bailey,
2006).
Previous studies such as those by Bailey (2006) and Coe et al, (2006) have
shown that increasing PE time may actually increase academic achievements. As
early as 1997, Shephard highlighted that active students have a higher rate of
academic learning per unit of class time, thus schools should not deny children good
quality activity classes. Bailey (2006) and Trudeau and Shephard (2008) found
increases in physical PE had no detrimental effect and in some cases may improve
academic achievements; even when time spent on perceived academic subjects was
reduced. Pfeifer and Cornelißen (2010), Stephens and Schaben (2002) and Carlson et
al, (2008) go as far to recommend that all students should be encouraged to
participate in school sport as simply increasing the time participants spend doing
extra sport should not have any detrimental effect on their academic achievement; a
finding also supported by Rasberry et al, (2011).
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Although Stephens and Schaben (2002) found athletes who participate in

interscholastic sport programmes outperform non-athletes academically, they do not
know exactly why. It is suggested that skills such as goal-setting and time
management developed through sport participation are transferrable and lead to
increased academic performance (Miller et al, 2005; Stephens and Schaben, 2002),
although there may be other reasons for academic performance such as school
affiliation and improved health. Carlson and others (2008) state physical activity may
increase academic achievement by positively influencing behaviour and cognitive
functioning.
Despite such supportive rhetoric, not all research positively links physical
activity and academic performance. It is possible that time spent on extra-curricular
activities such as sport has a negative influence on educational success. As early as
1961 Coleman argued that spending time away from academic study led to a decline
in academic achievement, this relationship became known as the zero-sum theory.
Although more recent research by Bailey (2006) and Coe et al, (2006) and a
systematic review conducted by Rasberry et al, (2011) contradict Coleman’s zero-
sum theory. In support of Coleman (1961), Dawkins, Braddock II and Celaya (2008)
suggest sport is overemphasised and diverts attention away from academic study.
Students who aspire to become professional athletes, for the financial and status
rewards often sacrifice their education in order to pursue success in the sport domain
(Dawkins, Braddock II and Celaya, 2008; Zeiser, 2011). However, this is likely to
only affect a minority of students (Zeiser, 2011) and the benefits of sport and
physical activity should not be overlooked.
Despite difficulties and concerns over causality, theoretical models have been
developed to explain how sport can improve academic attainment such as Marsh’s
(1993) Athletic Participation (AP) model. The AP model suggests that an
engagement in school sport activities was likely to lead to increased pupil
identification and involvement with the school and increased pupil commitment to
work towards defined academic goals. This was linked to increased time spent in
school, which is also likely to increase feelings of belonging and increased attention
from certain staff members. Students however, must learn to balance extra-curricular
activities and academic workload for such activities to be beneficial (Lipscomb,
2007).
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2.2.2 How sport may improve academic achievement

2.2.2.1 Physiological factors
There are several physiological changes that may contribute to increases in academic
achievement. It is widely accepted that increases in health benefits such as increased
physical fitness and reduced obesity can have a positive impact on education (Bailey
et al, 2009; Carlson et al, 2008). Research indicates that more specific physiological
changes may also impact on academic achievement such as increases in cerebral
blood flow, changes in hormone secretion, enhancing arousal levels, increased
neurotransmitter efficiency (Coalter, 2007), higher capillary volumes and a greater
number and density of neuronal synapses (Chomitz et al, 2009), which have been
shown to enhance long-term memory. Increases in physical fitness and improved
health can stimulate increases in cognition particularly in children aged between six
and thirteen years old (Sibley and Etnier, 2003). A combination of such factors can
lead to an increase in school attendance (as number of days lost at school due to
illness/sickness decreases) and increases in concentration, which leads to clearer
thinking and improved learning. Although research indicates a link between physical
fitness and academic performance, Bailey (2005) suggests more systematic research
is required to understand the precise relationship. Although previous research should
not be discounted, it is bold at this stage to state physical activity improves academic
performance (Bailey et al, 2009).

2.2.2.2 Psychological factors

Research has shown there are many psychological benefits to be gained through
sport participation. It is possible that participation in exercise and physical activity
can lead to an increase in self-efficacy (Bailey et al, 2009; Bailey, 2005), which is
developed through a sense of achievement. Self-efficacy is the belief an individual
has in their own ability and is often used in sport as a predictor of sport participation
(Çetinkalp and Turksoy, 2011). In turn, increased self-efficacy can lead to an
increase in self-esteem. Increased self-esteem can often lead to increased self-belief
that stimulates increased learning and improved behaviour and attitudes towards
learning and school (Coalter, 2007).
In theory sport and physical activity could help all children to become more
self-confident however, in reality children who participate in sport have been shown
to be more likely to demonstrate high levels of self-esteem even before they began to
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participate. This suggests that although sport has been found to increase self-esteem
(Carlson et al, 2008), children must already have demonstrated a developed level of
self-esteem to begin participation. Linder (1999) suggested over a decade ago
children who participated in sport had higher self-esteem levels when entering school
and those who demonstrated low self-esteem were likely not to participate in sport.
This makes it difficult to determine the total effect of sport and physical activity on
self-esteem levels.

2.2.2.3 Sociological factors

There are several sociological factors that may explain the influence school
sport participation may have on academic performance. Coalter (2007) developed
earlier work completed in 1990 by Snyder and Spreitzer and created six largely
sociological hypotheses that are outlined below:

(1) Participation-identification suggests individuals may become more

committed to their school and community and therefore more committed
to achieve goals and take on extra challenges.
(2) Increased self-concept suggests individuals gain acceptance from peers,
as they are good at something. Sport can help to facilitate social
acceptance, which in turn allows students to feel better about their
individual self.
(3) Increased attention is where increased attention from teachers, parents
and coaches may result in greater encouragement for students to do well
academically especially if significant others encourage academic
achievement.
(4) Membership implies that participation in sport may lead to membership
of elite groups such as a school team who have an orientation to academic
success.
(5) Eligibility is usually where participation on the sport team may be
dependent on academic success. This is commonly observed in American
Colleges where students must achieve certain academic grades in order to
qualify for sport team selection but not an overly common requirement in
the UK.
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(6) Sport as an incentive where the desire to participate on a team

(university team) can act as a motivator for students to achieve
academically. US colleges and some UK universities will offer places to
students who can represent the college in their professional sports.

It is not clear to what extent these sociological hypotheses may impact on academic
achievement individually but what seems to be certain is that they are heavily
interrelated and therefore it is likely students will benefit from several of the stated
hypotheses if they participate in school sport (Coalter, 2007).

2.2.3 Motivation related to participation

Researchers and practitioners such as Klint and Weiss (1987), Allen (2003),
Trost et al, (2003) and Allender et al, (2006) have begun to show an interest in the
psychological aspects related to sport participation and the reasons why children in
particular participate in sport outside of school, as physical education participation in
school is deemed compulsory. It has become generally accepted that children
participate for a variety of reasons, however Passer (1981, cited in Klint and Weiss,
1987) concluded that the main motivates could be classified under six general
themes, (i) affiliation, (ii) skill development, (iii) excitement/challenge, (iv)
success/status, (v), fitness and (vi) energy release.
It has become apparent however, that if given a choice very few individuals
and particularly children would participate in sport on their own (Allen, 2003). The
primary reason often stated for sport participation is socially related, for example,
being part of a team, friendship opportunities and social status are reasons often
reported (Allen, 2003). Also the opinions and interactions with significant others
(parents, coaches and peers) have been reported to impact and influence sport
participation (Allen, 2003; Trost et al, 2003). Allender et al, (2006) argue that
children participate in sport mainly for enjoyment and fun and they are more likely to
enjoy participation most if they are not forced to compete and are not expected to
win.
Trost and colleagues (2003) state parental support was deemed an important
influence when looking at motivating factors on children’s sport participation.
Parental support such as observation and encouragement has been suggested to be
necessary to sustain youth participation as this has a positive effect on children’s
 P a g e | 40

confidence levels. They also state that supportive parent behaviour was found to have
a direct and indirect influence on children’s self-efficacy, which in turn promoted
continued sport participation. Interestingly parental participation in sport was not
deemed to have any positive effect on youth participation, however parents who did
not value sport participation were not likely to encourage and promote sport
participation.
Harter’s (1978, 1981; cited in Klint and Weiss, 1987) early research on
competence motivation theory indicates that children are motivated in be competent
in certain areas such as sport, academics and peer relationships. However, sport
participation may only be maintained if individuals perceive themselves to be
physically competent. Children who have low perceived physical competence are
more likely to withdraw from sport (Harter, 1978, 1981; cited in Klint and Weiss,
1987). Competence motivation theory suggests the main reason children will
participate in sport and continue to participate is if they are successful and have a
high level of physical competence. Therefore if they are not successful then drop out
is likely, however, such children are still expected to complete compulsory physical
education classes in school. Allen (2003) argues that physical competence alone is
not enough to sustain participation and therefore other factors such as social
connections must also play a role.
There is no simple answer as to why children choose to participate in out of
school sport. The reasons are vast and complex depending on age, gender, ethnicity
and socioeconomic income to name a few. It is also complex because the reasons
why children participate in sport are likely to change throughout childhood and
adolescence. Social factors such as encouragement from family, friends and peers,
high levels of confidence and self-esteem, intrinsic motivation and enjoyment and
high levels of ability have all been shown to have a positive effect on participation
motivation (Martin, 1997).
It is worth noting at this point that not all sport participation is positive and
children who have negative experiences are not likely to enjoy physical education or
participate in out of school sport (Ennis, 1996). There are some students who do not
like sport but feel obliged to participate in physical education as it is a compulsory
school subject in the UK until the age of 16 (Ntoumanis et al, 2004). It may not
always be their level of competence that results in the negative experience for there
are a vast number of reasons why children might not enjoy sport and physical
 P a g e | 41

education classes. One important reason experienced by both girls and boys is the
feelings of embarrassment experienced during physical education (Ennis, 1996).
Boys in particular also cite verbal abuse and fear of playing against stronger and
faster boys as a reason for disliking physical education (Ennis, 1996). Other reasons
include a dislike of kit/uniform, changing in front of others, using showers after
lessons (Ntoumanis et al, 2004) and a dislike and/or a poor relationship with the
coach/teacher (Fraser-Thomas and Côté, 2009).
Students who do not like physical education often become less motivated and
are likely to feel that physical education classes have no purpose (Ntoumanis et al,
2004). Ennis (1996) and Ntoumanis and colleagues (2004) state that students are
likely to experience feelings of boredom and passive participation becomes a
habitual behaviour. Low attendance or non-compliance even faking an injury/illness
within physical education lessons is likely when students dislike sport and physical
education lessons (Ntoumanis et al, 2004). However, despite having just listed many
negative outcomes Petitpas and others (2004) believe young people gain more
positive outcomes from playing sport than negative outcomes especially with regards
to personal and social development.
In summary, despite the lack of agreement surrounding the impact sport may
have on academic performance, participation in sport is generally and widely viewed
as a positive environment in which to engage and develop young people. It is argued
that only a small minority of young people experience negative outcomes (Petitpas et
al, 2004) and therefore the majority of young people can develop various skills
through sport and exercise participation. The next section presents the notion of life
skills, discusses the use of life skill teaching in sport as well as outlining previous life
skill interventions. Finally, the next section explores the concept of life skill transfer
from one environment into other life domains.
 P a g e | 42

2.3 Life-Skills
When reviewing the literature concerning underachievement it was apparent
that there are many causes and contributors that may lead to underachievement. The
problem when developing an intervention is that many of the factors identified as
possible causes of underachievement are either very difficult or impossible to change
such as socio-economic status, family structure, race, gender and masculinity or even
teacher perceptions and the national curriculum. Developing an intervention, which
aims to reduce underachievement in males without being able to address some of the
potential key causes of underachievement complex. However, with large literature
support for the impact of sport on academic achievement as discussed earlier in this
chapter, it was decided that a sport intervention would be a good place to start.
Although the impact of sport and physical activity on academic performance remains
inconclusive, the research strongly supports the notion that young people can
develop various skills through active participation. This final section examines the
role of life skills in sport and the impact such skills may also have on academic
performance. This chapter then concludes within an overview of existing life skill
programmes.

2.3.1 Definition of life skills

The term transferable skills and life skills appear to be terms that are used
interchangeably within the literature. The term transferable skills has become popular
in education over the last thirty years (Gibbs et al, 1994). The use of transferable
skills in higher education has become a fashionable research arena and has gained
much political attention and funding. Transferable skills are deemed to be the skills
students needed in order to be successful at school but it soon emerged that such
skills were also relevant and needed within the workplace (Gibbs et al, 1994). Many
educationalists, researchers and education institutions have put extensive resources
into looking at transferable skills in higher education to prepare students for the life
ahead and the world of employment.
Relying on terms outside of sport and sport psychology may be somewhat
problematic. Terms used by educationalists and researchers in social studies may not
be reflective of terms used by sport researchers and adolescents in sport. However, to
make the issue even more complex there is a distinct lack of a universal definition of
 P a g e | 43

life skills in sport (Hopson and Scally, 1981; Danish, 2002a). Danish (2002a) argues
that life skills are often discussed within sport literature but life skills are rarely
defined. However, Danish and colleagues define life skills as ‘those skills that enable
individuals to succeed in the different environments in which they live, such as
school, home and in their neighbourhoods’ (Gould and Carson, 2008: 59).
Papacharisis and colleagues (2005) state life skills can be physical, behavioural, or
cognitive in nature and can be transferred into other life domains.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has defined life skills as abilities for
adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the
demands and challenges of everyday life. WHO also state:

Life skills are a group of psychosocial competencies and interpersonal

skills that help people make informed decisions, solve problems, think
critically and creatively, communicate effectively, build healthy
relationships, empathise with others, and cope with and manage their
lives in a healthy and productive manner (WHO, 2003).

Hopson and Scally (1981) divided skills into four categories: i) skills I need
to survive and grow generally, ii) skills I need to relate effectively to you, iii) skills I
need to relate effectively to others, and iv) skills I need in specific situations. These
categories were then related to five areas of living where such skills would be
needed. The areas identified by Hopson and Scally (1981) are education, work,
home, leisure and the community. The skills identified and used in this study are
particularly related to education although some skills can/may be transferred to other
areas of life such as the home and eventually the workplace.

2.3.2 Life skills in sport

Teaching life skills in a sporting context is a common method to use in order
to develop skills that athletes not only need in their chosen sport but also in other
aspects of their lives. Previous research strongly postulates that sport can be used as a
vehicle in order to develop and transfer life skills. Sport is seen as a valued social
activity that most youths will engage with at some point (Camiré, Trudel and
Forneris, 2012); therefore using sport to develop life skills is becoming a growing
trend not only advocated by the sport community but also through youth
 P a g e | 44

development campaigns and schools (Gould and Carson, 2008). It is widely

recognised that organised sport provides favourable conditions for young people to
engage in positive youth development (Larson, 2000) and is a significant factor in
adolescent development of identity and self-esteem (Danish, Forneris and Wallace,
2005). Danish and colleagues (2005) state the greatest risk to young people is the
belief that playing with a ball alone is enough to make a difference. Whilst they
argue that school sport provides attractive opportunities to develop youths, they also
stress that there is nothing magical about sport. It is not the game itself that facilitates
development but rather the deliberate teaching of skills and attitudes (Danish,
Forneris and Wallace, 2005). Despite the growing number of sports-based, life skill
programmes that are implemented, Gould and Carson (2008) recognise the lack of
research focusing particularly on sport, especially when it is seen as such an
important topic.
Danish, Forneris and Wallace (2005) suggest school sport may be an
appropriate context in which to develop and teach youths life skills. Yet, despite such
strong claims that sport environments can be used to facilitate life skill development,
Jones and Lavallee highlighted in 2009, that practitioners were still not clear how
sport could help to develop young people and improve their life skills. They state that
the omission of such information makes it difficult to design and implement effective
life skill programmes. More recently, Forneris, Camiré and Trudel (2012) recognise
that researchers have begun to develop frameworks that can be used to design, plan
and deliver effective programmes/interventions that facilitate positive youth
development. In particular, Gould and Carson developed a model (see Figure 2.1) to
help facilitate the coaching of life skills through sport. The model includes all aspects
relating to the coaching experience and the components that need to be addressed in
order for successful learning and application of life skills to occur.
 P a g e | 45

Figure 2.1 – Gould and Carson’s Theoretical Framework

A model of coaching life skills through sport. Permission to republish. (Gould and
Carson 2008). Original publication: International Review of Sport and Exercise
Psychology, vol. 1:1, (2008) pp. 58-78. Available at: http://www.tandfonline.com
 P a g e | 46

2.3.3 Caught or Taught

Research suggests that sport can develop life skills (Goudas and Giannoudis,
2008; Petitpas et al, 2005) but that does not provide any insight into how individuals
learn such skills. Whether life skills have to be taught to young people or whether
young people happen to learn the skills just by playing sport (caught skills) without
active teaching needs to be addressed. Such questions are important because the
answers affect the way life skill programmes should be delivered.
There are two arguments that are debated within life skill literature. The first
argument is that such skills are caught. The idea that life skills are caught during
sport engagement was an early and common assumption. It suggests that individuals
pick up skills whilst doing sport that they do not need to be taught and such skills can
then be used in different domains and situations. Sport is seen as an appropriate
environment for young people to gain, develop, and practice life skills and it was
thought participation alone would be sufficient to facilitate life skill development.
Lerner and colleagues (2005) suggested for development to occur, young people
need to be conscious and deliberate producers of their own learning and
development. They believe that young people should not have to rely on adults,
suggesting that life skills are caught through sport, with no need for deliberate
teaching, or that young people are automatically aware of the life skills that can be
learnt through sport participation.
The second argument is that such skills have to be taught. The traditional idea
of catching life skills was challenged under the assumption that life skills have to be
taught in the same way as physical skills; through modelling and repetition (Danish
and Nelson, 1997). The taught approach is essentially adult led to facilitate youth
development by imparting their knowledge to young people. The fundamental
assumption of the present research is that the taught approach is most appropriate for
young adolescents, particularly arguing that young people need guidance, to be
taught what life skills are and how to use them in different life domains. This leads
on to the concept of skill transfer from one life domain into another.
Whether skills are taught or caught is a fundamental question as it determines
the way in which life skill programmes should be developed and delivered. Some
children will progress through adolescence without reaching developmental
milestones and enter adulthood without the skills they require to thrive in society
 P a g e | 47

(Jones and Lavallee, 2009; Theokas and Lerner, 2006). This is despite every young
individual having the potential for successful development (Jones and Lavallee,
2009). A lack of skill development is worrying as such children are likely to be
dependent on welfare and are often deemed a burden to society. What is interesting is
how some children can go through compulsory education but not learn the skills they
require to do well in society. This appears to support the argument that skills must be
taught.

2.3.4 Transfer of skills

The idea of skills being transferred from one context into another context is
still a contentious issue in the research community. Danish, Forneris and Wallace
(2005) recognise that individuals are likely to be dissimilar to each other and
therefore such differences have to be considered when developing life skill
programmes. However, they also state that there is a core set of life skills that all
individuals need to know and can be effectively transferred from one environment to
another as appropriate. For example, all students require a core set of skills to
succeed in school such as discipline, concentration and communication skills. Whilst
transfer is a desired outcome of any life skill interventions, can young people
actually transfer life skills?
A number of large-scale, sport-based, life skills intervention programmes
have been developed in recent years. Such programmes include Going for Goal
(GOAL; Danish, 2002b), Sports United to Promote Education and Recreation
(SUPER: Danish, 2002c), Teaching Responsibility through Physical Education and
Sport (Hellison, 2003) as well as the First Tee (life skill programme through golf)
(Weiss et al, 2013) and Play It Smart (Petitpas et al, 2005). Whilst these
interventions are needed, it is often the case that research lags behind the applied
application of such programmes. Despite being hugely popular, there is little
evaluation of programmes such as GOAL and SUPER and the role of life skill
transfer is still a neglected concept (Gould and Carson, 2008).
Hellison (2003) found that transferring skills learnt in the teaching personal
and social responsibility programme (TPSR) was the most advanced stage and
therefore was the final goal of the programme. Although transferring skills sounds
like a common solution to deal with many situations, in reality it is complex and
transfer often proves problematic. The issue is that skills do not transfer very readily
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(Gibbs et al, 1994). Gibbs and colleagues (1994) even went as far as to say that due
to the limited evidence it is not convincing that skills are transferred from one
context to another. They argue that if skills are transferred then the contexts are often
very similar. Early research suggests that automatic transfer of skills should not be
assumed. The ability to transfer skills from one domain into another requires
achieving the maximum outcome possible from sport participation (Hellison, 2003).
However, transfer may be enhanced if the programme is initially designed to
facilitate transfer and if similarities and opportunities for transfer are present in the
intervention.
Over a decade ago Martinek and colleagues (2001) conducted an overall
evaluation of Project Effort (a TPSR programme), which sought to teach underserved
youth goal setting skills through a school sports programme. They found that goal
setting was not transferred from the sports hall into the classroom. Despite such a
finding, they highlight transfer is not unrealistic but do support the notion that life
skill transfer is not an automatic process. They recommend that the conditions
facilitating transfer should be examined in future research.
More recently, contradicting research findings related to Project Effort,
Camiré, Trudel and Forneris (2009) found that a large portion of their participants
believed they had applied the life skills taught in the programme to their academic
work, suggesting youths believe they can transfer life skills from the sports hall in to
the classroom. Jones and Lavallee (2009) also examined life skill transfer with one
participant. They discovered through in-depth interviews that Linda believed life
skills learnt in sport could be transferred into other situations. Linda specifically
discussed transfer of life skills such as communication and confidence from a sport
environment into academia. With promising but mixed research findings, more
research is needed. Jones and Lavallee (2009) highlight their findings were from a
single case and we cannot assume similar results would be found in other
participants. Therefore, further research is needed in order to clarify why transfer
may or may not occur.
More recently, Weiss and colleagues (2013) published an evaluation of the
First Tee programme. The ability of the First Tee participants to transfer the skills
taught on the programme into other life domains was examined. The findings
highlight that the young people were able to learn and transfer the life skills they had
been taught on the programme. However, despite recent findings, the transfer of life
 P a g e | 49

skills specifically into academic domains needs further examination in order to

clarify exactly why transfer may or may not occur.
In as early as 1993, Danish and colleagues suggested one of the main barriers
to life skill programmes is that the participants do not know and are not made aware
of the skills they have learnt. If participants lack awareness of skills that have been
developed, how can one possibly expect them to transfer such skills into other areas
of academic life? They do however, suggest variables individuals should possess in
order to encourage and promote transfer of skills across domains. These variables
include the following list and can be identified in the final component of Gould and
Carson’s (2008) model (see figure 2.1):

1. A belief that skills can be of value in other situations

2. An awareness of possessing physical and psychological skills
3. An understanding and knowledge of how skills are learnt
4. A confidence to use skills in different situations
5. A motivation to explore non sporting roles
6. Seeking and finding sources of social support
7. The ability to adjust and cope with initial setbacks and/or failures

Gould and Carson’s model for coaching life skills is extensive and includes
aspects such as internal and external assets, sport participation experience, life skills/
personal development possible explanations, positive and negative outcomes, and
transferability. The transferability component is the aspect this thesis is most
concerned with and explores the transfer of life skills from the sport environment to
other non-sport aspects of life, which was an element TAP was particularly interested
in exploring.
Research has shown that life skills are not automatically transferred
(Martinek et al, 2001) and factors that may affect transfer are discussed within Gould
and Carson’s (2008) framework. Such factors include a belief that the acquired skills
and qualities are valued in other settings, knowledge of how and what context the
skills were learnt, confidence in the ability to apply skills in different settings, a
willingness to explore non-sport roles, ability to adjust to initial failures or setbacks,
awareness of skills, similarity of situations, awareness of transfer, previous transfer
experience, and support and reinforcement of transfer. It was argued that students
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would not know what skills they could possibly learn by participating in sport unless
they were told. Petitpas and colleagues (2005) have suggest that young people rarely
have insight and understanding of life skill transfer; young people do not often know
how skills learnt in a sporting environment can be transferred into other spheres.
TAP is hoping to address this barrier by making it perfectly clear to the participants
which skills are being taught. TAP is also aiming to discover how participants hope
to transfer such skills taught in sport sessions.

2.3.5 Existing life skill programmes

2.3.5.1 GOAL
Going for Goal (GOAL) is a school-based intervention developed and
implemented in the US by Danish and colleagues in order to develop participants’
competence and potential. GOAL was initiated in 1987 and began its national
dissemination through the United States of America in 1992. Within the first four
years of dissemination almost 20,000 students had participated in the programme
(Danish and Nellen, 1997). The programme is a ten-hour, ten-week intervention (see
Table 2.1) and was originally designed to teach life skills to at-risk adolescents in an
attempt to reduce risky behaviour such as drug and alcohol abuse, violent behaviour
and school dropout.
The aim of GOAL is to provide participants with the opportunity to acquire
goal setting, problem solving and learn support skills. Goal is designed to provide
adolescents with a sense of personal control and assist them to achieve a positive
outlook of their own future (Forneris et al, 2007). GOAL uses a peer mentoring
system, where older high school students are diligently selected to become leaders in
order to teach middle school or junior high students. Older students are deemed to be
appropriate leaders and strong role models for younger students as they have grown
up in the same neighbourhoods, attended the same schools and have often
encountered and overcome similar challenges and obstacles. Therefore, older
students can be effective leaders as long as they are taught how to deliver the
workshops and receive effective supervision.
GOAL was founded upon the belief that young people need to know how to
succeed in life. It was not enough to just teach young people what they need to avoid,
specific skills have to be emphasised in order to help young people to be competent
and successful members of society. Although many of the outcomes and claims of
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the GOAL programme are difficult to evaluate, for example, citizenship is difficult to
evaluate because of its subjectivity, it is still deemed a viable programme to teach
young people life skills.

Table 2.1 – Overview of GOAL Workshops

(Adapted from O’Hearn and Gatz (2002)

Workshop Workshop Theme

Week One Dare to Dream: an introduction to the programme and the session
encourages participants to identify their dreams

Week Two Setting Goals: session teaches participants to turn their dreams into
goals. Goals are identified as ‘positive, specific, important to you and
under your control’

Week Three Making Goals Reachable: session assists participants in setting their
own goals applying the four characteristics of reachable goals

Week Four Making a Goal Ladder: introduces the idea of a goal ladder- a series of
mini steps in order to reach their goals

Week Five Redefining Roadblocks: Considers obstacles that may arise and prevent
participants from achieving their goals

Week Six Overcoming Roadblocks: introduces STAR (Stop and chill out, Think
about the alternatives, Anticipate the consequences, Respond with the
best choice) a problem solving strategy

Week Seven Seeking Help: emphasises the importance of asking others for help

Week Eight Rebounds and Rewards: emphasises rebounding from roadblocks and
the importance of self-reward if successful

Week Nine Building on Strengths: helps participants to identify their own strengths
and use them to achieve their goals

Week Ten Going for the Goal: wraps up the intervention and gives participants the
opportunity to apply information they have used in previous weeks
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2.3.5.2 SUPER
SUPER is an abbreviated term of Sports United to Promote Education and
Recreation and a derivative of the GOAL programme. Developed by Danish and
colleagues at the life skills centre at Virginia Commonwealth University, SUPER
was designed to link sport with various life skills and uses goal setting as the main
life skill in order to teach problem solving and overcoming obstacles to achieve goals
(Jones et al, 2011). SUPER is taught over 18 workshops (see table 2.2), each session
is approximately 30 minutes in duration and uses sport as the vehicle to teach life
skills. During the SUPER programme the participants are involved in three sets of
activities i) learning the physical skills related to a specific sport, ii) learning life
skills related to sports in general, iii) playing the sport (Papacharisis et al, 2005).
Although SUPER is based on the same concept as GOAL, one obvious
difference is how the programmes impart knowledge. Whilst GOAL is based on
writing tasks, SUPER is much more action-orientated and adapted to fit specific
sports. However, many of the successful components of GOAL have been transferred
to SUPER, such as the use of older students acting as role models and leaders for
their younger peers. It appears that the leaders receive a more structured and in-depth
training during SUPER as elements such as teaching sport skills and life skills,
organising sessions, and the transfer of skills into other life domains are included
(Danish, 2002a). SUPER was designed to provide each participant with the belief
that physical and mental skills are important in both life and sport, that it is important
to set and attain goals in all aspects of life and sport and obstacles can be overcome
in order to achieve set goals (Danish and Nellen, 1997).
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Table 2.2 – Overview of SUPER Workshops

(Adapted from Brunelle et al, 2007)

Workshop Workshop Theme

Week One Developing a Team: An introduction to the programme and participation in
team building activities
Week Two Dare to Dream: Participants’ learn the importance of having dreams for their
future and identify dreams they have

Week Three Setting Goals (Part 1): session teaches participants to turn their dreams into
goals. Goals keepers and goal busters are introduced

Week Four Setting Goals (Part 2): Participants learn the four characteristics of
reachable goals (positively stated, specific, importance and under goal setter’s
control)

Week Five Setting Goals (Part 3): Participants practice what they learnt in week four

Week Six Making Goals Reachable: session assists participants in setting their own
goals applying the four characteristics of reachable goals

Week Seven Making a Goal Ladder: introduces the idea of a goal ladder- a series of mini
steps in order to reach their goals

Week Eight Redefining and Overcoming Roadblocks: Considers obstacles that may
arise and prevent participants from achieving their goals. Introduces STAR
(Stop and chill out, Think about the alternatives, Anticipate the consequences,
Respond with the best choice) a problem solving strategy

Week Nine Seeking Help: emphasises the importance of asking others for help and
identifying key people

Week Ten Using Positive Self-Talk: Participants learn to identify their self-talk and
how to ensure positive self-talk is used when related to their goals

Week Eleven Learning to Relax: Participants learn the importance of relaxation and how
to focus

Week Twelve Managing Emotions: Participants learn to manage their emotions in sport
and life using the four R’s (Replay, Relax, Redo and Ready)

Week Thirteen Developing a Healthy Lifestyle: Participants learn the importance of a

healthy life and learn how to make changes to ensure healthy living

Week Fourteen Appreciating Differences: Participants learn to identify individual

differences and differences important to reaching their goals

Week Fifteen Having Confidence and Courage: Participants learn the importance of self-
confidence and believing in their own ability

Week Sixteen Learning to Focus on Your Personal Performance: Participants learn how
to compete against oneself to improve performance

Week Building on Strengths: helps participants to identify their own strengths and
Seventeen use skills taught in the programme in other areas of their lives.
Week Eighteen Goal Setting for Life: Participants learn how set goals throughout their lives
and set two goals to achieve within three months
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2.3.5.3 Evaluations of life skill interventions

Despite a wave of implemented sport-based life skill interventions since the mid-
1990s, evaluations of such programmes have been disappointingly lacking. The
effectiveness of such programmes has received little attention despite a large number
of programmes assuming positive outcomes (Papacharisis et al, 2005; Holt et al,
2008). Many of the sport-based life skill interventions have originated in the USA
and despite initial positive findings and assumptions that such programmes provide a
viable setting to teach life skills, they are designed to work with American children.
There is little evidence to suggest such programmes would work across nations,
cultures and societies (Holt et al, 2008) and there are limited evaluations of the long-
term benefits. GOAL is now over twenty years old and systematic evaluations of the
programme are few and far between. Evaluations that have been conducted are either
from adapted versions of the programme such as Heke’s (2001) evaluation or have
not been published.
In 2005, Papacharisis and colleagues conducted an evaluation of a modified
version of SUPER. The evaluation included two studies with all participants being
Greek children between the ages of 10-12 years old. The first study included 40
female volleyball players and the second study included 34 male footballers (soccer).
The sessions included the same number of workshops and similar content as SUPER;
however the sessions were shorter in duration (15minutes). The programme
addressed problem-solving, goal setting and positive thinking and included
discussions, group learning and written worksheets. The children who received the
intervention reported higher problem solving, goal setting and positive thinking skills
than the children who were in the control group. The intervention group also reported
higher knowledge of life skills and increased sport skills compared to the control
group (Papacharisis et al, 2005). Although these studies have proclaimed
effectiveness in teaching three life skills to children through a sport-based
intervention the studies have not looked at the effect of teaching life skills
specifically on educational outcomes, mainly academic achievement. Holt et al,
(2008) argue there is a need to embrace direct instruction in order to teach life skills
through sport.
Whilst popular, there are several limitations with the GOAL and SUPER
programmes. Both programmes are designed to heavily promote goal setting with
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limited opportunities for participants to learn other life skills. Variations of SUPER
and GOAL exist, with many interventions targeting general skills such as goal
setting, time management, problem solving and teamwork (Camiré, Trudel and
Forneris, 2009; Holt et al, 2008, Jones and Lavallee, 2009). Papacharisis and
colleagues (2005) delivered and evaluated a modified version of SUPER with Greek
schoolchildren with promising results; children in the intervention group showed
improvements in physical skills and programme knowledge.
As previously mentioned, Hellison (2003) delivered the TPSR programme
which has a long history that predates the positive youth development movement
(Hellison, Martinek and Walsh, 2008). This model sought to instruct coaches and
teachers how to teach responsibility to youth through sport. TPSR utilises strong
instructor-participant relationships to help youths learn goal setting, self-motivation,
as well as developing their respect for others and exploring transfer of such skills.
Importantly, GOAL, SUPER and the TPSR model have all disagreed with the caught
assumption and sought to systematically teach life skills. Therefore, this study is
seeking to support the taught assumption by deliberately teaching life skills with
younger participants.

2.4 Summary
To summarise, the belief that sport can be used as vehicle to develop young
people has long been recognised. Using sport to increase academic performance has
also gained increased research attention but with limited and mixed results. Despite
the uncertainty surrounding the impact sport may have on academic performance,
participation in sport is generally and widely viewed as a positive environment in
which to engage and develop young people. However, more research is needed that
examines the use of sports based, life skills programmes that look to develop and
engage young people in an academic environment.
Sports based, life skills interventions have become increasingly popular over
the last decade but mainly in the United States. There is limited support that such
interventions would be beneficial or effective in other countries. Therefore, it is
unclear whether existing life skills programmes would work with underachieving
students in order to develop their academic performance. Developing such a
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programme is problematic as there is no clear evidence to indicate what skills should

be included and more specifically, what life skills underachieving students in the UK
need.
There has also been a distinct lack of intervention evaluations and what
published evaluations have been completed has resulted in mixed findings, especially
in relation to life skill transfer. There are several gaps in life skill research (Gould
and Carson, 2008), particularly in terms of how children and young people learn life
skills through sport and whether such skills can be used in other domains (Dworkin,
Larson and Hansen, 2003; Gould and Carson, 2008). Forneris and colleagues (2007)
also suggest that more research is needed to find out if adolescents are actually
learning the skills such programmes set out to achieve and how such skills are
developed. Whether life skills are taught or caught is a fundamental question as
without the answer it is difficult to design effective programmes.
Finally, the literature is still unsure of the limit, if any, of life skill transfer,
despite decades of research and the development of recent frameworks. Gould and
Carson (2008: 74) highlight the belief that life skills learnt in sport spill over into
other life domains but stress that ‘this assumption is seldom tested’. This uncertainty
around transfer needs attention and must be addressed in research in order to ensure
life skill interventions are well designed and effective.
This chapter has examined a wide range of literature surrounding many
complex and interlinked concepts such as underachievement, sport, and life skill
interventions. However, existing literature surrounding each concept has produced
more questions than answers, particularly when addressing complex issues such as
underachievement and using sport to teach life skills to students in the UK. The
themes highlighted within the literature review informed the design, implementation,
the data collection and the analysis of this study. The next chapter discusses the
Transfer-Ability Programme (TAP) in detail.
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3 THE TRANSFER-ABILITY PROGRAMME

3.1 Introduction
This chapter introduces the Transfer-Ability Programme (TAP) and provides
details of the participants in the intervention and the comparison groups. TAP is a
programme that was implemented in an attempt to tackle male underachievement in
an inner city London, state funded secondary school. TAP is a multi-faceted
intervention designed to facilitate the acquisition and transfer of life skills through
sport. A range of sports were delivered, some of which were outside the current
curriculum provision, in order to teach seven transferable life skills to twenty
underachieving male students. Sessions were delivered once weekly during term time
for one full academic year (for session plans see Table 3.2), with each session lasting
approximately ninety minutes. It was hoped that the participants could develop seven
skills during TAP sessions and then transferred to other academic domains in an
attempt to increase academic performance.
Philosophically, existing research is grounded in the assumption that life
skills are caught in sport. TAP challenged this assumption by deliberately teaching
life skills. Such an approach could transform the way in which we view life skills
and may possibly have wide ranging consequences for social and sport sciences.
Unlike previous interventions, TAP was much longer in duration, whereas GOAL,
SUPER, and many other youth development programmes (Papacharisis et al, 2005;
Goudas et al, 2006; O’Hearn and Gatz, 2002) are approximately between eight to
eighteen sessions long, TAP included a total of 25 sessions. Due to the prolonged
engagement, a recommendation made by Gould and Carson (2008), the participants
had sufficient time to learn the seven life skills, develop the knowledge and
understanding of such skills and attempt to transfer the skills into other academic
domains. Data was collected with the intention that the findings would inform future
research and contribute to current knowledge on life skill interventions and life skill
transfer.
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3.2 Rationale for Sport Intervention

Sport has often been treated as monolithic in research relating to self-esteem
and academic achievement (Eitle and Eitle, 2002). However little research exists that
examines the sport-specific effects and determines which sports are best to promote
self-esteem and academic achievement. Eitle and Eitle (2002) argue that participation
may increase various forms of human, social and culture capital, which will vary
depending on the background of the individual participating. Therefore different
sports will appeal to different groups depending on their social class, age, gender,
ethnicity, and access availability, especially to sports that require specific and
expensive equipment such as sailing, cycling, motor sports and horse riding/racing.
Sport initiatives have also been used in order to tackle male behaviour and attitudes
towards school with mixed results. Some academics suggest that using competitive
sport that draws on a masculine culture is counterproductive because such sports
instil and promote macho stereotypes and ‘are certainly not going to raise standards’
(Francis, 1999: 9), whilst others argue ‘anything has to be worth a try’ (Wragg, 1999:
9).
Previous UK sport incentives and interventions usually focus on football. The
reasons for this appears simple, it is mainly due to the high profile the sport has in
the UK and its undisputed popularity. In many schools up and down Britain, football
takes a central position in any break-time and lunchtime periods (Skelton, 2000).
There is also a long-standing relationship between schools and football, although it is
not essentially on the National Curriculum, the majority of schools teach football
during PE lessons and most will have an after-school club and competitive school
teams. This means that football appears to be the sport of choice as many boys will
voluntarily choose to play football in rest and recreational periods and schools are
happy to promote this as competitive sport as it can boost a school’s status through
achievement and success (Skelton, 2000).
As established through literature and observations made in schools, the
majority of boys will choose to play football, although their reasons may vary and
differ between individuals. Football is hugely popular within the UK and is seen as
the national sport of England but there are still large numbers of students who dislike
football and prefer to participate in other sports. This is especially true with ethnic
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minority students, for example Indian children often prefer to play cricket as this is
deemed as their national sport.
Due to the lack of specific sport research on academic achievement TAP was
designed to be a multi-sport, multi-skills programme, in order to introduce new
games/sports and develop both sporting and life skills (Bartko and Eccles, 2003;
Kirk, 2005; Fredricks and Eccles, 2006; Zarrett et al, 2008, President’s Council of
Physical Fitness and Sports, 2009). Fraser-Thomas and others (2005) state that up
until the age of thirteen all children should remain in the sampling stage of
development. This means sampling as many sports as possible with the emphasis on
play rather than competition. As the students were all twelve years of age when the
intervention started it was deemed beneficial to offer a variety of sports. It is also
argued that individuals in the study may have been attracted to different sports and
by allowing a varied programme, motivation and interest were potentially
maximised. The sports selected (see table 3.1) were identified and included due to
the opportunities they provided when teaching life skills. For example, a martial arts
instructor worked with the participants in order to teach them about discipline. The
instructor discussed discipline in great detail and extensively used it throughout the
sessions. This approach was used for each of the life skills.

3.3 Life Skills Taught in TAP

Life skills can be placed into three broad categories; physical, behavioural or
cognitive. However, no published life skill programme could be found that looked
specifically at reducing underachievement and improving academic performance.
Therefore, there were no recommended guidelines that could inform the selection of
life skills to include within TAP; however, the skills were selected with academic
performance and achievement in mind. The senior management group within the
school identified skills they thought their students’ needed and/or lacked and existing
life skill intervention research (highlighted below) provided information on other
skills that had been deemed appropriate and successful in previous interventions.
Based on these selection criteria, TAP included the following life skills; team work
(Gould et al, 2006; Jones and Lavallee, 2009), communication (Jones and Lavallee,
2009), discipline (Jones and Lavallee, 2009), self-confidence with positive self-talk
(Brunelle et al, 2007; Goudas et al, 2006), concentration (Forneris et al, 2007;
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Goudas et al, 2006) and goal setting (Gould et al, 2006; Goudas et al, 2006).
Persistence was the final personal life skill that was included in TAP, and is a skill
that could not be found in previous interventions. The school felt that persistence was
a skill that would be beneficial for many of the participants and was therefore
included in this study.

Table 3.1 – Life Skills and Sports Included in TAP

Life skill Sport used to teach life skill

Team work American Football
Discipline Martial Arts
Communication Goalball
Persistence Frisbee
Goal Setting Boxing
Concentration Rock Climbing and Athletics (sprint
hurdling)
Self-confidence and positive Football
self-talk

3.4 How the Life Skills were Taught

Only the intervention group received the sports sessions and were taught the
seven life skills. Each life skill was taught over a three-week period (see Table 3.2;
The TAP Planner). This was to ensure that the intervention group participants had
sufficient time to practice the skill in the sports hall and attempt to transfer the skill
into other academic domains. The first session of each life skill was used to introduce
the skill to the participants and establish their current level of understanding. This
included discussions on what the skill was, how the skill could be used, how it was
related to the classroom and the sports hall and discovering the perceived importance
of the life skill to the participants and their learning. The participants had
approximately 40-45 minutes to use the life skill whilst engaging in various
sports/games/activities. The second session allowed the participants to practice the
life skill in more detail and depth for the entire 75-minute session. The third session
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allowed the participants to further practice each life skill for approximately 30 – 45
minutes. The remainder of the session involved the intervention group participating
in a focus group where they discussed amongst themselves what they thought of the
life skill, how it could be beneficial in sport and in other life domains, and how they
may possibly transfer the skill into other academic environments (i.e. the classroom).
Goal setting was taught slightly differently to the other six life skills as it was
taught through a scheme known as the Sky Sports Living for Sport programme. A
former, female, UK boxing champion came to the school to work with the
participants in the intervention group on two separate occasions. On her initial half-
day visit she give the participants an inspirational speech about her background and
career and spent time teaching the intervention group how to set goals and then she
made them set their own short term goals. Her second visit was over a full school day
and she discussed with the intervention group if they had achieved their own short-
term goals. Boxing activities and games were used in both sessions in order to
demonstrate and support the teaching of goal setting.
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Table 3.2 – TAP Planner

Date (week Session plan/ Theme

commencing)
5 September 2011 START OF ACADEMIC YEAR
12 September 2011 Introduce myself and the study to participants.
19 September 2011 School to randomly select intervention and comparison groups.
26 September 2011 Consent forms to be sent out to parents. Cool off period for
3 October 2011 participants.
10 October 2011 Meet with participants: explain intervention, collect consent forms
17 October 2011 Meet intervention group- complete demographic data, life skill
questionnaire.
24 October 2011 HOLIDAY- Half term
31 October 2011 Week off- school strike
7 November 2011 Group Activities:
14 November 2011 Team work session 1: Coach JH - American football
21 November 2011 Team work session 2: Coach JH- American football
28 November 2011 Team work session 3: American Football and Focus Group
5 December 2011 Discipline session 1: Sensei NT- Martial Arts
12 December 2011 Discipline session 2: Sensei NT- Martial Arts
19 December 2011 HOLIDAY- Christmas
26 December 2011 HOLIDAY- Christmas
2 January 2012 WEEK OFF- School staff meeting
9 January 2012 Discipline session 3: Martial Art Activities and Focus Group
16 January 2012 Goal setting session 1: Coach HB- Boxing
23 January 2012 Communication session 1: Coach GA- Goal ball
30 January 2012 Communication session 2: Coach GA- Goal ball
6 February 2012 Cancelled: School closed due to adverse weather
13 February 2012 HOLIDAY- Half term
20 February 2012 Communication session 3: Goal Ball activities and focus group
27 February 2012 Cancelled due to facility issues
5 March 2012 Persistence session 1: Coach GA- Frisbee
12 March 2012 Persistence session 2: Coach GA- Frisbee
19 March 2012 Persistence: Frisbee and Focus group
26 March 2012 Concentration session 1: Rock Climbing- Brunel Climbing staff
2 April 2012 HOLIDAY: Easter
9 April 2012 HOLIDAY: Easter
16 April 2012 Concentration session 2: Athletics- Brunel Coaching
23 April 2012 Concentration: Focus Group and Wii free time
30 April 2012 Goal Setting session 2: Boxing Coach HB
Goal Setting session 3: focus group
7 May 2012 Self-confidence and positive self-talk 1: Coach DH- football
14 May 2012 Self-confidence and positive self-talk 2: Coach DH- football
21 May 2012 Self-confidence and positive self-talk 3: Focus Group
28 May 2012 Intervention ends: Final Discussions and Free time
4 June 2012 HOLIDAY- Half term
11 June 2012 FINAL ACADEMIC GRADES RELEASED
18 June 2012
25 June 2012 In-depth interviews with intervention students
2 July 2012 Questionnaires completed
9 July 2012 Interviews with staff and parent
16 July 2012
23 July 2012 END OF ACADEMIC YEAR
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3.5 Frameworks used in TAP

Frameworks developed by Gould and Carson (2008), and Petitpas and
colleagues (2005) were used to plan and develop the intervention. A full diagram of
Gould and Carson’s (2008) model was provided in chapter two (see Figure 2.1). TAP
focused on the transferability component of the model but for a full discussion of the
model; see Gould and Carson (2008). The transferability component of the model is
concerned with the transfer of life skills from the sport environment to other non-
sport aspects of life.
Research has previously shown that life skills are not automatically
transferred (Martinek et al, 2001). Factors that may affect transfer are discussed
within Gould and Carson’s (2008) framework and include a belief that acquired
skills and qualities are valued in other settings, knowledge of how and in what
context the skills were learnt, confidence in the ability to apply skills in different
settings, a willingness to explore non-sport roles, ability to adjust to initial failures or
setbacks, awareness of skills, similarity of situations, awareness of transfer, previous
transfer experience, and support and reinforcement of transfer. TAP sought to
address each factor by providing opportunities to learn, practice and transfer life
skills, using focus groups to explore similarities of situations in an academic context
and how skills could be used in other non-sport domains. In addition support and
reinforcement to deal with initial setbacks was provided during the weekly sporting
sessions and in the focus groups.
Petitpas and colleagues (2005) developed a framework for developing an
effective youth sport programme, which was also embraced during the planning of
TAP. According to their framework, youths are more likely to experience positive
development in the presence of (1) an appropriate environment (context), (2) caring
adults (external assets), and (3) they are provided opportunities at learn life skills
(internal assets). TAP embraced all three elements by implementing the programme
within the participants’ school. The aim of TAP was to teach life skills that could be
transferred into other academic domains such as the classroom, and it was thought
that by providing the programme in a suitable context, the intervention group would
find it easier to learn, discuss and transfer such skills within their school
environment. Each week the boys were provided new opportunities to learn the life
skills (internal assets) through new sports, new activities and different games.
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Participants were encouraged to discuss transfer from the sports hall into the
classroom on a regular basis. TAP also provided the participants with caring adults;
the author of this study was present at the school on a weekly basis and developed a
positive relationship with the participants throughout the programme. The
participants also saw a female P.E teacher, who did not teach them academically, as a
caring adult they could seek advice and support from on a daily basis. The school
only allowed female PE teachers to teach female students and as a result she did not
teach any of the male participants in the school. Her involvement in the programme
therefore did not result in any biased teaching or extra attention being placed on the
boys within their academic environments. The PE teacher was the main pastoral
support provider for the boys throughout the programme.

3.6 The Case Study School

This study used one school, referred to as the Case Study school in order to ensure
anonymity. For more information on the case study approach used in this study, refer
to chapter 4. The Case Study school is located in inner city London and is a mixed
sex school. The school’s general profile from the most recent Office for Standards in
Education, Children’s Services and Skills (OFSTED) inspection in July 2011 can be
found below in Table 3.3. OFSTED is a non-ministerial government responsible for
inspecting and reporting the strengths and weakness of schools in England. Further
information highlights that the school had a higher than average number of students
and the number of students eligible for free school meals was approximately double
the national average, which indicates a high level of social deprivation. Almost two-
thirds of the students spoke English as an additional and/or second language.
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Table 3.3 – OFSTED Information on Case Study School

Data from OFSTED inspection Case Study School

(July 2011)
Type of school Comprehensive
OFSTED category Foundation
Specialist status Specialist Arts College
Age of pupils 11-18
Number of pupils enrolled 1296
Predominant ethnic group Wide range of ethnic backgrounds
Free school meal status (indicator of Numbers are approximately double the
social class and poverty)
national average
OFSTED overall effectiveness grade Good
Core subject attainment Exceptional progress made in English
Good progress made in mathematics
Poor progress made in science

The OFSTED report highlighted a discrepancy between English and

mathematics attainment grades compared to science attainment at GCSE level. The
inspection found that English and mathematics were outstanding and these subjects
had made good progress since the school’s previous OFSTED inspection. Although
the science results had improved, they were well below the English and mathematics
results. The report states the school needed to ‘raise levels of attainment and rates of
progress in science so that at least they matched those in English and mathematics’
(OFSTED Inspection Report, 2011: 2). The male students underachieving in at least
science were identified for TAP as more students were underachieving in science
than any other subject and science grades were of particular interest to the school’s
management staff.
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3.7 Inclusion Criteria

The participants in this study had to meet several criteria in order to be deemed
eligible for selection. Potential participants has to be:
 Male
 Year 8 (12-13 years old)
 Underachieving in at least Science

The study initially used a purposive sampling approach that required gaining
a sample where the participants had to match eligibility criteria. All students selected
had to be male, in the same school and same school year in order to try to standardise
teaching and grade predictions. This meant the students were receiving a similar
level and style of teaching. Only one PE teacher was involved with the intervention
and she did not teach any of the students in the intervention or comparison group.
This ensured limited contamination occurred between the intervention and in-school
teaching. All the students were underachieving in at least Science as this was
deemed the school’s weakest subject in the 2011 Ofsted report. Underachievement
was measured on actual grades obtained compared to teacher prediction.
The school initially selected all participants eligible for the programme based
on the inclusion criteria above and were then responsible for randomly selecting
which children formed the intervention group and the comparison group. Of the eight
classes that existed in Year 8, seven of the classes had at least one student involved
in TAP. The school insisted on taking control of the allocation of the participants.
Although slightly uncomfortable with the school having full control of the allocation
process, the author had experienced difficulty in finding a school willing to be
involved in the programme and was not prepared to lose the schools engagement.
The school reported that they used the simply random technique of pulling names out
of a bowl as requested at a senior staff meeting.
Participants were randomly allocated as this method is deemed to be best
practice in some fields of study, particularly when running quantitative parametric
data analysis tests. Matched-pairs were also considered but as the literature review
has demonstrated, underachievement is complex and can be a result of many factors.
This would have made it difficult to allocate students based on a matched-pairs
criteria. Time constraints and a limited number of participants also made matched-
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pairs problematic. Despite random allocation, the participants were matched on

school, gender and age.
The school reported that they randomly selected the participants as requested.
However, some scepticism may be required. It appears the largest underachievers
were placed in the intervention group (see Figure 5.1) as well as the students with the
largest number of detentions and reported behavioural issues. This may be a result of
random selection or it may be possible that the school were deliberate in their
allocation of the intervention group participants.

3.7.1 How underachievement was defined for this study

All the participants in this study were identified by their school as
underachieving in Science. Many of the participants were also underachieving in
other core and foundation subjects such as English, Mathematics, and Foreign
Languages. The term underachievement was defined by the school as any student
who were not achieving their expected grade (predicted by the class teacher) and/or
who had made no improvement to their attainment grade during their first year at the
school. This included students who had received the same grade in their end of year
seven examinations as they had in their Standard Assessment Test (SAT) exams1 at
the end of Year 6.

3.8 Participants
The participants for this study were all male and in the adolescent phase of
their life. Adolescence is divided into three phases commonly known as early (11-14
years), middle (15-18 years) and late (19-21 years) (Holt, 2008). The male
participants were all 12-13 years old when the study commenced and were in Year 8
of secondary education; therefore the participants in this study were in the early
phase of adolescence.
Year 8 students were identified as being the most suitable for this study for a
number of reasons. Mainly, it was judged timely to make a difference to their
attainment and attitudes to school. Sport participation begins to decline when youths
reach the age of 12 (Bloom et al, 2008). This is a crucial period for the development
of social skill and self-esteem (Bloom et al, 2008) and as sport has been found to
1
SAT (Standard Assessment Test) examinations are completed by children in the England at the age
of 11, during their final year of primary education.
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positively impact on youth development (Bartko and Eccles, 2003; Fredricks and
Eccles, 2006; Goudas and Giannoudis, 2008; Zarrett et al, 2008) then participation
beyond 12 years old often needs to be encouraged and promoted. It is also the age
where many students begin to participate in new sports and it may be the last
opportunity to entice young males into sport.
Year 8 was also deemed a year which has a limited changeable impact on
students. Year 7 is a year where students must adapt to a new school, make new
peers and embark on a new stage of curriculum and learning. Research shows that
transitional effects can last well into the first year of secondary school (Zeedyk et al,
2003) and can negatively impact on academic achievement. Galton and others (2000)
claim transition from primary school to secondary school can result in some students
underachieving in comparison to previous performances. It was hoped that any
transitional effects would have ceased by the end of Year 7 and therefore would not
have been an impacting factor on the intervention.

3.8.1 The intervention group

The school identified thirty-nine male students who were eligible for
participation in TAP. Twenty participants were randomly selected to form the
intervention group. Twenty was deemed a suitable number to safely conduct sport
sessions and a viable number for qualitative research. Hellison (2000) argues that
young people who are in involved in programmes with smaller group numbers and
stay as one group for an extended period gained more benefits than youths in
programmes with large numbers of participants. It was hoped the students would
gain benefit from working in a small group as it potentially allowed for greater group
cohesion and more individual attention from the sport coaches.
All the participants were in Year 8 (12-13 years old) as it was judged timely
to make a difference to their attainment and attitudes to school. Thirty-nine students
were eligible but four students rejected the invite to participate in the study. Twenty
of the eligible students formed the intervention group; fifteen male students
underachieving in the same core curricular subject and in the same school year
formed a comparison group. One student in the intervention group withdrew from the
study after 6 weeks as he was excluded from the school, leaving nineteen students in
the intervention group. No data was used for the student who withdrew.
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3.8.2 The comparison group

The comparison group, also identified by the school, included fifteen male
participants also in Year 8 and underachieving in at least Science. The comparison
group did not receive the intervention but they were involved in a fun day at the
school, where they were able to participate in a number of sporting activities. The
fun day was arranged once TAP had finished and took place at the end of the
summer term. Creswell (2009) states all participants must benefit from the study, not
just the experimental/intervention group and the school deemed this as the most
appropriate way in which to engage with the comparison group.

3.8.3 Ethnicity
TAP included participants from a number of different ethnicities. With the
school being situated in one of the most diverse cities in the country, ethnicity was
considered to be a particular issue. Although, it is worth mentioning at this point that
TAP did not control for ethnicity. Table 3.4 shows the representation of each ethnic
group involved in the intervention group and the control group.

Table 3.4 – Ethnicity Groups of Participants

Ethnicity Intervention Control Group

Group
Black Caribbean 5 4
Pakistani 2 2
White British 2 2
Other Black African 2 0
Other Asian 2 4
White Western European 1 0
Black Somali 1 1
White and Black African 1 0
Indian 1 1
Iraqi 0 1
Afgan 1 0
Other 1 0
Total 19 15
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3.9 Teacher Interaction and Teaching Styles

When designing TAP it became apparent that the teaching the participants
received across the curriculum had to be standardised in some way. As
underachievement and not low achievement was the focus of this programme it
meant students could be selected from any of the classes within the appropriate age
range. The students in the intervention group represented seven of the eight classes in
Year 8; meaning teachers could not concentrate or bias their teaching on one
particular class. This helped to ensure that the teaching content would be similar for
the intervention group as well as the comparison group. In order to limit the variation
of teaching styles and ensure academic teaching was as similar as possible for all
participants was the main reason for using one Case Study school for this
programme.
In order to ensure no bias or contamination occurred in the academic teaching
of the intervention and control groups, no academic staff involved in the participants’
teaching were included or involved in the programme. The only member of staff
involved in the planning and supervision of the programme and was the daily contact
point for the participants was a female PE teacher, who had no teaching
responsibilities with any of the boys involved in the programme. Although senior
members of staff at the school knew about the programme, in particular the
management team and administrative staff, members of the Year 8 teaching team
were only vaguely aware of the programme. The majority of teachers were only
aware of TAP’s existence and received no knowledge of the content or intent of the
programme.

3.10 Summary
This chapter explained the Transfer-Ability Programme, the Case Study
school and the participants that were included in this intervention. Gould and
Carson’s (2008) model was also discussed as it provided the framework for the
transfer element of this study. The next chapter will highlight the methodology used
whilst collecting data from various sources as well as discussing the reliability and
validity of data. Chapter 4 also explains the ethical procedures undertaken.
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4 METHODOLOGY

4.1 Introduction
Efforts were made to use appropriate methodology in order to gain
understanding on some of the complex issues surrounding male underachievement
and examine the possible impact of a sport intervention. Whilst chapter two
suggested that transferable skills can be taught through sport the aim of this study
was to provide some insight on how such skills are learnt and if they are transferred
into the classroom and used across various academic domains. This chapter discusses
the methodological assumptions upon which this study was based and the reasoning
for using a mixed methods approach is explained. Finally, the ethical procedures
undertaken are discussed.

4.2 Philosophical Perspective

During the design of TAP it became apparent that personal philosophical
perspectives had to be examined as such views can influence the way in which the
researcher collects and analyses data. Personal assumptions and understandings had
to be reviewed in order to establish my own position within the research. This section
discusses my own worldviews and the paradigms adopted in this study.
A paradigm is generally regarded as a belief system through which
individuals can see and make sense of the social world (Guba and Lincoln, 1989). A
paradigm is a worldview that spans ontology, epistemology and methodology (see
Figure 4.1). Hammersley (2012) states that in the context of research methodology,
the term paradigm refers to a set of philosophical assumptions about a phenomena
and how such assumptions can be understood. Although many paradigms exist,
social science research is dominated by two main paradigms: positivism and
interpretivism. Before the two main paradigms are discussed in more detail, it is
important to introduce and briefly discuss the concepts of ontology and
epistemology.
Ontology is regarded as the starting point of all social science research (Grix,
2002) and is based on assumptions about the nature of reality or a phenomenon.
Blaikie (2000:8) declares that ontological assumptions are:
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‘Claims and assumptions that are made about the nature of social
reality, claims about what exists, what it looks like, what units make it
up and how these units interact with each other. In short, ontological
assumptions are concerned with what we believe constitutes social
reality’

So, if ontology is concerned with the knowledge we may know, then

epistemology is concerned about how we gain such knowledge (Grix, 2002). It asks
if knowledge is possible and how it can be gained. Epistemology focuses on the
process of gathering information and knowledge in an attempt to develop new
theories and/or models (Grix, 2002). A large proportion of life skill research has
adopted quantitative methods that ontologically assume an external reality and
epistemologically allows the research to determine how things are and what they
mean. This approach is often referred to as a positivist approach. In contrast to
quantitative methods is the use of qualitative methods that ontologically assume that
there are multiple realities and epistemologically states that knowledge is created
through human interaction.
As previously mentioned the two most popular paradigms in social research
are positivism and interpretivism, also known as a constructivist approach, (for an
overview of the key characteristics and assumptions of the positivist and interpretive
approach, see Table 4.1). The purpose of TAP was to gain an understanding within a
social context, and should have used an interpretive approach. However, it became
apparent that the use of an interpretive framework alone might not have addressed all
the research questions this study sought to explore. Therefore, it was assumed that a
combination of interpretive and positivist approaches would provide the most
appropriate tools in which to collect sufficient data and facilitate a comprehensive
understanding of this topic.
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Table 4.1 – Interpretive and Positivist Approaches

Key characteristics and assumptions

Interpretive approach Positivist approach

Assumptions Assumptions
 Reality is socially constructed  Social fact have an objective reality
 Researcher and reality are inseparable  Researcher and reality are separate
 Knowledge of the world is intentionally  Objective reality exists beyond the human
constituted through lived experience kind
 Variables are complex and difficult to  Variables can be identified and relationships
measure quantified

Purpose Purpose
 Contextualisation  Generalisability
 Interpretation  Prediction
 Understanding perspectives  Causal explanations

Method Method
 Qualitative  Quantitative
 Naturalistic  Experimentation
 Inductive  Deductive

Validity Validity
 Certainty: data truly measures reality  Defensible knowledge claims

Reliability Reliability
 Results can be reproduced  Interpretive awareness: researchers
acknowledge and address their subjectivity

(Adapted from Glesne and Peshkin, 1992:7 and Weber, 2004: iv)

4.3 The Mixed Methods Approach

Mixed methods research is a research paradigm whose time has come

(Johnson and Onwuegbuzie, 2004)

A mixed methods research design is essentially using both qualitative and

quantitative methods in a single study (Creswell, 2012). Whilst it is a relatively
young paradigm and continues to gain increasing support, mixed methods research
still receives criticism from many purist researchers. Purists believe that qualitative
and quantitative paradigms and methods ‘cannot and should not be mixed’ (Johnson
and Onwuegbuzie, 2004: 14). However, supporters of mixed methods research argue
such an approach embraces both qualitative and quantitative methods in order to
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render less biased and more accurate conclusions (Reams and Twale, 2008).
Descombe (2008: 272) suggests that mixed methods research can:

 Increase the accuracy of data

 Provide a more complete picture of the phenomenon than a single approach,
thereby overcoming the weaknesses and biases of single approaches
 Enable the researcher to develop the analysis and build on the original data
 Aid sampling

Creswell (2012) suggests that using a mixed method approach with both
qualitative and quantitative techniques provides a clearer understanding of the
research problem than either technique could provide on its own. He also states that
mixed methods have to be used when either qualitative or quantitative data alone is
not enough to sufficiently address the research question. Personally, my historic
assumptions were purely qualitative and TAP was originally designed to be a
qualitative study. Whilst a qualitative perspective was needed in order to gain a
greater understanding of participant perspectives, qualitative data alone did not
address all the research questions this study sought to address. This provided
sufficient justification for including both qualitative and quantitative methods in this
study. As previously introduced in chapter one, the research questions of this study
are:

1. What is the impact of a sports programme on participants’ academic

performance in Science?
2. What is the impact of a sports programme on participants’ perceived
use of the life skills?
3. To what extent (if any) do the participants perceive they transferred
the life skills from the sports hall into other school domains?
4. What factors do the participants’ perceive to be enablers and/or
barriers of life skill transfer from the sport halls into other school
domains?
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It was thought the first two questions would be better understood using a
quantitative approach, whereas the latter two questions needed a qualitative approach
in order to gain in-depth understanding. Using a mixed method design however
meant my own personal paradigm debate had to be readdressed. Whilst qualitative
researchers may have an interpretive worldview and quantitative researchers have a
positivist worldview, is there such a worldview that is compatible with a mixed
method approach? Creswell (2012) argues the case for a pragmatic approach, which
emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century by classical pragmatists such as
Charles Sanders Peirce, William James and John Dewey (Johnson and Onwuegbuzie,
2004). Johnson and Onwuegbuzie (2004: 17) state:

Philosophically, mixed research makes use of the pragmatic method

and system of philosophy. Its logic of inquiry includes the use of
induction (or discovery of patterns), deduction (testing of theories
and hypotheses), and abduction (uncovering and relying on the best
set of explanations for understanding one’s results.

Bryman (1996) argues that whether there is an appropriate fit between

epistemology and method is not the key question but more importantly is there an
appropriate fit between research question and method. It was hoped that using a
variety of qualitative and quantitative methods, the intervention group would be able
to explore the impact a sports based programme may have on their academic
achievements and address some of the gaps which exist within the literature, such as
perceived learning of life skills and life skill transfer (see chapter two for a more
detailed discussion).

4.3.1 Convergent parallel design

TAP embraced a convergent parallel mixed method design (see Figure 4.1) in
order to fully address the research questions. This is where quantitative and
qualitative data is collected simultaneously but both data sets are separate from each
other. This means data from one method does not influence the data collected from
the other method and vice versa (Cohen, Manion and Morrison, 2011). Results from
the qualitative and quantitative data are analysed to determine if the two data sets
reveal similar or dissimilar findings. It is argued that the quantitative results provide
generalisability and the qualitative data provides the context/setting, the in-depth
information and the rich data (Creswell, 2012).
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Quantitative Data Collection

and Analysis
(Academic grades collected
before, during, and after)
Compare or Interpretation
relate
Qualitative Data Collection
and Analysis
(Focus groups collected
during, and interviews
collected after)

Figure 4.1 – Convergent Parallel Mixed Method Design in TAP

Academic performance grades were collected before, during and after the
intervention at three separate time points. End of Year 7 performance grades were
taken for every participant (intervention and comparison participants) before the
intervention began, grades were also collected at the end of term one (after the
Christmas vacation) and at the end of term three (the end of Year 8 grades). Focus
group data with the intervention group only were completed every three weeks and
interview data was collected at the end of the programme with the intervention
group, an intervention group parent and the female PE teacher involved in the
programme. In total, this included 20 interviews and 7 focus groups. Data was then
triangulated to determine if the results provided similar or dissimilar findings.
In summary, it is important to note at this point that Lincoln and Guba (2000)
claim no method can deliver one ultimate truth. However, it can be argued that some
methods might be more suitable at answering particular research questions than
others. The majority of previous life skill studies/interventions have used a
quantitative approach (e.g., Brunelle, Danish and Forneris, 2007; Forneris, Camiré
and Trudel, 2012) but Gould and Carson (2008) highlighted the need for
understanding of life skill transfer (see chapter two) and recommended the use of
quantitative and qualitative methods. The use of quantitative methods alone would
not have provided the insight and detail this study sought to obtain. Therefore a range
of qualitative and quantitative methods and techniques were deployed, and in doing
so, a pragmatist paradigm had to be accepted.
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4.3.2 Learning Perspectives

During the planning and delivery of the intervention. Both the participants and
the author were viewed as constructivist learners. Constructivism is based on the
work of Jean Piaget who argued that knowledge should be actively constructed by
the learner and not passively received from the outside. Throughout the whole PhD
process I was constructing my own knowledge both as a learner and researcher. I
started TAP with no pre-assumptions of potential outcomes; throughout the
programme I was inductively developing theories and meaning. Although sufficient
literature on life skill transfer was read to ensure understanding, I did not have any
preconceived ideas with regards to findings as no previous studies have explored the
nature of life skills and underachievement in the same way. I was also aware of my
own constructivist worldviews when analysing and interrupting the data.
The participants’ learning was an on-going process as they were constructing
their own knowledge on the seven life skills and the transfer of such skills into other
life domains. TAP was designed to provide the participants with new information on
the learning and transferring of life skills by building upon and adding to the
information the participants already had constructed. This form of learning was
deemed to be crucial as it is argued that optimal learning occurs when learners are
actively constructing their own understanding (Pritchard, 2009). It was hoped that the
participants experienced a scaffolding process throughout the programme, where the
author was able to provide a scaffold so that the participants could construct their
own knowledge and restructure their framework with regards to their own learning
(Pritchard, 2009). I wanted to force the participants out of their comfort zone,
encourage them to try new skills and challenge their own knowledge. Vygotsky
refers to this process as the zone of proximal development; a concept that is often
defined as:

‘The distance between actual developmental level as determined by

independent problem solving and the level of potential development as
determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in
collaboration with more capable peers’ (Vygotsky, 1978: 86)

Although the participants were constructing their own knowledge throughout

the process, there was also an important social aspect to the intervention. Creswell
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(2013) states that the goal of social constructivist research is for the participants to
develop subjective meanings formed through interaction with others and through the
historical and cultural norms that exist in the participants’ lives. In practice, social
constructivism allows meanings to be forged through discussion or interactions with
others (Creswell, 2013). The intention was for the participants to learn from each
other throughout the process. This was facilitated through the use of different sports
to learn the life skills; the use of sport provided a social environment where the
participants were able to interact and learn from each other on a regular basis.

4.4 Methods
The previous sections of this chapter have discussed and explained the
paradigms and worldview that has shaped this study. The following sections now
highlight and review the methods employed during the data collection phase of TAP
and ethical considerations undertaken prior to this study commencing.

4.4.1 Case study

A Case Study approach was deemed the most relevant approach to adopt for
this research; however there appears to be a lack of consensus on what actually
constitutes a case study (Flyvbjerg, 2011; Yin, 2009; Lincoln and Guba, 1985).
Many definitions and explanations of case study as a method of data collection exist
within the literature. This is due to the fact that case study as a generic term has
multiple meanings (Bassey, 1999) resulting in a combination of views and thoughts
having to be used in order to adapt a model appropriate for this study. Flyvbjerg
(2011) recognises whilst many definitions of case study research are helpful others
are not. Therefore many definitions of what constitutes a case study have been
examined in order to gain a clearer understanding.
Yin (2009: 18) states a case study is an empirical inquiry that investigates a
contemporary phenomenon in depth and within its real-life context, especially when
the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident. Thomas
(2011) believes a case study is concentrating on one thing and looking at it in detail,
which is a very simple concept. Gillham (2000) suggests a case study can investigate
an individual, a group, an institution or a community in order to answer specific
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research questions. For Shen (2009: 22) case study research can bring us to an
understanding of a complex issue or object and can extend experience or add
strength to what is already known through previous research. Shen (2009: 22) also
goes on to establish a very important aspect of case study research; the purpose of a
case study is not to represent the world, but to represent the case. As can be seen,
many debates exist surrounding the question of what is a case study. Is it a method of
data collection or a distinct research paradigm? Stake (2000) describes a case study
as a choice of what is to be studied, with the study including whatever methods
deemed suitable rather than an actual methodological choice. With no universal
definition of a case study, this study used the definition proposed by Yin (2009) and
used a number of methods deemed most suitable to address the research questions as
suggested by Stake (2000). Having looked at case study definitions, the various types
of case studies are now examined.

4.4.1.1 Types of case studies

Whilst many different definitions of case study exist, there are also various
types of case studies and different typologies that exist in the literature. Stenhouse
(1988) identifies four broad styles of case study research: ethnographic, evaluative,
educational and action research. According to Stenhouse’s typologies this study
aligns best with the evaluative style of case study as it seeks to inform schools and
decision makers such as students, parents and teachers of the possible impact sport
may have on underachieving students.
In contrast, Stake (2000) identified three types of case study research;
intrinsic, instrumental and collective case studies. Intrinsic studies are undertaken
usually because the researcher has an interest in the topic but more so an interest in
that particular case. Instrumental studies are undertaken in order to aid understanding
of a topic by researching a particular case. The emphasis is about insight or a general
understanding and not the particular case. Collective case studies are about
representation and require several cases to be researched (Stake, 1995; 2000). TAP
used a singular case study approach and hoped to provide insight into a particular
issue; therefore, it best fits into Stake’s instrumental typology.
In support of case study methodology, Miles and Huberman (1994) state the
biggest strength of case study research is the increased likelihood of discovering and
generating new and/or novel data. The fact that the data is usually collected over a
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sustained period of time makes it a powerful tool when studying any topic or process
(Miles and Huberman, 1994). Similarly, Punch (2009) believes case study research
can make a valuable contribution to education research in three ways:

 Researchers can learn about a particular case

 Only in-depth case study research can provide understanding of important
aspects
 Case study research can make contributions to knowledge in combination
with other research approaches.

To summarise, Yin (2009) believes case study research meets the three important
tenets of qualitative research: describing, understanding and explaining. TAP aimed
to achieve in-depth understanding through various qualitative and quantitative
methods and case study research was deemed the most appropriate and suitable
method to use.

4.4.1.2 Generalisation of case study research

When discussing and using a case study design it is important to discuss the
implications of generalisation and whether generalisation can be achieved. The lack
of generalisability is often seen as the case study’s biggest weakness (Flyvbjerg,
2011; Punch, 2009; Stake, 1995). Case study researchers continue to debate the issue
of generalisation with many arguing generalisation cannot be achieved. A case study
is about the particular rather than the general. You cannot generalise from a case
study (Thomas, 2011: 3). Similarly, Schofield (2002) also states that although not all
researchers reject the idea of generalisation so strongly, many do not see it as an aim
or goal of their findings and deem generalisation to be a low priority.
The literature has provided a mixture of views, to the point where there is
now a lack of understanding and a lack of consensus regarding generalisability
within case study research (Morse et al, 2002). Despite literature claiming that
generalisability cannot be achieved, there are case study researchers such as
Flyvbjerg (2011) who claim that case studies can have a limited amount of
generalisation. Punch (2009: 123) states if every case were totally unique, there
would be no transferability of knowledge from one case to another. As case studies
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are used in a number of professions such as nursing, social care and law in order to
train staff to deal with certain situations there must be the potential generalizability
of knowledge from case studies (Punch, 2009: 123). Flyvbjerg (2011: 205) also
recognises that a single case study can be generalised and can contribute to scientific
knowledge:

One can often generalize on the basis of a single case, and the case
study may be central to significant developments via generalization
as supplement or alternative to other methods. But formal
generalization is overhauled as a source of scientific development.

Gomm and colleagues (2000) ask whether generalisation is a necessary component

of case study research. It is possible that a case may be deemed so important or
interesting enough to be studied in its own right without the need to make
generalisations. It is also important to study the cases that do not match other cases
and should be studied in order to find out why a case is different from the general
pattern (Punch, 2009).
To summarise, the use of case study methodology allowed for various
different methods of data collection to be used (see Figure 4.2) and combined, thus
increasing the validity and reliability of the research (Bassey, 1999). The main aim of
TAP was to inform future research and not to produce generalisations. TAP was
based on an inductive and deductive approach, using previous literature to inform the
design but allowing the results to be generated without a hypothesis. A mixed
methods approach was considered the most appropriate for this research and the
various qualitative and quantitative tools used are now discussed.
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Life Skill Questionnaires

Participants
Semi Structured Academic staff
Interviews:
Intervention group Focus groups:
Academic staff Intervention group
Parent

CASE STUDY DATA COLLECTION

Observation:
Field observations Documents:
Researcher Academic reports
PE Staff Participant’s academic attainments
Demographic data
Researcher Journal

Figure 4.2 – Case Study Data Collection Model

4.5 Focus Groups

Focus groups are a form of interviewing which seeks to find the same access
and understanding as standard interviews but are conducted in groups. This results in
a number of people simultaneously being interviewed at any one time. It is during
group interviews that the role of the interviewer changes, to become more of a
facilitator that allows the group to take over the discussion (Punch, 2009).
Focus groups are often data-rich, inexpensive and rather flexible, which
makes the use of focus groups an attractive and appealing option (Morgan, 2001;
Punch, 2009). As the interviewer initiates contact and dictates the content of the
discussion, focus groups provide insightful information (Morgan, 2001). However
problems can arise with group dynamics and achieving balance in a group can be
difficult and sometimes even impossible (Drever, 2003; Punch, 2009).
The main weakness of focus groups is the difficulties involved with correctly
recording the data. Focus groups can become noisy and are extremely difficult to
record by hand due to the speed at which the conversation takes place (Drever,
2003). Voice recordings become problematic in large groups, as identifying the
speakers can be a difficult task. In order to overcome the difficulties of voice
recordings often experienced when conducting focus groups, each focus group in the
intervention will be video recorded in order to make speaker identification easier and
in order to assess body language and group dynamics.
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4.5.1 Focus groups in TAP

Seven focus groups were conducted with the intervention group. Each focus
group was completed on the third week of teaching each life skill. The focus groups
were on average 30 minutes long and each focus group consisted on average of 17
intervention group participants.

4.6 Interviews
As well as using focus groups, individual in-depth interviews were
conducted. Eder and Fingerson (2001) state that a combination of individual
interviews and focus groups work well with adolescents when trying to uncover a
social phenomenon as older children have the ability and capacity to reflect upon
their own experiences. Interviews are the most common method of data collection in
qualitative research as it is deemed the most powerful tool to use when trying to gain
access and understanding of peoples’ perceptions, experiences, emotions, meanings
and establishing definitions, situations and constructions of reality (Drever, 2003;
Fontana and Frey, 2000; Punch, 2009).
Interviews are generally made up of three styles, structured, semi-structured
or unstructured (Drever, 2003). Generally in small-scale educational research the
most commonly used style is semi-structured as this allows the researcher to decide
on a general structure of the interview and ensure that the main questions/topics are
answered and explored (Drever, 2003). Despite unavoidable weaknesses such as
being labour intensive, interviews have many strengths (Drever, 2003). Gillham
(2000) argues the most overwhelming strength of interviewing is the richness of the
data. Interviews often lead to in-depth, data rich information if done correctly (Miles
and Huberman, 1994). The fact that interviews can be flexible and can occur in a
natural environment also makes them a very productive and accessible tool to use
(Gillham, 2000; Miles and Huberman, 1994; Rogers et al, 2005). The idea of being
able to probe for clarification and expand on responses allows for a clearer
interpretation and for misunderstandings to be avoided (Drever, 2003), which makes
interviews very appealing.
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Open-ended, face–to-face interviews have been found to be greatly successful

and the most effective way of gaining children’s perspectives (Rogers et al, 2005).
This is mainly due to the flexible nature of interviews, which allows for exploration
of sensitive experiences and individual perspectives (Rogers et al, 2005). It was due
to such strengths that semi-structured interviews were selected as the most
appropriate option for this study. Gillham (2000) argues that semi-structured
interviews are the most important form of interviewing to use in case study research
as it is the most likely to generate rich data. Individual, face-to-face interviews are
the most common form of interviewing (Fontana and Frey, 2000) and face-to-face
interviewing was deemed essential for this study due to the age of the participants.
Semi-structured, face-to-face interviews were chosen because the study needed to
address specific aspects in order to assess the impact of the intervention and explore
the reasons why the intervention may or may not have had an impact on academic
achievement.

4.6.1 Interviews in TAP

A semi-structured interview (see Appendix 1 for interview guide) was
conducted at the end of the programme with each participant. An unstructured
interview was conducted with the female PE teacher that was involved in overseeing
TAP within the school, and one parent whose child was in the intervention group.
Unstructured probing questions were also used to gain clarification and greater
understanding. The interviews were conducted to gain independent insight and
understanding surrounding the transferability of the life skills taught during the
programme. The interviews hoped to identify if the intervention group learnt life
skills through sport and if they transferred those skills into other classroom lessons.
The enablers and barriers surrounding the transfer of such skills were also explored.

4.6.2 Critical evaluation of qualitative methods

Conducting interviews and focus groups with children can be problematic for
a variety of reasons. Historically, education research has always involved children
but studies have rarely used children as participants (France, 2005; Punch, 2009).
Children were previously thought to be unreliable and incompetent research
participants who lacked the necessary skills required to provide valid data (Kirk,
2007; Morrow and Richards, 1996). Kirk (2007) and Hill (2005) also stress that
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previous arguments suggest that adult researchers cannot understand the world from
a child’s point of view. Therefore interpreting children’s perspectives is not
something adults can accurately portray. Over the past two decades this attitude has
changed with many studies now using children as participants. Children are often
chosen to be participants in order to understand their perspectives and acknowledge
them as competent human beings (Hill, 2005; Punch, 2009). Children are now
deemed able to provide reliable, important and competent information and therefore
are worthy research participants. Stewart, Shamdasani and Rook (2007) argue that
children make excellent qualitative research participants but do pose special
problems. It was vital to this study that the young participants in this study had a
voice, mainly to gain their perceptions and experiences during the programme.
However, several problems had to be addressed.
Conducting research with children and young people can be difficult due to
access. Gaining access to young people is often complex due to the number of
gatekeepers that are involved (France, 2005). It was a long and slow process
involving several negotiations with school before one school agreed to be involved in
the study. Once receiving an initial agreement with the teacher involved in the study,
consent was gained from the school’s senior management team and the participants’
parents. Finally, assent was obtained from the participants themselves.
The author was present in the school one afternoon every week, for one
academic year ensuring prolonged engagement and persistent observations (Sparkes
and Smith, 2014) and acted as both the deliverer and researcher. This was
unavoidable due to limited resources; this appears to be common occurrence when
completing research as part of a PhD. However, this dual role of researcher and
deliverer has its own strengths such as ensuring the programme was delivered as
planned and allowing a rapport between the researcher and the participants to
develop. It is important that children must feel comfortable with the researcher when
qualitative tools are used. It is argued that children often feel more comfortable with
female researchers, particularly when the topic is not gender related (Stewart,
Shamdasani and Rook, 2007).
The relationship the author developed with the boys was one that developed
over a period of several weeks and it is thought that this relationship aided the data
collection. The importance of the rapport was reaffirmed throughout the study. The
first two focus groups were difficult to conduct and the participants appeared
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reluctant to answer the questions and respond to the researcher. The participants were
given the opportunity to withdraw from future focus groups because they appeared
so uncomfortable. However, all of the boys agreed to participate in all of the focus
groups and communications improved as rapport was developed. All the participants
appeared to be comfortable and responsive during the interviews that took place at
the end of the intervention.
It must be acknowledged that the dual-role may have had some potential
consequences that must also be addressed. The issues involved with designing and
implementing the programme as well as collecting and analyzing the data may have
been limited by allowing an independent source to collect the data (i.e., conducting
the focus groups and interviews). Historically, children were seen as easy targets and
could be open to exploitation by researchers (Kirk, 2007). The power relationship
between an adult researcher and young participants was something that needed to be
minimised as much as possible during TAP. It was hoped that the prolonged
engagement and rapport developed between the researcher and participants allowed
the participants to feel more comfortable during the interviews and focus group. This
would have been lost if an independent researcher conducted the interviews and
focus groups. However, the relationship between participants and researcher raises
questions with regards to the trustworthiness of the data and the potential problems
linked to over-rapport.
In an attempt to prevent over-rapport, a member of the research team acted as
a ‘critical friend’ as suggested by Sparkes and Smith (2014). This researcher had no
contact with the participants or the school and was able to help guard against
researcher bias. This was particularly important when the researcher gained a rapport
with the participants. Rapport between the author and the participants was an
essential part of the research process. Due to the age of the participants, rapport was
vital. This was made apparent during at the start of TAP, when the participants were
reluctant to engage in conversation with the first author or each other. The critical
friend was able to ensure the first author was aware of the relationship with the
participants and prevent any potential over-rapport. Whilst the author recognises the
limitations of rapport, particularly with young people, rapport was an important and
preferable aspect of TAP, particularly during the interview phase of data collection.
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4.6.3 The transferable skills questionnaire

Although very few studies have actually looked at the impact on academic
achievement, TAP also wanted to explore how the skills were transferred and
whether adolescent males think it is possible to transfer such skills into other
academic environments. During the interview process, the participants were
individually asked whether they thought the seven skills taught within the
programme could be transferred from the sports hall into the classroom and if they
had ever consciously transferred any of the skills. Gould and Carson (2008)
highlighted a need for future research to explore the transferability of life skills. In
order to gain some possible understanding, the participants completed a
questionnaire at the end of the study that quantified their perceived learning of the
seven life skills during the programme. The PE teacher involved in the study also
completed a questionnaire in order to assess if the participants had witnessed an
improvement in the use of the seven skills taught during the programme.
The intervention group each completed three questionnaires during the
intervention, a pre, a post and a reflection questionnaire. The pre- questionnaire (see
Appendix 2) was given to each participant prior to the intervention starting in attempt
to understand how all of the participants in the intervention and comparison groups
perceived their knowledge on each life skill. Each participant had to self-assess his
own ability in each of the seven transferable skills. This questionnaire was based on a
Likert scale of one to six. High scores indicated high levels of competence and low
scores indicated low levels of competence.
The same questionnaire was also given to all of the participants at the end of
the programme (the post questionnaire) in order to reassess their competence and
learning of the seven transferable skills after the intervention. Once this was
completed the boys were then given the same questionnaire again. The boys had to
re-rate their perceived ability to use each life skill at the beginning of the programme.
This was known as the reflection questionnaire. It was considered that 12-13 year old
boys would not know what they had not been taught and therefore the scores on their
reflection questionnaire may be a more realistic ability rating. Asking the participants
to rethink their original self-assessments would identify if the participants has
thought they had learnt anything during the intervention. The PE teacher involved in
the study also completed a questionnaire (see Appendix 3) at the start and at the end
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of the programme in order to assess if she had seen any change in the intervention
groups ability to use the seven skills taught during the programme.
The use of the Likert scale questionnaire allowed the participants to chance to
reflect on their use of the seven life skills prior, during and after the programme. It
was important for this study to allow the participants to have a voice and this was
deemed to be a strength of the self-assessment tools. Self-assessment ratings are
notoriously suspect, particularly in this study as increases in self-confidence may
have led to false or inflated perceptions and it is also possible that the boys just
wanted to please the researcher. However, the boys’ perceptions were an essential
aspect of TAP. Whilst the participants discussed the use of the life skills during the
interviews, it is possible that the questionnaire made it easier for them to rate their
ability to use the skills. The questionnaire also allowed all of the participants to rate
themselves using the same scale and in that respect the questionnaire provided a
standardised measure. However, despite using the same scale, the same ratings may
not have had the same meaning for all of the participants. For example, a rating of
four on the questionnaire may have meant the same as another participants rating of
five or six.
The questionnaire did also have a number of weaknesses. Whilst the
questionnaire was piloted before the programmes started, the questionnaire was not a
validated questionnaire. Unfortunately no existing, validated questionnaire would
have generated information on the participants’ perception of the seven life skills
used on the programme. The data from the questionnaire was only intended to be
used in triangulation with the qualitative data and provide a reference point on the
boys’ perceptions of their life skill learning. It is possible that some participants
struggled to reflect and therefore were not able to accurately rate themselves or did
not fully understand the nature and purpose of the test. This could have resulted in
the participants just ticking a number irrelevant of its meaning. It may also have been
the case that the participants wanted to please the researcher and selected numbers to
which showed their ability to use the seven life skills during the programme
regardless of their actually ability. Finally, the life skill questionnaire only
determined the participants’ perceived ability to use the life skills, it did not measure
frequency of life skill use or the boys’ perception of the importance of each life skill.
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4.7 Other Data Collection Methods

Other data collected in this study include demographic data and academic
performance scores over one full academic year. For a breakdown of ethnicity and
free school meals and a full discussion on how academic grades were calculated, see
Chapter 3. Figure 4.3 provides an overview of the various methods used in Phase 1,
Phase2 and Phase 3 of data collection.

4.8 Piloting
Although it was not feasible to pilot the whole programme due to time
constraints and the longitudinal nature of TAP, various elements of the programme
did receive piloting. The life skill questionnaire was piloted on twenty children of a
similar age (11-13 years old) in order to determine understanding and clarity.
Discussions about the participants’ ability to use each skill took place prior to them
completing the questionnaire. This was to ensure their verbal indications of skill use
matched the number they indicated on the questionnaire. For example, if the
participant perceived himself to be really good at teamwork and marked a 6 on the
questionnaire, then understanding had been established. However, if the participant
perceived himself to be really bad at teamwork and marked a 5 on the questionnaire,
further time was taken to discuss the questionnaire with that participant, until it was
apparent an understanding of the questionnaire had been reached.
The semi-structured interview scripts were piloted on three children (11-13
years old) to also determine understanding and clarity. The interview guide
underwent minor changes due to the information obtained during the pilot phase. The
first focus group with the intervention group acted as a pilot but no changes were
made to the focus group script as a result of the pilot.
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Figure 4.3 – Data Collection Overview

Data collected in Phase 1, Phase 2, and Phase 3 of the Transfer-Ability Programme
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4.9 Validity, Reliability, Trustworthiness and Triangulation

Reliability and validity are processes that help to determine the rigour of the
research and the trustworthiness of the data collection and research findings (Morse
et al, 2002; Roberts et al, 2006). Morse and colleagues (2002) even go as far to state
that without rigor research is worthless. They also recognise that many authors
believe validity and reliability to be issues pertaining to quantitative research whilst
others have adopted a new criteria and new terminology for establishing validity and
reliability within qualitative research. Riege (2003) argues that despite the many
advantages of case study research, the issues of establishing validity and reliability
still remain in doubt.
Merriam (2009) maintains that many writers argue validity and reliability
should be considered from a perspective congruent with the philosophical
assumptions underlying the paradigm. This has resulted in many conceptualisations
existing, with various authors stating different criteria for establishing the quality of
qualitative research. Lincoln and Guba (1985) proposed truth-value, transferability,
consistency and objectivity. Yin (2009) uses a four criteria model in order to judge
the quality of qualitative case study research: construct validity, internal validity,
external validity and reliability. Terms such as credibility, transferability,
dependability and confirmability have recently been replaced by terms such as
internal validity, external validity, reliability and objectivity that have now become
widely adopted in qualitative research (Merriam, 2009).
Although many authors such as Lincoln and Guba (1985) and Yin (2009)
have established their own terminology and concepts the basic premise is essentially
the same. The main question that must be addressed is can the findings be trusted?
Validity, reliability, trustworthiness, and triangulation were used in order to establish
quality and rigour during TAP and to ensure the trustworthiness of the data.

4.9.1 Validity
Validity is a subtle concept compared to reliability (Roberts et al, 2006).
Validity is about what we are measuring and whether it is close to what we intended
to measure (Roberts et al, 2006). Various types and the number of ways in which
validity can be analysed exist (Bassey, 1999). The most common forms of validity
include the differentiation between internal and external validity. However not all
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researchers/authors are in favour with the issues of validity in qualitative research.

Bassey (1999: 74) writes the concept of reliability and validity are vital concepts in
surveys and experiments but not in case study research and Maxwell (2005) argues
that understanding is a more fundamental concept of qualitative research than
validity.
The main difficulty when establishing validity is the issue of researcher bias
(Maxwell, 2005; Roberts et al, 2006). Controlling for the effect of the researcher is
essential for non-bias findings, however eliminating researcher influence is often
impossible and the aim then becomes to understand and productively use any
researcher influence (Maxwell, 2005). In order to reduce reactivity or researcher bias
when analysing the interviews several steps were undertaken. These included not
asking leading questions, voice-recording all interviews and video-recording all
focus groups. All interviews and focus groups were transcribed verbatim (Maxwell,
2005). The intervention group participants were also involved throughout the whole
process and not just at the data collection stage. This helped to inform the design of
the study, allowed the researcher to gain an in-depth understanding of boys and
reduced bias at the final data collection phase and facilitated an accurate
interpretation of the data.

4.9.2 Reliability
Reliability refers to whether a particular research technique will yield the
same results if applied repeatedly to the same object (Lewis, 2009: 7). However,
reliability is more easily achieved in quantitative studies than qualitative studies.
Reliability is problematic in social science studies as human behaviour is not static
nor is it always generalisable. It is also problematic to replicate and generalise case
study research, as it is a singular study in which behaviours may not be apparent in
other studies. Lincoln and Guba (1985) suggest an alternative to reliability in
qualitative research; consistency. This suggests that replication is not the vital issue
but rather that outsiders should be able to make sense of the results, if given the same
data;.
However in an attempt to make qualitative data reliable and achieve
consistency, several suggestions have been made within the literature. Based on the
work of Steinar Kvale, Lewis (2009: 8) developed seven areas that need to be
addressed in order to establish researcher reliability:
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 Analysis methods: are the interviews interpreted by the same or different

researchers?
 Answer reliability: did the researcher ask the same question in a different
way?
 Coder reliability: are the interviewers asking the same thing in an unbiased
manner?
 Critical checking: are all researchers asking critical questions to test the
interviewee’s story?
 Follow-up questions: are all the researchers using follow-up questions to
ensure the collection of thick, rich data?
 Leading questions: are interviewers avoiding leading questions that may
solicit a desired response, but not necessarily an accurate response?
 Transcriptions: are interviews and observations being transcribed correctly
and accurately.

In order to address the seven areas listed above, the author of this study was solely
responsible for conducting all of the semi-structured individual interviews and focus
group interviews and responsible for transcribing the data. Leading questions were
avoided throughout all interviews, critical questions were asked and follow-up
questions were asked when necessary. The interview data was transcribed verbatim,
and the transcripts were checked several times in order to ensure the transcriptions
were accurate and correct.

4.9.3 Trustworthiness
External validity is concerned with the generalising of results, which is often
problematic with case study research. Case study research, as already discussed, is a
study of singularity and uniqueness and therefore is not wholly concerned about
external validity. As an alternative and solution to external validity within case study
research Lincoln and Guba (1985) developed the idea of trustworthiness. Bassey
(1999) has since developed a more simplistic set of eight questions based on Lincoln
and Guba’s (1985) term of trustworthiness. However, Bassey (1999) acknowledges
that not all researchers will need to address all eight questions. Table 4.2 (see below)
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shows the eight notions of trustworthiness and the actions undertaken within this
study to ensure the trustworthiness of findings

Table 4.2 – Eight Questions of Trustworthiness

Based on Bassey’s (1999) eight questions of trustworthiness

Eight Questions of Trustworthiness Responses

Has there been prolonged Yes. The intervention lasted one full academic
engagement with data sources? year.
Has there been persistent Yes. The intervention involved weekly
observation of emerging issues? observation during sport sessions. Staff
observations were also recorded during
academic hours.
Have raw data been adequately No. Raw data was not checked with the
checked with their sources? participants due to their academic time
restraints and school holidays.
Has there been sufficient Yes. Data was gathered in various forms
triangulation of raw data leading to including surveys, focus groups, individual
analytical statements? interviews, and an interview with a parent and
a teacher, observations and academic
attainment scores.
Has the working hypothesis, or Yes. The key findings of this study emerged
evaluation, or emerging story been from the raw data.
systematically tested against the
analytical statements?
Has a critical friend thoroughlyYes. Both supervisors and peers constantly
tried to challenge the findings?reviewed and challenged the findings.
Is the account of the research Yes. Extensive coding of data and use of
quotations to provide thick descriptions of the
sufficiently detailed to give the
case should provide the reader with sufficient
reader confidence in the findings?
detail and confidence.
Does the case record provide an Yes. Detailed personal/researcher notes and
adequate audit trail? session plans were recorded each week. All
focus groups and individual interviews were
voice recorded and transcribed. The school, in
a excel spreadsheet, provided all demographic
and academic performance grades in order to
provide an adequate audit trail.

4.9.4 Triangulation
Triangulation is a technique used to improve the validity and reliability of
qualitative research by using two or more methods of data collection in one study,
usually combining qualitative and quantitative methods. Therefore, triangulation is a
process of converging lines of enquiry (Yin, 2012). If various methods of data all
indicate the same phenomenon it ensures that the data collected are not simply
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artefacts of one method (Creswell, 2009). Total reliance on one data method may
result in bias or distort the researchers’ sense of reality (Cohen et al, 2011). It is
argued that the appropriate use of a mixed method design and data triangulation
increases the validity and reliability of the data collected.
Cohen and colleagues (2011) recognise that not all researchers are in favour
of triangulation. Many researchers appear critical of triangulation and reject the
notion that triangulation increases validity and reliability. Seale (1999) argues that
even if data collected from various methods all indicate the same findings, how do
we know that they are right? Logically we cannot guarantee that all the data is
correct which leads to the question- is triangulation a necessary process in research?
This study however, sought to increase validity and reliability by
triangulating the data collected through various methods. The flexibility of case
study research gives perfect opportunity for triangulation. Case study research easily
allows more than one type of data collection to be used, which in turn, has the
potential to increase validity and reliability. According to Yin (2009), a case study
that compares data utilised through various methods of collection can achieve
triangulation. In TAP that was achieved by using a questionnaire, focus groups,
individual interviews, observations and academic attainment scores.

4.10 Qualitative Data Analysis

The analysis of qualitative data is a process that involves making sense out of
written and verbal data. This involves an in-depth process of preparing the data and
then interpreting the collected data. Figure 4.4 shows the steps taken in order to
interpret and present the data within this study. Creswell (2009) however, recognises
that the diagram can be somewhat misleading as the figure is a linear process that
works from the bottom up. This is not how the analysis process always occurs; rather
a more interrelated approach is usually common. This means the stages can often
occur in different orders and in practice it is often more interactive (Creswell, 2009).
The analysis process is usually split into six steps (Creswell, 2009):
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1. Organising and preparing the data

2. Reading through all the data in order to gain a general sense
3. Begin detailed analysis through a coding process
4. Produce a description of categories or themes for analysis
5. Represent the data in qualitative narrative- provide descriptive information
6. Interpret the information and draw conclusions

TAP used Creswell’s (2009) model during the analysis phase of the qualitative
data. Content analysis is defined as “the process of identifying, coding, and
categorizing the primary patterns in the data” (Patton, 1990: 381). This method was
employed to provide a descriptive account of the themes that emerged from the
participants in the intervention group, the PE teacher, and the parent. TAP used a
similar analysis technique (i.e., interviews) as previous studies in the field (e.g.,
Gould et al, 2007).
After transcribing the data verbatim, transcripts were then read and reread to
ensure familiarity. Segments of meaningful text or raw data units were identified and
coded. Grouping together similar items of raw data then created interrelated themes/
categories. Two researchers (the author and supervisor) then deliberated and
discussed the meanings and interpretations of the themes until an agreement was
reached. These findings were then checked and discussed with a third researcher to
ensure complete agreement was established.
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Interpreting the Meaning of

Themes / Descriptions

Interrelating Themes / Description

(e.g. grounded theory, case study)

Themes Description

Validating the
Accuracy of the
Information

Coding of the Data

(hand or computer)

Reading Through All Data

Organising and Preparing

Data for Analysis

Raw Data
(Transcripts, Fieldnotes, Images etc.)

Figure 4.4 – Data Analysis Model

Data Analysis in Qualitative Research (Creswell, 2009: 185)
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4.11 Quantitative Data

Due to the nature in which TAP was conducted, the results have been
presented as three separate phases. In order for the statistical results to be clearer to
the reader, the specific quantitative data procedures undertaken at each specific phase
are discussed within the results chapter (see Chapter 5, Phase 1 and Phase 2).

4.12 Ethics
Ethics are important as they form the basis of professional conduct for
researchers (Creswell, 2012). Bassey (1999) recognises that in many case studies
there will be a clash of ethical values especially if the researcher deems risk taking to
be necessary when collecting data. Research ethics can be divided into three
categories: i) respect for democracy, ii) respect for truth, iii) respect for persons
(Bassey, 1999). Skelton (2008) states ethics are an extremely important part of
research and must be specifically sensitive when working with young people. There
is now a growing body of research that promotes using children as participants,
something that was previously not recommended (Kirk, 2007).
Children as young as preschool age have successfully been used in recent
research and are now deemed to be reliable sources of information (Hill, 2005). Kirk
(2007) identifies three issues that must be addressed when conducting research with
children: i) power relations, ii) informed consent, and iii) confidentiality. Prior to any
data collection, the ethics committee for the School of Sport and Education approved
this study (see Appendix 4) as it met the ethical guidelines outlined by Brunel
University.

4.12.1 Confidentiality
Confidentiality is essential for all research and is seen as the primary
safeguard against unwanted exposure (Christians, 2011). Christians (2011: 66) cites
the work of Reiss who believes the single most likely source of harm in social
inquiry is the disclosure of private knowledge considered damaging by experimental
subjects. However confidentiality becomes a hazy concept when conducting research
with children under the age of 18. The issue of child protection means that
confidentiality should not be totally guaranteed when conducting research with
children as the disclosure of information which implies that the child or another child
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is at ‘risk’ must be reported (Kirk, 2007). In such instances it is important, and often
seen as a duty, to report such information on to relevant authorities. During TAP all
appropriate measures to ensure confidentiality were undertaken where possible. The
names of the participants were changed in order to assure anonymity. The school was
also not revealed in order to maintain the confidentiality of the school and the
participants.

4.12.2 Informed consent

Participants must voluntarily give informed consent and their decision to
participate must be based on full information (Christians, 2011). Homan (2002: 26)
stresses that the following criteria must be met in order to appropriately obtain
informed consent:

Informed:
 That all pertinent aspects of what is to occur and what might occur are
disclosed to the subject.
 That the subject should be able to comprehend this information
Consent:
 That the subject is competent to make a rational and mature judgement.
 That the agreement to participate should be voluntary, free from coercion and
undue influence.

Initial consent was obtained from the school in order to conduct a Case Study
piece of research within the school. Information about the study was provided, as it is
essential in order that participants and gatekeepers make a decision whether to
participate in the study or not based on the full details of the study (Creswell, 2012).
All participants were informed of the study in both written and verbal forms. The
parents/guardians were informed of the study in written forms from the school and
the author (see Appendix 5). In order to avoid associated detrimental effects of
labelling, participants were merely informed that the study was interested in
measuring the impact of participation in the intervention on academic learning. It
was deemed a potential risk to inform participants and their parents/guardians that
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they had been identified as underachieving in at least one core subject (see Chapter 3
for further clarification and detail).
Written assent (see Appendix 6 for a copy of the assent form) was obtained
from every participant and parental/guardian consent (see Appendix 7 for a copy of
the consent form) was obtained for each participant. Parental consent was needed, as
all the participants are children. The term ‘children’ means any individual under the
age of 18 (Skelton, 2008). As well as gaining parental consent, it is important that
child participants are deemed competent enough to participate and are able to
provide assent. Morrow and Richards (1996: 95) state that a competent child is one
who achieves a sufficient understanding and intelligence to enable his or her to
understand fully what is proposed. Morrow and Richards (1996: 95) also go on to
say that a competent child also has sufficient discretion to enable him or her to make
a wise choice in his or her own interests. Guidelines suggest that as a ‘rule of
thumb’, children aged 14-15 have sufficient maturity and are capable of providing
informed consent (Kelly and Halford, 2007).
The participants in this study all attended mainstream education and were
deemed at an age (12-13 years) where they were sufficiently competent and able to
make an informed decision whether to participate and to provide assent (Kirk, 2007)
but parental consent was also necessary. In order to ensure that participants were
freely and voluntarily agreeing to participate in the study (Kirk, 2007) a cooling off
period was used. This was to prevent any of the participants feeling pressured or
coerced to agree to participate due to the researcher being present (Creswell, 2012).
Hill (2005) states a child may be vulnerable to persuasion and therefore no child
should be pressurised into taking part in research. Research suggests that although
children often feel pressured in participating, they are also less likely to withdraw
from studies due to the power relationship (Kirk, 2007; Morrow and Richards. 1996).
Power relations are more acute in research conducted by adults that use children as
participants and therefore researchers must be acutely sensitive to children’s needs
and their agenda (Hill, 2005; Kirk, 2007; Morrow and Richards. 1996). Therefore the
most appropriate action was to allow a week cooling off period for all participants to
discuss their participation with peers and family members if they so wished and
make an informed, non-pressurised decision.
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4.12.3 Withdrawal from the study

The participants and parents/guardians were informed they could withdraw
from the study at any point without providing reason(s). This information was
included on the research information sheet (see Appendix 5) and was verbally
expressed on numerous occasions. Participants were informed at the selection stage
of the recruitment process that they could withdraw at any time and that participation
was on a voluntary basis. No participant was placed under pressure to participate at
any stage of the intervention. As suggested by Kirk (2007) the participants were
regularly asked if they still wished to be involved in the study and were reminded
that they did have the right to withdraw at any time.

4.12.4 CRB disclosure and coaching experience

Prior to TAP commencing, the author of this study undertook a full Criminal
Records Bureau (CRB) Enhanced Disclosure check. A CRB disclosure highlights if
the applicant has/ does not have any criminal convictions. In this instance, the
criminal record was clear, entitling the author to work with vulnerable groups, such
as children. The author also had extensive experience (over eleven years) of
coaching/teaching young people between ages of 2-19 years old in a variety of
sports, and multi-skills and youth development programmes.

4.12.5 Permission to publish

The school, the participants in both the intervention comparison groups and
parents/guardians were informed both verbally and in writing that the study would be
presented as a PhD thesis and the findings would be disseminated in a variety of
formats such as journal publications, presentations and written reports.

4.13 Summary
To summarise, this chapter began by highlighting the paradigms that shaped
TAP and the reasons for using a mixed methods approach. Chapter 4 explained the
methodological procedures undertaken during this study and clarifies the qualitative
analysis protocol used and the use of content analysis. The quantitative analysis is
discussed in further detail in Chapter 5. This chapter then concluded with a
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description of the ethical issues addressed in TAP such as ethical approval, informed
consent from guardians, assent from the participants and the right to withdraw. This
chapter did not include information such as participant information, access to the
participants, and the Case Study school as these were presented in Chapter 3. Chapter
5 will present and discuss the findings of TAP.
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5 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The results of the intervention are presented in three separate phases with
each phase addressing a specific research question. These phases do not represent
specific time frames, for example the data collected in phase two did not commence
directly after the data from phase 1 was complete. Both qualitative and quantitative
data were collected over the duration of the programme. Rather than separating by
time points, each phase relates to specific research questions that lead the reader
through a logical process in order to enhance understanding of the study.

5.1 Phase 1
The notion that physical activity is linked to increases in intellectual abilities is
not a new concept; however researchers are still trying to determine the scope of
such a claim. The ancient Greeks were most likely the first to speculate a relationship
but more recent research has failed to reach a consensus on the extent to which sport
and physical activity may have an impact on academic achievements. There are
many plausible channels in which involvement in sport activities can improve
academic performance but equally plausible is the argument that sport involvement
may result in time for academic activities being sacrificed, resulting in a negative
impact on academic performance. With underachievement continuing to be defined
as a moral panic in the UK’s educational system, it is essential a remedy be found.
Could well-delivered sport and physical activity be the solution to a dilemma
academics, teachers, parents and politicians are desperate to eradicate?
Recent research has mainly been conducted in the United States where the
culture and structure of school sport is different to the UK, it should be assumed that
the striking differences mean results cannot be generalised across nations. Therefore
the purpose of phase 1 was to determine if an after-school sports programme had any
impact on male underachievement within the UK education system and addresses the
following research question:

 What is the impact of a sports programme on participants’ academic

performance in Science?
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5.1.1 Methods
5.1.1.1 Data collection
Phase 1 only presents the quantitative data from the study. Academic grades
were obtained by the school’s standard assessment procedures for each participant in
the intervention and comparison group. Assessment results for Science were taken
from the end of Year 7 (before the study began- time point one), at the end of Term
One (time point two) and at the end of Year 8 (when the study had finished- time
point three). Academic grades were converted into plus or minus numbers depending
whether the participants were under or above teacher prediction. A number and a
letter represent each grade level, for example, 5c is the lowest grade within the grade
5 band. Progression from a 5c is a 5b and then a 5a; the next level would then be a 6c
as so on. A score of 0 indicated that teacher prediction had been met and therefore
the participant(s) was not underachieving. If a participant was achieving a 5c but
was predicted a 5a then this was represented as -2, as the participant was two sub-
levels below the teacher’s prediction. If a participant was predicted a 5c but achieved
a 4a it was represented as -1. Although the student had missed the level five grade, a
5c is the next level up from a 4a. If a participant was overachieving, this was
represented as a positive number. For example, if the participant was predicted a 5c
but achieved a 5a it was represented as +2 as the participant was two sub-levels
above the teacher’s prediction.

5.1.1.2 Statistical analysis

An initial analysis was conducted using mixed design analysis of variance
(ANOVA) to establish a main effect for group (intervention group and comparison
group) and a group x time (pre, post and reflection) interaction effect. In case of
significance, a further one-way repeated measures ANOVA was used to identify
differences between the intervention and comparison group over the three time
points. As significance was established in the one-way repeated measure ANOVA,
follow up independent samples t-tests with Bonferroni corrections were conducted
between groups for each time point; time point one, time point two and time point
three. Finally, to specifically identify the time points at which a significant difference
occurred between the intervention group and the comparison group, a paired samples
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t-test with Bonferroni correction was conducted. Using an ANCOVA to control for
differences in baseline scores between the intervention and comparison group was
considered but several limitations in the data did not make this test a viable option.
This was mainly due to the practicality issues of conducting research in an
educational setting (see limitations section for further details). Data were analysed
using SPSS statistical software (v18.02, SPSS Inc., Chicago, USA). When analysing
the results of SPSS the p-value was set at 0.05. A Bonferroni correction is a method
used to counteract the increased risk of type 1 errors when conducting multiple
comparisons. This was calculated by dividing 0.05 (the p value) by 3 (the number of
comparisons) in order reduce the risk of a type 1 error occurring. The Bonferroni
correction was set at 0.16.

5.1.2 Results

Table 5.1 – Means and Standard Deviations

The table shows the means and standard deviations for the intervention and
comparison groups’ academic grades

Time Point Intervention Group- Comparison Group-

Mean (sd) Mean (sd)
1 -2.26 (0.99) -1.52 (0.52)
2 -0.47 (0.9) -1.2 (0.68)
3 0.47 (1.07) -0.4 (0.91)

When exploring whether the data meet the assumptions of parametric statistics, it
was identified that while there was homogeneity of variance across conditions, the
data were not normally distributed. Field (2013) suggests that ANOVA and t-tests
are robust enough statistics to withstand the violation of the normality assumption,
therefore, the data were analysed using parametric statistics.
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5.1.2.1 Academic performance

Academic performances at the start of the programme (time point one) for the
intervention and comparison group were -2.3 and -1.5 respectively (Fig. 5.1
illustrates the mean academic grades and standard deviations for the intervention and
control group). After term one (time point two) the intervention group saw a greater
improvement than the comparison group (-0.5 and -1.2 respectively). At the end of
the programme (time point three), academic performances for the intervention and
comparison group were 0.5 and -0.5 respectively. Although both groups show a
significant improvement in academic performance, the intervention group superseded
teacher prediction whereas the comparison group remained below teacher prediction.

Results from the 2 x 3 mixed ANOVA (see Fig. 5.2) revealed a significant
difference between the two groups over the three time points. There was a significant
main effect for group (F(1, 32) = 54.34, p < 0.05 , ηp2 = 0.63), and a significant
interaction effect for group x time (F(1, 32) = 11.36, p < 0.05 , ηp2 = 0.26). Follow up
one-way repeated measures ANOVAs revealed a significant main effect for time, for
both the intervention group (F(1, 32) = 46.2, p < 0.05 , ηp2 = 0.72), and the comparison
group (F(1, 32) = 16.79, p < 0.05 , ηp2 = 0.55). This highlights that there was a
significant difference in both the intervention and comparison group over time but
still did not highlight at which time point the differences occurred. Follow up t-tests
indicated that there was a significant difference between the intervention group and
the comparison group at time point one (t (32) = 2.77, p < .05, d = 1), time point two
(t (32) = 2.59, p < 0.05, d = 4.4), and time point three (t (32) = 2.52, p < 0.05, d =
0.88). This means the intervention group had achieved a significantly higher grade at
time point two and time point three, despite being significantly below the comparison
group at the start of the programme.
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Figure 5.1 – Trajectory of Academic Grades

Academic performance trajectory measured by school assessment at the start of the
programme (time point 1), after term one (time point 2) and at the end of the
programme (time point 3).

A paired-samples t-test for the intervention group showed a significant

difference between time point one and time point two (t (18) = 5.58, p < 0.05, d =
1.88), between time point two and time point three (t (18) = 4.53, p < 0.05, d = 0.95),
and finally between time point one and time point three (t (18) = 8.47, p < 0.05, d =
2.62). This means the intervention group had significantly improved their academic
grades at the end of term 1 (time point two) and at the end of term 3 (time point
three). The paired sample t-test for the comparison group showed a significant
difference between time point two and time point three (t (14) = 3.6, p < 0.05, d = 1),
and time point one and time point three (t (14) = 4.8, p < 0.05, d = 1.6), but there was
no significant difference found between time point one and time point two (t (14) =
2.65, p > 0.05 (0.19), d = 0.55). This means that the children in the comparison had
not made a significant improvement in their academic performance at the end of term
1 (time point two) but had made a significant improvement to their grades by the end
of term 3 (time point three).
By the end of the programme, the intervention group results revealed that 12
out of the 19 students in this group had reached teacher expectation and were no
longer deemed to be underachieving. Interestingly, six students from the intervention
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group exceeded teacher predictions, with one student achieving a whole grade higher
than their predicted grade. In the comparison group, four out of the fifteen students
reached teacher expectation by time point three but no students within this group
exceeded teacher prediction. Furthermore, by using group data the intervention group
were deemed to be no longer underachieving at time point three whereas the majority
of the comparison group were still classified as underachievers by the school.
To summarise in general terms, the results indicate that the intervention
group had made a significant increase in academic performance, whereas the
comparison group did not make a significant difference in academic performance
between time point one and time point two. During time points two and three, the
intervention group and the comparison group made significant improvements in their
academic performance. The intervention group continued to improve at a greater rate
than the comparison group which indicates the programme had a sustained
significant impact on academic performance throughout the whole academic year. By
time point two, the intervention group had a higher academic performance grade than
the comparison group had at time point three.

5.1.3 Discussion
The purpose of this phase of the study was to monitor the trajectory of
academic performance across one full academic year for both the intervention and
comparison group. Both groups made a significant improvement in academic
performance across the academic year. This finding was expected as the predicted
progression throughout an academic year for the Case Study school is between one
or two sub-levels of one grade. By attending school for one full academic year both
groups have made the recommended improvement in their academic performance set
by their school. However, the intervention group improved to a higher level of
attainment than the comparison group despite having a lower baseline performance.
The intervention group started the programme at a lower sub-level grade than the
comparison group. This provided some limitations (see Chapter 7) but by the end of
term one the intervention group, although still underachieving, had achieved a higher
sub-level grade than the comparison group.
Marsh’s (1993) Athletic Participation (AP) model could explain why a
sports-based intervention had a positive impact on academic performance. The AP
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model suggests that an engagement in school sport activities is likely to lead to

increased pupil identification and involvement with the school, and increased pupil
commitment to work towards defined academic goals. The model supports the notion
that engagement in sport activities can be linked to increased time spent in school,
increased feelings of belonging and increased attention from certain staff members.
Students however, must learn to balance extra-curricular activities and academic
workload for such activities to be beneficial (Lipscomb, 2007).
The findings of TAP suggest that a sports-based programme, conducted on
school premises may have had a positive impact on the participants’ identification
and engagement with the school. The qualitative data presented in Phase 2 and Phase
3 indicates that the participants enjoyed increased attention from teachers, received
fewer detentions throughout the programme and increased the time they spent in
school. The sport-sessions were conducted once weekly which also made it
manageable for the boys to balance the extra-curricular activity with their academic
workload.
Existing research literature is unable to provide conclusive evidence that the
debate on school sport participation and educational achievement continues. It is
argued that sport participation often has no impact on academic performance, some
even go as far to say that school sport participation may hinder academic
performance (Dawkins, Braddock II and Celaya 2008; Zeiser 2011). The results from
this study support the findings of Chomitz and others (2008), which shows a positive
relationship between sport participation and academic performance. The findings
show a significant change in academic performance, supporting the notion that an
after-school, sports based life skills programme can be used as a tool to positively
impact on academic performance as long as the programme is designed to do so.
Sport has long been recognised as a vehicle to facilitate positive youth development
but there is nothing special or magical about sport (Petitpas et al, 2005). Sport
programmes can be good for academic performance providing they are designed to
facilitate positive changes in academic performance.
Overall, the findings revealed that academic performance significantly
increased for both groups, however this was to be expected, as the participants
should be making on average a one-to-two sub-level improvement per full academic
year. This finding suggests that the programme did have some impact on the
intervention groups’ academic grades. How the programme had influenced academic
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performance was examined. Phase 2 seeks to challenge the caught assumption by

demonstrating that life skills should be taught in sport, especially with children and
young adolescents.
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Phase 2
5.2 Introduction
The statistical results previously presented (see Chapter 5, Phase 1) revealed
that the participants in the intervention group significantly improved their academic
grades (over one school year) to above teacher prediction. This suggests TAP had
some influence on academic performance. This phase sought to examine how TAP
had an impact on academic performance by exploring the perceptions of the
participants (in the intervention group) life skill learning during the programme:
addressing a significant gap in life skill transfer literature (Gould and Carson, 2008).
In particular, phase 2 examines the participants’ perceptions of the programme and
highlights their thoughts on like skill transfer. Researchers such as Jones and
Lavallee (2009) and Weiss and colleagues (2013) have recently explored the
perceived life skill transfer with their participants but research on perceived learning
and transfer of life skills with adolescents is limited. In summary, this phase of the
study hoped to answer the following research questions:

 What is the impact of a sports programme on participants’ perceived use of

the life skills?
 To what extent (if any) do the participants perceive they transferred the life
skills from the sports hall into other school domains?

5.2.1 Method
5.2.1.1 Data collection
This phase of the study used a mixed method design using a questionnaire
and semi-structured interviews. The questionnaire was based on a six point Likert
scale in which the participants rated their ability to use each of the seven skills taught
on the programme. The intervention group participants completed three
questionnaires during the intervention, a pre, a post and a reflection questionnaire.
The questionnaire (see Appendix) was given to each participant prior to the
intervention starting in attempt to understand how all of the participants in the
intervention and comparison groups perceived their ability in relation to each life
skill. Each participant had to self-assess his own ability in each of the seven
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transferable skills. High scores indicated high levels of competence and low scores
indicated low levels of competence.
The same questionnaire was also given to all of the participants at the end of
the programme (the post questionnaire) in order to reassess their competence and
learning of the seven transferable skills after the intervention. Once this was
completed the boys were then given the same questionnaire again. The boys had to
re-rate their perceived ability to use each life skill at the beginning of the programme.
This was known as the reflection questionnaire as it was considered that 12-13 year
old boys would not know what they had not been taught and therefore their reflection
may be a more realistic ability rating. Asking the participants to rethink their original
self-assessments would identify if the participants thought they had learnt anything
during the intervention. The PE teacher involved in the study also completed a
questionnaire at the start and at the end of the programme in order to assess if she
had seen any change in the intervention groups ability to use the seven skills taught
during the programme.

5.2.1.2 Questionnaire analysis

One-way repeated measures ANOVAs were conducted on each individual
life skill, this was to test for a main effect of time (pre, post and reflection). If a
significant main effect was present, post hoc t-tests with Bonferonni correction (p <
0.016) were conducted. All statistics were performed using SPSS statistical software
(v. 18.0, SPSS Inc., Chicago, USA).

5.2.1.3 Interviews
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the intervention group
participants during the last two weeks of the school year. One parent and the female
P.E teacher involved in the study were also interviewed, in order to gain a more in-
depth and insightful understanding of the learning and transfer processes that may
have occurred during the programme. A semi-structured interview guide was
developed based on previous research such as the work by Jones and Lavallee (2009)
and Camiré, Trudel and Forneris (2012), however in an attempt to gain
understanding on perceived learning and transfer, probes were used to gain more
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detail. Topics addressed in the interviews were based on previous intervention

research and aimed to explore perceived life skill learning and examine the impact
and extent of life skills on academic grades. Questions such as: what did you think
about the seven skills? Did you transfer the life skills? How did you feel about
transferring the skills? How do you think you transferred the skills? and Did you
learn other skills by being a part of the programme. The interviews lasted between 30
minutes and 45 minutes and were voice recorded.
Finally, in the introduction to the interviews, all participants were informed
and assured of the complete confidentiality and anonymity of their responses. This
was deemed most important as the interviews were conducted on school premises.
Whilst this was convenient for the students and provided them with a familiar and
safe environment, some participants were initially concerned that their teachers may
be given information arising from the interviews.

5.2.1.4 Interview analysis

All interviews were transcribed verbatim and checked with audio files to
ensure accuracy. The author and two supervisors read and sorted the data set and
content analysis was used to identify specific themes. Interpretations were then made
about the meaning of specific quotes.
In order to determine methodological rigour, validation checks were
conducted throughout the study, and data was triangulated from several sources
including school staff, parents, and the participants. The author was also present in
the school one afternoon every week, for one academic year. This enabled a trusting
rapport to develop between the researcher and the participants. The intervention
group were respectful throughout the programme but they did not see the researcher
as a member of school staff, which allowed for honest and trusting interview
responses. For example, the boys openly discussed the subjects where they were
struggling academically and behaviourally. The boys would often provide insight to
the relationships they had with various teachers. These comments were not forth
coming initially but as the programme progressed the boys began to place trust in the
author and understood that their comments would not be reported back to staff
members.
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5.2.2 Results
Table 5.2 – Means and Standard Deviations
The table shows the means and standard deviations for the life skill questionnaire
data completed by the intervention group

Mean Standard Deviation

Discipline
Pre TAP 4.58 1.31
Post TAP 4.79 1.03
Reflection 3.47 1.07

Teacher Pre 3.42 1.43

Teacher Post 5.16 0.83
Communication
Pre TAP 5.16 0.96
Post TAP 5.37 0.68
Reflection 4.03 1.14

Teacher Pre 3.53 0.96

Teacher Post 4.74 0.65
Teamwork
Pre TAP 4.84 1.26
Post TAP 5.05 0.85
Reflection 3.79 1.08

Teacher Pre 3.68 0.95

Teacher Post 4.68 0.67
Self-confidence
Pre TAP 4.79 1.44
Post TAP 5.11 0.88
Reflection 3.68 1.53

Teacher Pre 3.42 1.07

Teacher Post 4.74 0.93
Concentration
Pre TAP 3.79 1.08
Post TAP 4.47 1.07
Reflection 3 1.37

Teacher Pre 3.47 1.39

Teacher Post 4.37 1.12
Persistence
Pre TAP 4.95 1.28
Post TAP 5.05 0.85
Reflection 3.58 1.22

Teacher Pre 3.42 1.17

Teacher Post 4.42 0.90
Goal Setting
Pre TAP 4.47 1.37
Post TAP 0.51 1.09
Reflection 3.05 1.18

Teacher Pre 2.26 0.56

Teacher Post 3.74 0.81
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When exploring whether the data meet the assumptions of parametric

statistics, it was identified that while there was homogeneity of variance across
conditions, the data were not normally distributed. Field (2013) suggests that
ANOVA and t-tests are robust enough statistics to withstand the violation of the
normality assumption, therefore, the data were analysed using parametric statistics.

5.2.2.1 ANOVAs
The results from the one-way repeated measures ANOVAs revealed a
significant main effect of time for each of the seven variables; discipline (F (2, 36) =
15.76, p < 0.01, ηp2 = 0.47); communication (F (2, 36) = 19.06, p < 0.01, ηp2 = 0.51);
teamwork (F (2, 36) = 10.02, p < 0.01, ηp2 = 0.36); self-confidence and positive self-
talk (F (2, 36) = 10.34, p < 0.01, ηp2 = 0.37); concentration (F (2, 36) = 18.6, p < 0.01, ηp2
= 0.51); persistence (F (2, 36) = 25.24, p < 0.01, ηp2 = 0.58); goal setting (F (2, 34) =
19.05, p < 0.01, ηp2 = 0.51). As the results all indicated a significant main effect of
time, post hoc t-tests were conducted to identify the source of any differences. This
means that the ANOVA tests revealed all seven of the life skills significantly
changed during the programme. Therefore further tests (post hoc t-tests) were
conducted in order to identify where these changes/differences were made.
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Figure 5.2 – Perceived Ability to use Life Skills

Participants’ perceived ability to use life skills pre TAP ( ), post TAP
( ) and reflectively ( ). *significant difference between pre and reflection (p<
0.016), † significance difference between pre and post (p< 0.016), ‡ significance
difference between pre and post (p< 0.016)

5.2.3 T-tests and interview data for each life skill

5.2.3.1 Discipline
Statistical analysis for discipline showed a non-significant difference between
pre and post scores (t (18) = 0.747, p > 0.016 (0.47), ηp2 = 0.03, d = 0.18) but a
significant difference between reflection and pre (t (18) = 3.75, p < 0.01, ηp2 =0.44, d
= 0.93), and reflection and post (t (18) = 8.55, p < 0.01, ηp2 = 0.802, d = 1.26). This
means there was no significant difference in the boys perceived rating of discipline
between the start of the programme and the end of the programme. However, there
was a significant difference between the boys’ reflection score (based on their ability
to use the skill at the start of the programme) and at the end of the programme. The
teacher also rated a significant difference between the boys’ discipline pre and post
scores (t = 5.38, p < 0.01, ηp2 = 0.62, d = 1.54). The school identified discipline as a
major problem with the majority of the participants. Teaching staff believed most of
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the participants lacked discipline mainly in the classroom and the participants were
regularly put into after school or lunchtime detentions. However, post TAP results
show improvements in discipline across the school. When asked to provide an
example of using discipline in other academic environments, one participant said:

I learnt to be more disciplined and in lessons, it was easier

because teachers are quite strict. I was in History and my teacher
is strict and he was getting angry and shouting even though I
hadn't done anything. The discipline sessions helped me and then
I just didn't say or do anything back to him and it benefitted me
that way (P11).

Another participant provided a more universal example to all his lessons by saying ‘I
learnt that discipline is needed in every lesson because if you don’t listen to teachers
then you won't get far with your work’ (P3). Several of the students identified
discipline as an important skill to use in the classroom in order to improve behaviour.
The school monitored detention prevalence and found that during TAP the number of
detentions significantly reduced. Year on year data shows a group detention reduction
of 44%. The participants also perceived their ability to use discipline to significantly
improve during TAP. It appeared the participants quickly engaged with the concept
of discipline and enjoyed the martial art lessons used in order to practice and facilitate
learning opportunities. Results indicated that the participants used discipline
generally across the whole school environment.

5.2.3.2 Communication
Statistical analysis for communication showed a non-significant difference
between pre and post scores (t (18) = 1.29, p > 0.016 (0.22), ηp2 = 0.08, d = 0.26) but
a significant difference between reflection and pre (t (18) = 4.03, p < 0.01, ηp2 =
0.47, d = 1.08), and reflection and post (t (18) = 5.55, p < 0.01, ηp2 = 0.63, d = 1.47).
This means there was no significant difference in the boys perceived rating of
communication between the start of the programme and the end of the programme.
However, there was a significant difference between the boys’ reflection score
(based on their ability to use the skill at the start of the programme) and at the end of
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the programme. The teacher also rated a significant difference between the boy’s pre
and post communication scores (t = 4.15, p < 0.01, ηp2 = 0.49, d = 1.49). The school
identified communication as an issue with many of their students, especially between
students and staff. During TAP the participants explored various methods of
communication and examined how each method could be used within the classroom.
However, it was verbal communication that the participants worked on more
extensively. When asked to provide an example of when they had transferred the
skill into the classroom, one student said ‘in maths I talk to the people around me to
help them workout the answers, or sometimes they'll help me’ (P10).
Another student, whose communication in the classroom was deemed to
regularly be problematic and the cause of many of his detentions, provided the
following example, ‘I learnt to talk and not shout, let other people speak. I used it in
maths, we do group work’ (P16). The results showed a perceived significant
improvement in the use of communication and participants were able to provide
examples of transfer. Observations throughout TAP also showed an improvement in
communication between both themselves and with the researcher.

5.2.3.3 Teamwork
Statistical analysis for teamwork showed a non-significant difference between pre
and post scores (t (18) = 0.81, p > 0.016 (0.43), ηp2 = 0.03, d = 0.2) but a significant
difference between reflection and pre (t (18) = 3.12, p < 0.01, ηp2 = 0.35, d = 0.9),
and reflection and post (t (18) = 4.15, p < 0.01, ηp2 = 0.49, d = 1.3). This means there
was no significant difference in the boys perceived rating of teamwork between the
start of the programme and the end of the programme. However, there was a
significant difference between the boys’ reflection score (based on their ability to use
the skill at the start of the programme) and at the end of the programme. The teacher
also rated a significant difference between the boys’ pre and post teamwork scores (t
= 4.14, p < 0.01, ηp2 = 0.49, d = 1.23).
Teamwork was an interesting concept when introduced to the participants.
They were aware that teamwork is an important skill in P.E and they knew how to
use the skill during P.E but had a limited insight on how teamwork could be used in
the classroom. The concept of teamwork was discussed in detail during the first three
weeks of the programme and despite the initial lack of knowledge, the participants
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perceived their ability to use teamwork within the school domain to significantly
improve during TAP. One participant provided a specific example of transfer by
saying ‘in R.S [Religious Studies] we did a big poster in groups of 6 and we had to
work as a team to complete different parts of the poster’ (P10). Another participant
provided a specific example of using teamwork but also discussed using teamwork in
a more general sense, he said:

I learnt that I need to work with other people around me and not
just think that the work needs to be done by me. I have used
teamwork when we had to do a task as a group about trying to
untangle ourselves by holding hands (P3).

All the participants thought teamwork was important in P.E but many of the
participants felt the opportunities to use teamwork within the classroom were limited.
Several thought their teamwork had improved more in P.E lessons than it had in
other academic domains. This suggests that transfer of skills is not only linked to the
modelling and practice of life skills but is also dependent on schools providing
opportunities for students to use the skills in other academic situations.

5.2.3.4 Self-confidence and positive self-talk

Statistical analysis for self-confidence and positive self-talk showed a non-
significant difference between pre and post scores (t (18) = 1.1, p > 0.016 (0.29), ηp2
= 0.06, d = 0.28) but a significant difference between reflection and pre (t (18) =
3.16, p < 0.01, ηp2 = 0.36, d = 0.74), and reflection and post (t (18) = 4.12, p < 0.01,
ηp2 = 0.49, d = 1.18). This means there was no significant difference in the boys
perceived rating of self-confidence and positive self-talk between the start of the
programme and the end of the programme. However, there was a significant
difference between the boys’ reflection score (based on their ability to use the skill at
the start of the programme) and at the end of the programme. The teacher also rated a
significant difference between the boys’ pre and post self-confidence and positive
self-talk scores (t = 4.76, p < 0.01, ηp2 = 0.56, d = 1.32).
A number of the participants initially identified themselves as having high
self-confidence but when self-confidence was discussed and practiced, they realised
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that they actually doubted themselves more than they thought they did. Positive self-
talk was a new concept for a large proportion of the group and a skill which several
of the participants initially failed to use in the sports hall. Getting the participants to
use this skill required regular motivational encouragement both from the researcher
and the football coach. When asked to provide examples of transfer a few
participants identified self-confidence and positive self-talk as a skill that helped to
improve their academic performance:

I learned not to get frustrated in the things that you do. It helped
me in Spanish like I would not remember the words and it would
be very difficult, I used positive self-talk and it helped (P6).

As well as helping in classroom activities, many of the participants identified

using self-confidence and positive self-talk before and during examinations: ‘ I used
self-confidence in a maths exam and I had to believe in myself to get a good grade
and I moved up two sub levels. The self-confidence pushed me’ (P5). Self-confidence
was a life skill that could be used in any academic domain and the participants had
many opportunities to practice positive self-talk. Despite self-confidence and positive
self-talk being the last skill the participants learnt in the programme they still
perceived their learning and use of the skill to be statistically significant.

5.2.3.5 Concentration
Statistical analysis for concentration showed a significant difference between
pre and post scores (t (18) = 3.15, p < 0.01, ηp2 = 0.36, d = 0.63), a significant
difference between reflection and pre (t (18) = 3.53, p < 0.01, ηp2 = 0.4, d = 0.65),
and reflection and post (t (18) = 5.27, p < 0.01, ηp2 = 0.6, d = 1.2). This means there
was a significant difference in the boys’ perceived rating of concentration between
the start of the programme and the end of the programme. There was also a
significant difference between the boys’ reflection score (based on their ability to use
the skill at the start of the programme) and at the end of the programme.
Concentration was the only life skill to show a significant difference between pre and
post scores. The teacher also rated a significant difference between the boys’ pre and
post concentration scores (t = 3.392, p < 0.01, ηp2 = 0.39, d = 0.72). During TAP, the
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importance of concentration was discussed and the participants were introduced to

techniques they could use to prevent becoming distracted, especially in classroom
environments. The following participants identified the transfer of TAP and provided
the following examples:

Before TAP I was not concentrating well in lessons I was not

achieving well in my lessons. When we did all the sessions I
became more confident in concentrating on the tasks we did so I
took what I learnt in TAP to my lessons and became good at
concentrating well (P13).

Full concentration was required in my test to remember facts to

help get a good grade. I have succeeded in Maths, Science, Art,
ICT and Geography by being at the top of the class because I
concentrate (P12).

I learnt not to get distracted in some of my lessons when

someone is being naughty, I would laugh or start to talk to the
person that is being disruptive. I don’t now (P6).

Concentration was a skill many of the participants initially did not appreciate.
When discussing the use of concentration in the early stages of TAP, the vast
majority of the participants claimed lessons were too boring and this caused them to
become distracted. Rock climbing sessions were used in order to highlight the
importance of focusing and staying on task. Concentration was a skill all the
participants identified as a skill they thought they had learnt and successfully
transferred into the classroom. Concentration is a skill, which could be implemented
in all areas of school life, and this provided the participants with many opportunities
to practice and transfer the skill.

5.2.3.6 Persistence
Statistical analysis for persistence showed a non-significant difference
between pre and post scores (t (18) = 0.52, p > 0.016 (0.61), ηp2 = 0.01, d = 0.09) but
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a significant difference between reflection and pre (t (18) = 4.75, p < 0.01, ηp2 =
0.56, d = 1.1), and reflection and post (t (18)= 7.64, p < 0.01, ηp2 = 0.76, d = 1.41).
This means there was no significant difference in the boys’ perceived rating of
persistence between the start of the programme and the end of the programme.
However, there was a significant difference between the boys’ reflection score
(based on their ability to use the skill at the start of the programme) and at the end of
the programme. The teacher also rated a significant difference between the boys’ pre
and post persistence scores (t = 3.78, p < 0.01, ηp2 = 0.44, d = 0.96).
During the interviews at the end of TAP, several participants identified using
persistence to keep going when they struggled to answer difficult questions in a
variety of classes and environments. One participant answered: ‘It’s needed, to be
persistent when you fail to answer questions correctly. History, Spanish, PE are
where I need to use persistence the most’ (P12). Other participants identified
situations that were more specific when they had used persistence: ‘In Science. In my
tests I was struggling because it didn't come anything into my head so I thought and
said I CAN DO IT, KEEP TRYING and it helped me (P19) and: ‘I learnt to keep
going and not give up easily. In Drama, I have to use it by correcting myself if I
don’t do the stage direct or speak in the correct tone or voice’ (P17).
Persistence was a word the vast majority of participants had no concept of at
the beginning of TAP and during the programme many of them acknowledged
persistence was a skill that they did not often use. One participant actually said ‘at
the beginning of this [TAP] I wasn't very persistent at all. This helped because in a
classroom, when I find something hard now I keep trying’ (P11). Encouraging the
participants to stay on task and use persistence in the sports hall was difficult. They
often found the frisbee tasks tedious and that it was difficult to stay focussed: ‘When
we used persistence in Frisbee it was hard because you had to keep doing the same
thing and try improve and not give up’ (P18) or found persistence difficult to
understand: ‘Persistence like I didn’t really understand that’ (P8).
However, many of the participants did begin to appreciate the value of
persistence and the rewards it brought (i.e. acknowledgement and praise from
teachers), especially in the classroom. When discussing the benefits of persistence
one participant said ‘on my report it showed that I have improved, a couple of times,
two teachers have said I have improved’ (P6). He also acknowledged that persistence
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had allowed him to achieve higher grades: ‘I feel proud that I can do it, that I can
achieve more in lessons and get higher levels’.

5.2.3.7 Goal Setting

Statistical analysis for goal setting showed a non-significant difference
between pre and post scores (t (18) = 0.87, p > 0.016 (0.39), ηp2 = 0.04, d = 4.05) but
a significant difference between reflection and pre (t (18) = 4.34, p < 0.01, ηp2 =
0.51, d = 1.1), and reflection and post (t (18) = 6.52, p < 0.01, ηp2 = 0.7, d = 3.12).
This means there was no significant difference in the boys perceived rating of goal
setting between the start of the programme and the end of the programme. However,
there was a significant difference between the boys’ reflection score (based on their
ability to use the skill at the start of the programme) and at the end of the
programme. The teacher also rated a significant difference between the boys’ pre and
post goal setting scores (t = 5.99, p < 0.01, ηp2 = 0.67, d = 2.18).
Goal setting was a skill that many of the participants had not used regularly
within school. The majority of the participants initially struggled to set themselves a
short-term goal. Most goals were long-term and career orientated such as ‘I want to
be a footballer’ or ‘I want to be a lawyer’. TAP introduced the students to short-term
goals and how to set, maintain, review and achieve goals. A number of the
participants had identified goal setting as a skill they had learnt and used in school,
one participant said:

I learnt that there is always something you can achieve. Before

the programme started, I was not able to give goals to myself.
During the sessions, I built my confidence in being able to make
short-term goals and achieving them in the long term (P13).

Another participant identified exactly why he had set himself a goal: ‘I used goal
setting in the classroom to set up my goal to behave’ (P8). Despite the t-tests
showing a significant change in perceived skill ability from the start of the
programme to the end, a number of students believed that school did not provide
them with sufficient opportunities to set goals. One participant said ‘I think in
lessons, I don’t think I use it that much ‘cause it depends on the topic you are doing
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in your lessons I don’t use them that much’ (P7), another participant also agreed:
‘like lessons are only an hour so I can’t really use it’ (P18).

5.2.3.8 Teacher, parent, and student comments

During the interview with a participant’s parent, it was clear that her son had
engaged well with the programme and had made big changes over the year. When
asked what she thought of TAP she replied: ‘It was amazing; it helped him so much,
especially in his Science’. When ask to elaborate on how TAP had helped her son
she said:

I asked him when he came home like ‘what you done today’ and
he would say boxing or I learnt this or I learnt a new activity that
we won’t do in usual P.E lessons and I asked him what it was
about science and why his grades weren’t as good and he said
well I don’t always find it interesting. I don’t find the lessons
interesting and I don’t like the ways we are taught so I don’t pay
as much attention as I should admittedly, he actually said that
and it seems that through giving him a range of activities and
paying special attention and focus and him being engaged in
different roots in the programme, it has helped raise the stats
[grades] it’s so obvious to me, I don’t think, if the programme
wasn’t there then maybe, maybe he would improve but not as
much (Parent 1).

When the female P.E teacher was interviewed about the programme, she also
recognised there had been a change in attitude from the boys:

To get these boys and some of them really are disaffected in

lessons, this is quite a challenging group but to get them
committed every Wednesday and numbers did blip sometimes
but generally there is a consistent pattern with them and one of
the students in particular, the change has just been amazing in
terms of when we look at him at the start of the programme and
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we look at him now and the conversations we are having and he

is, don’t get me wrong he is still sent out of some lessons but it’s
a lot less and he is a big part of that 44% BTS [behavioural
monitoring]being reduced (Teacher 1).

When asked why she thought the programme helped to facilitate transfer
of life skills, the following response was given:

You have to make a connection with a curriculum area and not

just P.E ‘cause that’s the danger because they think P.E is a sport
and it’s a practical thing that is separate from other lessons, the
success behind this project was definitely taking the sport
sessions, using it to say right we’re having a focus group now,
look at where this affects you on the curriculum or look at where
this affects you in science and making that connection and
making that link and that was the thing, if you keep it within the
P.E department and if you’re raising attainment in P.E then fine
but if you are looking at impacting on something across the
whole school or the wider curriculum you need to, the students
need to be able to establish connections because they can’t, they
won’t make connections themselves (Teacher 1).

Developing links and connections between life skill use in the sports hall and
in the classroom was an important part of TAP. The focus groups conducted
throughout the programme played a major role in developing the participants transfer
links and they all recognised the importance of the focus groups in the end of
programme interviews. When asked if they thought the focus groups had any impact,
the following responses were given:

Yeah the feedback ‘cause it shows like if you’ve learnt in the

lesson like if you knew what you was doing in the sessions like
to succeed, if you didn’t really understand goal setting you could
in the focus groups say I didn’t really understand this so you
understand better…. (P2).
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Umm, yeah because you got to empathise with people, see things
from different perspectives and see how other people use them
and it could affect how you use it, like you could use it, the
communication incorrectly and someone else says they use it this
way, it could affect you to use it in the right way (P7).

Umm, yeah a bit ‘cause people like, people say how they
achieved their stuff, like all the team work and stuff and like then
yeah, in lessons and not just in sport and P.E, just like all their
lessons together (P3).

One participant simply said ‘hearing other people’s ideas made you think
about it more’ (P4). It appears the interaction and sharing of ideas amongst peers was
an effective way of discussing and providing information on transfer. It seemed the
participants valued their peers comments and suggestions during the focus groups.
Some of the participants who did not have their own ideas on transfer were able to
listen to ideas from their friends and acknowledge that transfer could be achieved.

5.2.4 Discussion
The purpose of phase two was to examine if the participants thought life
skills could be learnt through an extra-curricular sports-based programme. TAP
investigated students’ perceived learning of seven life skills taught over a yearlong
intervention using both qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques. TAP
allowed the participants’ time to learn, practice, and transfer the life skills, it also
sought to examine whether life skills are taught or caught.
This part of the study revealed some insightful findings in terms of how
students perceive their ability and their perceived learning of the life skills taught
during the programmes. Overall, results showed that the participants perceived their
ability to use the seven life skills to have significantly increased during TAP.
Interestingly, all the participants had overrated their perceived ability to use the skills
at the beginning of TAP compared to their reflective ratings. The participants
reported a significantly lower score reflectively than they had at the beginning of the
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programme. This confirms initial fears that adolescents do not necessarily know what
they have not been taught. Many of the boys rated themselves highly during the pre
scores, particularly for their persistence and concentration. However, when they had
to use the skills during TAP they realised they had overrated their ability to use the
skill and found it difficult to practically apply the skills in the sport sessions. It was
only with additional knowledge, modelling, practice and discussion of transfer did
they efficiently learn and transfer the skills.
TAP has demonstrated that participants perceive they can learn life skills
through sport participation but it can be argued that this is only the case as long as
the programme is designed to facilitate such learning. As Danish and colleagues
(2004) state there is nothing magical about sport; sport can only be used as a vehicle
to facilitate life skill learning. The participants had not and would not have
established the links between using skills in sport and in the classroom had they not
been told about the skills. Many of the participants disliked the focus groups at the
beginning of the programme. Focus groups were conducted every three weeks in
order to discuss the life skills and how they could transfer such skills into other
domains. A focus group was a new skill and it took several weeks before all the
participants felt comfortable talking in front of their peers. However, the participants
realised the value of the focus groups in aiding and facilitating transfer.
Transfer of life skills was an important aspect of TAP. The participants
identified they had learnt the life skills in both the questionnaire and interviews and
then provided examples to show they had used the life skills in other academic
domains in the interviews. The participants mainly used the skills in classroom
lessons but also used the life skills to improve their behaviour and attitudes around
the school more generally. TAP showed that life skills can be transferred into other
life domains if transfer is discussed and facilitated appropriately. All the participants
individually acknowledged at least one skill they had learnt during TAP and had
transferred into other academic or life domains. The focus groups appeared to allow
the participants who had considered transfer and had ideas on how to use the skills in
other areas of the curriculum to share their knowledge with their peers. Observations
suggest the participants valued and listened to their peers and respected each other’s
suggestions on transfer more than they would have done if the researcher had
imparted the same information.
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It appears some of the life skills were more easily used within other academic
domains than other skills. Many of the participants had used the sport sessions to
practice using the life skills, had thought about the transfer process but then found
the school provided them with little opportunity to use the skills, especially with goal
setting. This was an interesting finding considering the school highlighted the skills
as important for their students. Whilst the findings show significant perceived
learning of all seven of the life skills, the results on transfer are a little less
conclusive. Not all participants had transferred all of the skills with many of the
students identifying goal setting and teamwork as particularly difficult skills to
transfer. The fact that many of the intervention group participants failed to transfer
goal-setting skills and found it a problematic skill to use in the classroom is of
interest.
That is not to say sport cannot be used to teach goal setting. Successful
programmes such as GOAL and SUPER place great emphasis on young people
learning goal setting through sport and using the skill in other domains. The boys in
TAP highlighted that they had learnt goal setting but some required more time to
fully understand and transfer the skill and some needed more opportunities to use
goal setting within the school environment. Whilst the ability to set goals may be an
important skill for young people, it appears unlikely that young people are required
to set goals in an academic environment on a daily basis. Overall, the findings of this
study demonstrate that young people may experience difficulty using and
transferring some skills and therefore one argues that teaching children a range of life
skills may be more beneficial than focussing on a select few.
It is possible that schools and their PE departments could replicate the main
elements of this study. Danish and colleagues (1993) found the main barrier to
transferable skill programmes is that participants do not know and are not made
aware of the skills they have learnt. The intervention group in this study recognised
the skills they were being taught but had not realised they could be used within the
classroom. The intervention group participants also acknowledged that it was not the
sports that were deemed important to them but rather the skills they had learnt and
the manner in which they learnt them. They agreed that making them aware and
discussing such skills in focus groups helped them to transfer the skill into the
classroom. It is possible that PE teachers could teach students important life skills
that could be used across the curricular in an attempt to reduce underachievement.
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5.3 Phase 3
5.3.1 Introduction
It is widely recognised that organised sport provides favourable conditions
for young people to engage in positive youth development (Larson, 2000) and is a
significant factor in adolescent’s development of identity and self-esteem (Danish,
Forneris and Wallace, 2005). Danish and colleagues (2005) state the greatest risk to
young people is the belief that playing with a ball alone is enough to make a
difference. Using sport to teach young people various life skills has become popular
over the previous decade. However, little research has looked at the transfer of life
skills into other academic and life domains. During the programme, the participants
were encouraged to discuss transfer from the sports hall into the classroom on a
regular basis. Therefore, this study sought to address a clear gap in the literature by
qualitatively examining adolescents’ perceptions of life skill transfer and establishing
enablers and barriers effecting skill transfer from the sports hall into other academic
domains.

5.3.2 Method
5.3.2.1 Data collection
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eighteen of the intervention
group participants during the last two weeks of the school year, as one participant
was ill during this period and was not available for interview. All interviews were
conducted in a private meeting room on the school premises and recorded using a
digital voice recorder (VN-5500PC, Olympus Inc, Pennsylvania, US). In the
introduction to the interviews, all participants were informed and assured of
complete confidentiality and anonymity of their remarks. This was deemed most
important as the interviews were conducted on school premises.
The participants were reminded of the definition of life skills and which skills
were taught during TAP. They were also reminded of the transfer concept and
encouraged to think of opportunities where transfer had occurred. After collecting
verbal consent from each participant, the interview began by discussing what the
participant thought about the TAP programme and why they attended each week.
The interview then explored the life skills (i.e. which skills the participants’ thought
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they had transferred in to the classroom and which ones they thought they could not/
had not transferred). The participants were then encouraged to discuss the enablers
and barriers of life skill transfer. Probes were asked throughout the interview to
determine meaning and understanding and to explore various responses in more
detail. Some of the probes used included; ‘Tell me more about that?’ ‘How did that
make you feel?’ ‘What do you mean?’ or ‘Have I understood that correctly?’ Finally,
to conclude the interview, provide a summary for the interview, and gain any
additional information on the programme, the participants were asked: ‘If you were
asked to design a programme like TAP what would you have done differently?’
Interviews lasted, on average, about 30 minutes but ranged from 25 minutes to 45
minutes.

5.3.2.2 Interview analysis

The interviews were transcribed verbatim. In order to ensure anonymity, all
participants were assigned participant numbers (Participant One = P1 etc.). Interview
transcripts were read and audio files checked numerous times in order to ensure
accuracy. Interview data were then analysed using deductive-inductive content
analysis (Miles and Huberman, 1994). This analysis was used as the interview
questions were based on previous research; however, the categories involving life
skill enablers and barriers emerged inductively from the participants’ responses.
Initially this involved reading and coding each of the 18 transcripts several times.
Two members of the research team then read and sorted the data sets until raw data
themes were developed. Content analysis was used to identify specific themes such
as the barriers and enablers of transfer. Interpretations were then made about the
meaning of specific quotes.
In order to enhance methodological rigour, validation checks were conducted
throughout the study. The first author was also present in the school one afternoon
every week, for one academic year. This enabled a trusting rapport to develop
between researcher and participants. The participants were respectful to the
researcher throughout the programme but they did not view the researcher as a
member of school staff, which allowed for honest and trusting responses. In addition,
TAP also triangulated data sources from school staff, parents, and the participants.
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5.3.3 Results
Five higher order themes were identified (see table 5.1); i) support from
peers, ii) pride, iii) opportunities, iv) rewards, and v) transfer experience. These
themes are collectively known as the SPORT model. The barriers and enablers for
each theme will now be discussed and illustrated with quotes.

Table 5.3 – SPORT Model

Theme analysis of interview data

Higher Order Theme Second Order Theme

Support from peers Focus groups

Friendship

Pride Sense of personal achievement

Proud parents

Opportunities To learning experiences

To transfer opportunities
Sport choices
Teacher attitudes
Boring lessons

Rewards Motivation to learn

Individual development
School based rewards

Transfer experience Ability to transfer skills

Life skill use in another domain

5.3.3.1 Support from peers

Peer support was an enabler many of the boys identified, particularly the
support they all gave and received during the focus groups. The focus groups
provided the participants with several elements of Gould and Carson’s (2008) model
including support and reinforcement of transfer, as well as providing a forum to
discuss initial failures or setbacks in relation to transfer and providing some
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participants with an awareness and comprehension to transfer the life skills. One
participant said:

The focus groups helped people, like people said how they achieved
their stuff, like all the teamwork and stuff and like then yeah, in
lessons and not just in sport science and P.E, just like all their lessons
together (P3).

Another said:

You got to empathise with people, see things from different

perspectives and see how other people use them and it could affect
how you use it, like you could use it, the communication incorrectly
and someone else says they use it this way, it could affect you to use
it in the right way (P7).

The focus groups allowed participants to listen to each other. The interaction
and sharing of ideas amongst their peers was an effective way of discussing and
providing information on transfer. The participants appeared to value the comments,
suggestions, and support from their peers during the focus groups. Some of the
participants who did not have their own ideas on transfer were able to listen to ideas
from their friends, comprehend transfer, and acknowledge that transfer could be
achieved. One of the boys said:

The feedback from the focus groups was great ‘cause it

shows if you’ve learnt anything in the lesson, like if you knew what
you were doing in the sessions to succeed, and if you didn’t really
understand goal setting you could in the focus groups say I didn’t
really understand this so…. (P2).

The focus groups allowed the intervention group participants to reaffirm

their own ideas: ‘I got to hear like other peoples’ ideas and stuff like what they were
thinking and if they were thinking the same thing as me’ (P10) and ‘hearing other
people’s ideas made you think about the skill more and like, how I could transfer it’
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(P4). Another participant thought the focus groups provided him with an opportunity
to reinforce his learning of the skill: ‘The focus groups helped us, we did them a
couple of times so we learnt the skill off by heart, and like now we know all this stuff
off by heart’ (P8).

The participants also received peer support throughout the programme. It

appears the participants also spoke to each other outside of the programme and
supported each other in other academic environments. The boys saw TAP as a fun
programme and as a gang they were proud to be a part of:

I liked having something to do every Wednesday it was a routine.

Something I knew would be safe to do, on the school grounds, no
danger or and like if anything happens, if anything happened to me,
umm I was with friends. I liked it, the programme, it was really fun
and it made me feel like I was part of a big team and it was a really
happy thing to do. If I was sad and it was a Wednesday I just knew I
would be happy by the end of the day (P4).

And:

Everyone in the group were always saying are you coming to TAP
and everything, and everyone was really happy that they were going.
It changed them so that everyone is really positive now. Before they
were like ah I got science and now they are like yeah I got science
and it’s the same with other lessons. It’s a different atmosphere
around everyone (P8).

In summary, peer support was deemed to be an important enabler in

promoting life skill transfer from the sports hall to the classroom. It seems the
participants were able to help each other both during the focus groups and within the
classroom environment. This appeared to provide the participants with confidence in
their ability to use skills in other environments (Gould and Carson, 2008). In
particular, it appears the boys found their peer’s testaments of skill transfer to be
more valuable in facilitating transfer than anything the coaches could have told them.
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Initially the boys did not value the focus groups. During the first focus group it was
clear that the participants found the environment embarrassing or intimidating.
However, the boys quickly formed what they called ‘a good gang’, friendships were
established, and interaction in the focus groups increased significantly. These themes
support the notion that youths can develop meaningful relationships through their
involvement in sport (Weiss et al, 1996).

5.3.3.2 Pride
The participants all demonstrated a sense of achievement during the
interviews and this appeared to be a powerful enabler in facilitating and reaffirming
life skill transfer. They felt proud that they had completed the yearlong intervention,
learnt new skills and all the participants were all able to identify personal
improvements: ‘I feel happy and a different person like I have achieved something
new’ (P13). One participant was also proud that he had been selected to be part of the
programme:

I felt privileged to be part of the group because um, some people

don’t get to do this kind of stuff like rock climbing and football and
frisbee and goalball and all that kind of stuff and martial arts and
American football. It feels good, you’ve done something for the
whole year and you’ve been doing something like all these sessions
and it’s not just a club, it is an actual thing that you got chosen for
and I feel proud (P8).

The participants were also pleased that their achievements had been
recognised by their parents. Some parents were happy with their child’s
improvement in their academic work: ‘I was really happy that my grades improved
and my mum and dad were really happy as well because I improved, they were really
happy’ (P19). Whilst other parents were proud with the changes their child made in
their behaviour: ‘My parents have said like they are proud of me because I am
getting better instead of just being naughty in every single lesson’ (P3) and ‘My
parents are really pleased with me. I used to get a lot of bad calls home saying I
wasn’t doing my work and I was being disruptive but now I don’t get that many’
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(P9). One participant was equally proud of himself for showing an improvement to
the Boxing athlete/coach who worked with the boys on their goal setting:

When Hannah came in the first time she said that by the next time we
see her, by the next time she saw us, we had to improve in the lesson
we are not good at or achieve the goal that we had set, and it showed
in my report that I have improved. I feel proud that I can do it, that I
can achieve more in lessons and get higher levels (P6).

Whilst another student was proud of the recognition he had gained from his teacher:

My French teacher was like you’ve been much more concentrating

and she said why is that? And I said it’s because I have been doing
sports science and she was like what’s that so I had to tell her and I
felt really proud (P17).

In summary, the participants felt proud that they had learnt a series of new
skills and had been introduced to new sports such as rock climbing, martial arts and
frisbee over a yearlong programme. The boys seemed particularly proud and pleased
by the recognition they received from their parents. They became animated when
discussing how pleased and proud their parents were at their achievements and this
seemed to be a powerful enabler and reaffirmed to them the importance of continued
transfer.

5.3.3.3 Opportunities
All of the participants highlighted learning opportunities they had
experienced during TAP and discussed how this was an important enabler in
facilitating transfer. When asked what they thought of the programme, one of the
boys simply said: ‘It gave us the opportunity’ (P4). Awareness of current skills and
knowledge of how and in what context skills were learnt were deemed to be
important factors in life skill transfer according to Gould and Carson’s (2008) model.
TAP deliberately made students aware of their skills and discussed the context in
which they could be used in sport and how that differed from using the skills in an
academic environment.
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The majority of the participants were able to recognise skills they had learnt
in the sporting environment and then transferred into other academic environments,
mainly the classroom. One participant said: ‘I think it was a good experience and
learning new sports and new skills, being confident and transferring it into your
lessons and improving on your levels’ (P13). Another participant also perceived TAP
to have had an impact on his academic grades:

Since the start I have been going up in grades and I am getting better at
things because we were learning, every lesson we learn a new topic that
the sport was linked to erm, like a word or a meaning like persistence or
communication. That helped with most things that I do in the classroom
(P5)

One participant in particular, discussed how the deliberate teaching of life skills
facilitated transfer:

TAP helped us not just in the sports, it tried to helped us in

everything, in our lessons, it taught us stuff like discipline teamwork,
concentration and stuff. Then we used it in class and yeah I didn’t
know a lot about things and when the coaches came in and told us
then I started getting used to it and it was just easier to do it. I didn’t
know how to do all this stuff and now because TAP came here and
told us what to do and how to do it it’s now easier ‘cause I like know
how to do it (P3).

Whilst learning opportunities were a commonly mentioned enabler, it appears

that in some cases the participants deemed the learning opportunities insufficient:
‘We could’ve done more sessions on the same skill, like goal setting we could have
done three weeks on that. Like more so we know exactly how to use it’ (P9) and ‘I
didn’t learn as much as I thought I would about self-confidence. If there was more
sessions I could use it more often and it would be easier’ (P16). Such comments
suggest that some skills such as goal setting and self-confidence were more difficult
to understand and the participants felt they needed more time in order to fully learn,
understand, and transfer the skill into other environments.
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As well as learning opportunities, several of the participants perceived the

opportunities to transfer the skills in other domains as an important enabler. TAP
made the students explore how the academic environment and the sporting
environment provided situations in which the same life skills could be used.
Participants need to be aware of the similarity of situations (Gould and Carson 2008)
in order for transfer to appear feasible. One participant stated; ‘I feel that I can use
all the skills that we learnt and I can take them into lessons and not just in school but
out of school as well’ (P3).
More commonly expressed however, was the limitation to use certain skills in
the classroom. The most frequently mentioned barrier was the lack of opportunities
to use goal setting and teamwork outside of the sports hall. This was identified by
one participant: ‘Team work, I don’t know how you could use that in the class unless
it’s with problem solving but you can’t exactly use it anywhere else except for
sports’ (P1) and ‘Some of the skills are harder like goal setting. I don’t use them that
much. I don’t really set goals I just like do stuff. Yeah, either there’s no opportunity
or I just don’t set them’ (P16). One participant was more specific about the reasons
why the school environment did not facilitate the transfer of goal setting: ‘I use goal
setting mainly I think for long term, so I think right I am going to do this, so like I
plan it out in my head but lessons are only an hour so I can’t really use it’ (P18). This
was an unexpected finding as the school had highlighted goal setting as an important
skill for their students, yet the participants felt that the school environment provided
them with limited opportunities to use and transfer such skills into classroom
domains.
The use of sport as a vehicle to teach the boys life skills was what kept them
engaged. Teaching the boys and allowing them opportunity to participate in new
sports proved to be an enabler of life skill transfer. One participant in particular
identified the use of sport as an important enabler:

A lot of people like sport so like when you’re doing sport they will
be more interested and keep coming back, instead of doing theory
work or writing stuff like people get bored, they aren’t really
persistent but with sports most people like sports so like they’ll be
more persistent with it and they won’t get as bored as easily (P2).
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Another participant said ‘it was better doing sports to learn the skills ‘cause it’s like
P.E and it’s more fun as well’ (P11). However the choice of sports used in the
programme may have had some impact on the learning of the life skill. The same
participant also said ‘I wasn’t really good at frisbee and I would have put in some
different sports, like basketball and I would have done tennis ‘cause I like them
sports’. Although sport was seen as an important enabler that promoted engagement
with the programme, when the boys were asked if they would do anything differently
if they were asked to design the programme, they give the following responses:

It depends if you like the sport ‘cause if it’s something that you don’t
like then it would be harder to learn the skill. I would change the
sport to something better maybe. Like American Football I didn’t
like that as much as I thought I would so I would like change it to
basketball or something (P16).

Another participant said:

I am more into football so for persistence I would have probably

have done football, most of it would probably have been to do with
football because I like football or basketball but I liked the variety of
different sports and new sports (P17).

The participants also identified some barriers concerning their

engagement in school and the lack of opportunities to use skill when they
become bored. Boring lessons were a common theme that many of the
participants highlighted as a transfer barrier:

‘Maybe there is not the excitement, like in rock climbing there was
like a thrill but in lessons when it’s just teachers speaking, it’s boring
and there is nothing really intriguing then my mind does wander and
I forget about the skills’ (P11).
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One participant recognised that boring lessons are problematic but do not necessarily
need to be a barrier: ‘In some of my lessons if it was really boring I wouldn’t listen
but now I try to listen before I wouldn’t listen, and misbehave but now I don’t’ (P6).

Teacher attitudes within the classroom were also identified as a barrier to life
skill transfer. Several of the participants felt that their teachers prevented them from
using the skills effectively within the classroom:

The teachers made it harder to use the skill, by, some teachers they
deliberately ignore you whilst your hand is up in the air waiting to
answer a question even though you’ve been there for like an hour
using persistence and the person next to you has been there for five
seconds and they answer them and then you get angry that you have
been waiting more (P12).

One participant again highlighted some teacher’s attitudes as difficult whilst in the
classroom but also explained how TAP had helped him to overcome this barrier:

Some teachers would just like annoy you. They would literally ahh,
they were so annoying yeah and they would, in your face, shouting
for nothing and usually you would get angry and say something back
and get a big detention or something but because of the discipline
like, it made you think nah there is no point so it made me better and
more aware of my teachers (P11).

In summary, TAP provided the participants with a new way in which to learn
life skills and discussed the concept of life skill transfer from the sports hall into the
classroom. The participants identified the learning and transfer opportunities
provided during TAP as enablers as this equipped them with the knowledge of life
skills, how to transfer such skills and how they could impact upon their academic
work. However, several of the boys identified barriers such as insufficient learning of
some life skills, limited opportunities to use the skills within the classroom
environment and negative teacher attitudes. It appears that several of the participants
found the concept of goal setting difficult and need more time to fully understand
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and learn how to use the skill effectively. Many of the participants also stated they
could not use goal setting or teamwork in the classroom.

5.3.3.4 Rewards
Intrinsic rewards and receiving extrinsic rewards appeared to be important
facilitators of TAP. Gould and Carson (2008) identified that individuals must have a
belief that the acquired skills are valued in other settings. Many of the participants
talked about their motivation to learn new skills and participate in new sports as well
as their belief that the skills could be used in other academic environments. This
appeared to have a significant impact on their engagement with TAP as they felt that
by using the skills they were experiencing a reward. For example, one participant
said:

I wanted to learn something new things like new sports and skills I
haven’t done before like goal ball and like self-confidence, like being
confident in your lessons and sports, discipline to respect to each
other and umm, team work to like work with other people,
concentration to be like, to concentrate on your lessons and be good
at the lesson (P13).

Other examples of the participants’ motivation to learn were the rewards it brought in
the classroom: ‘It helped me with my lessons. I wanted it to go on ‘cause it was kind
of fun, it was enjoyable, the activities that were happening, and I knew that I was
learning something and getting something from it’ (P9) and:

At first I wasn’t really sure about it because, ‘cause I wasn’t really

that confident but then when we started doing the first few sessions
then I thought it was fun as well and it did help my skills as well so I
just went and it helped overall’ (P11).

This suggests that as long as the participants feel they are learning a new skill or
sport and value the use of the taught skills in other settings, enjoy the sessions, and
feel they are gaining some form of intrinsic rewards within the classroom, they will
stay engaged in the programme.
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Another enabler mentioned by many of the participants was the extrinsic

rewards they received within the school environment. It emerged that the boys were
aware of rewards they received when they transferred life skills into the classroom:
‘In Spanish and English I was always bad but since the start of TAP I have started
concentrating in every single lesson. I have just started to do my work and get merits
and less detentions’ (P3). Another participant said: ‘Now if I get tired or can’t be
bothered, I kept on going so I could get a merit or something, if I self-discipline
myself maybe I get praised or something’ (P8). One of the boys simply said: ‘I feel
good ‘cause teachers give you more merits; I get more merits off some teachers now’
(P9).

Similarly, a different participant said:

‘Before TAP I used to get a lot of detentions and get into trouble and
now I can see that am more focused on task so I am getting more
merits and less detentions with teachers. I feel good about myself
‘cause I know I’m improving at school’ (P2).

In summary, the participants identified several themes related to engagement

that enabled transfer such as motivation to learn skills, the use of sport as a vehicle to
teach life skills and individual development. However, sport choices and boring
lessons were perceived as common barriers. When the participants were asked if they
would change anything about the programme, several said they would change some
of the sports. This was an individual preference and although it did not prove to be a
strong barrier in this study, it might be worth considering in future studies.

5.3.3.5 Transfer experience

Many of the participants highlighted transfer experience as an enabler for
future life skill transfer. Once the participants had successfully transferred one skill
into a different academic environment, they were then motivated to transfer skills
more regularly which was highlighted as an important factor in Gould and Carson’s
(2008) model. The participants were able to identify and recognise changes in their
own behaviour and skill use and linked such changes to the programme. When asked
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about using the skills in other academic situations, they provided the following
responses:

Well TAP helped because sometimes I would go to the lesson and

not concentrate and try and be the class clown and make people
laugh but now I think back to the session we had of rock climbing
and I would say right we need to concentrate and get on with the
work and now it happens easier (P2).

I thought TAP was helpful towards my learning and my lessons at

school. We learnt about persistence. Persistence is helpful in some of
my lessons, really helpful in maths; I don’t really give up easily on a
question now. I have transferred that skill from sports into my
lessons and it has helped a lot. I will keep on transferring it now
(P7).

The boys felt that by participating in TAP and playing sport, the programme
had helped facilitate improvements in the classroom, particularly with their ability to
complete academic work. TAP also made them aware of their behaviour inside the
classroom. One participant even spoke of feelings of relief: ‘I felt relieved using the
skills ‘cause like without TAP I wouldn’t be focusing as much as I can in lessons
now, it’s amazing’ (P8). Making the participants aware of their behaviour and
discussing life skill transfer proved to be a powerful enabler as all of the boys were
able to identify aspects of improvement and they enjoyed the benefits that it brought.

5.3.4 Discussion
Phase 3 explored the perceptions of eighteen participants who had been
involved in the intervention group. TAP was based on the perspective that sport
alone does not teach youths life skills and therefore, TAP sought to deliberately teach
the participants seven life skills through engagement in various sporting activities.
Transfer is a fundamental characteristic of any life skill and a characteristic that
requires more research (Gould and Carson, 2008); TAP aimed to provide some
insight into this concept. More specifically TAP hoped to investigate the concept of
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life skill transfer from the sports hall into the classroom, and identify any perceived
enablers and barriers.

Five higher order themes were identified (see table 5.1):

 Support from peers

 Pride
 Opportunities
 Rewards
 Transfer experience

These five themes are collectively known as the SPORT Model. Gould and
Carson’s (2008) model was used as a framework and guided the transfer aspect of
the programme. The model proved to be a useful tool at the design stage of TAP. It
was discovered that providing a programme that will appeal to the target audience is
an important enabler to any intervention and it was particularly important in TAP.
The programme was a yearlong intervention and the participants engaged with the
full programme mainly because they enjoyed coming to the weekly sessions. Several
of the participants discussed how other students had asked about the programme and
wanted to know if they could join. The member of staff involved in the programme
has not anticipated the number of students that came knocking on her door, asking
what they had to do to be part of the programme. The participants felt as though they
had been a part of something special, a programme they were specifically chosen for,
and this proved to be a powerful enabler.
A number of transfer barriers were highlighted such as boring lessons and
negative teacher attitudes and whilst there are no easy solutions to these barriers, it is
worth noting when designing future school-based, life skill interventions. Although
there were examples and pockets of barriers identified with TAP, many more
enablers were discussed and highlighted during the interviews. Future interventions,
particularly school-based programmes should seek to eliminate many of the barriers
identified in this study. Unlike the findings from previous research that suggest life
skills do not necessarily need direct teaching (Jones and Lavallee, 2009), this study
argues young teenage boys need to be systematically taught about life skills and they
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need to explore ways in which such skills can be transferred into the classroom. The
need for systematic teaching of life skills supports the earlier research by Danish and
Nellen, (1997); Goudas and Giannoudis, (2008); Jones and Lavallee, (2009) and
Petitpas et al, (2005). One can conclude that the participants in this study did not
have any awareness of life skills that could be learnt through sport participation and
transferred into other academic domains. This may change as the participants gain
more experience but for younger participants we support the notion of systematic
teaching of life skills.
The findings of this study can also be supported by the theoretical constructs
of the 5 C’s model devised by Lerner and colleagues (2005). For a more detailed
discussion of the 5 C’s model, see Chapter 1.1.2. The model suggests when all five
concepts are present then a young person will demonstrate positive behaviour
(Lerner et al, 2005). The first concept in the 5 C’s model is competence. The results
demonstrate that the participants in the intervention group where able to develop
their cognitive competence by improving their academic grades (see Chapter 5.1).
The perceived improvement in the use of the seven life skills (see Chapter 5.2) also
suggests that the boy’s in the intervention group may have also improved their
interpersonal skills such as communication and teamwork.
The second concept within the 5 C’s model is confidence. The boy’s in the
intervention group reported a significant improvement in their perceived ability to
use and apply self-confidence and positive self-talk in various domains. Lerner and
colleagues state that ‘an internal sense of overall positive self-worth and self-
efficacy’ is important for positive youth development (Lerner et al, 2005: 23). The
boy’s increase in perceived ability to use the life skills suggests that they developed
the confidence to use the skills during the programmes.
The third concept is connection. Lerner and colleagues state that positive
bonds with people where both parties contribute to the relationship are important.
When planning the programme, the author was aware that a relationship with caring
adults was likely to be an important factor. Research by Petitpas and colleagues
(2005) highlights that context (sport), internal assets (life skills) and external assets
(caring adults) are important aspects of any life skill programme. The role of external
assets was also deemed important by Weiss and colleagues (2013) and whilst we
recognised the importance of this relationship, the boys themselves did not recognise
it. They recognised the relationship with each other as important but did not
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acknowledge any relationship with caring adults during the interviews. It is a

limitation that this study did not explore that relationship further, however, the
relationship with peers during the learning and transfer phase of life skills is an
interesting finding that warrants further research.
The forth concept is character, where the respect for societal and cultural
rules, possession of standards for correct behaviours, a sense of right and wrong
(morality), and integrity are important (Lerner et al, 2005: 23). At the start of TAP it
was clear, the behaviour of some of the participants’ was not deemed to be
acceptable by the school. The boys’ perceived an increase in the ability to use
discipline within the school environment. This was supported by evidence that the
number of detentions that the participants in the intervention group received declined
by 44% when compared to the previous year (see chapter 5.2). This suggests the
boys established a greater respect for the school’s norms, values and rules during the
programme.
The fifth and final concept is compassion or caring where young people are
able to demonstrate a sense of sympathy or empathy for others (Lerner et al, 2005). It
was difficult to establish if the boys were able to display compassion or caring
towards each other but what was apparent from the data collected in the interviews is
the boys in the invention group became friends and they felt as though they are a part
of group. This was articulated by one of the boy’s who said: ‘I was with friends. I
liked it, the programme, it was really fun and it made me feel like I was part of a big
team’ (P4). The boys were encouraged to work together throughout the programme
through the playing of various sports and the interactions in the focus groups. It was
observed that friendships did develop in the early stages of TAP and this promoted
the caring aspect that was important. The findings from this study support the notion
that positive youth development will occur if the concepts included in the 5 C’s are
present and developed as part of a programme.

5.3.5 Chapter summary

This chapter has presented the results from the intervention in three separate
phases. Phase 1 monitored the trajectory of academic grades for both the intervention
group and the comparison group. The results found that the intervention group ended
the programme above teacher prediction whereas the comparison group ended the
year still below teacher expectation and therefore, still underachieving. This
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suggested the programme had influenced the academic achievements of the

intervention group. Phase 2 sought to explore whether the intervention group
perceived to have learnt the seven life skills during the programme. The findings
indicate that the intervention group thought they had learnt the life skills through
sport and could use the skills in the classroom. Phase 3 examined the role of transfer
in further detail and results show that the intervention group participants were able to
identify enablers and barriers that facilitate or hinder life skill transfer. This
information has not been explored before and provides insight for schools and clubs
who look to use sport as a vehicle for positive youth development and life skill
learning. The findings are discussed in further detail in Chapter 6.
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6 CONCLUSION

A teacher effects eternity. They can never tell where their influence ever stops
(Henry Brooke Adams)

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an in-depth discussion of the

findings presented in Chapter 5. Firstly, this chapter explains how this study extends
current understanding and how TAP contributes to theory, research and practice.
Secondly, recommendations for future research and practice are discussed, with a
particular focus on PE teachers and PE teaching. Finally, the limitations of this study
are highlighted.

6.1 Aims of the Study and Key Findings

The overarching aim of the Transfer-Ability Programme was to develop an
understanding of the impact a sport based, life skills intervention may have on
academic performance. More specifically, TAP wanted to determine whether young
people can learn life skills through sport participation and then transfer the life skills
into other academic domains, such as the classroom. These aims were then used to
formulate four specific research questions. The key findings that relate to these aims
are presented below:

Q1 What is the impact of a sports programme on participants’ academic

performance in Science?
 The intervention group made a significant improvement in academic
performance between time point one and time point two, time point two
and time point three, and time point one and time point 3 (see figure 5.1)
 The comparison group made a significant improvement in academic
performance between time point two and time point three and time point
one and time point three but not between time point one and time point
two (see figure 5.1)
 All of the intervention group finished the academic year either at or
above teacher prediction
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 Four of the comparison group finished the academic year at teacher

prediction but eleven finished the year still below teacher prediction and
therefore, were still deemed to be underachieving

Q2 What is the impact of a sports programme on participants’ perceived use of the

life skills?
 The intervention group perceived to have overestimated their ability to
use the seven life skills at the beginning of the programme
 The intervention group perceived to have significantly increased their
ability to use all seven life skills during the programme

Q3 To what extent (if any) do the participants perceive they transferred the life
skills from the sports hall into other school domains?
 The intervention group were able to provide examples of when they had
transferred the life skills into the classroom or other academic domains
 Links between life skill use in the sports hall and the classroom should be
made to help facilitate life skill transfer in young people

Q4 What factors do the participants’ perceive to be enablers and/or barriers of life

skill transfer from the sport halls into other school domains?
 The intervention group were able to identify five main themes relating to
the enablers and barriers of life skill transfer. These themes were Support
from peers, Pride, Opportunities, Rewards and Transfer experience
 The five themes are collectively titled the SPORT model

To summarise, this section began by restating the research questions that TAP
sought to address and explore through various quantitative and qualitative methods.
The key findings from Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3 (see Chapter 5), were then
presented. The next section of this chapter discusses the contribution that this study
can make to existing theory and introduces the SPORT for transfer model.
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6.2 Contribution to Theory

Gould and Carson (2008) identified eight directions for future research; these
directions highlighted the need for:

1. Quantitative and qualitative research

2. The development of valid measures
3. An examination of programme type differences
4. Evaluation research
5. Longitudinal research
6. Studies focusing on identifying theoretical explanations for the life
skill development through sport participation link
7. The utilization of experimental designs
8. The examination of the transferability of life skills

This study addressed several of above directions; in particular the following

were addressed:

 Quantitative and qualitative research

 An examination of programme type differences
 Evaluation research
 Longitudinal research
 The examination of the transferability of life skills

This study used a mixed methods approach in order to gain a more holistic
understanding of the intervention groups’ perceived learning and transfer of the
seven life skills taught during the programme, whilst still being able to statistically
determine the impact TAP had on academic performance. As suggested by Gould
and Carson (2008), no one method will allow us a full understanding due to the
complexity of life skill learning and transfer. In fact, Gould and Carson (2008) state
the use of one method alone will not advance knowledge and the use of one method
could even be counterproductive to knowledge development. By using a mixed
methods approach this study was able to quantify the impact on the participants’
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academic performance and their perceived learning of the seven life skills pre, post
and reflectively. This study was also able to qualitatively explore and understand the
intervention groups’ perceived transfer of the life skills from the sports hall into other
academic domains, adding to the limited existing knowledge on life skill transfer.
Data was collected from multiple sources, in order to determine if all data sources led
to similar findings and/or understanding of the impact TAP had on the participants’
academic performance.
TAP was designed after many hours of research on existing life skill
programmes and utilised the findings from previous experimental designs. A
deductive approach was initially used in order to design the aims, goals, and structure
of the programme. In doing this research it was discovered that existing life skill
programmes varied noticeably in their aims and structure. TAP was an intervention
that sought to develop life skills with one main goal: to positively impact on
academic performance. Although no previous studies could be found with the same
overarching aim as TAP, the findings of this study concur with other studies (e.g.,
Danish, 2002a and Danish and Nellen, 1997) that suggest the deliberate teaching of
life skills in an active environment is beneficial to the participants’ learning.
It was highlighted in the literature review (see Chapter 2.3) that life skills can
be either be taught or caught in sport environments. These opposing concepts suggest
that life skills are either deliberately taught to sport participants or participants
automatically pick up life skills whilst doing sport. The caught approach assumes
that individuals do not need to be taught life skills and such skills can then be
transferred and used in different domains and situations. The traditional idea of
catching life skills was challenged under the assumption that life skills have to be
taught in the same way as physical skills; through modelling and repetition (Danish
and Nellen, 1997). The taught approach is essentially where the coach/teacher
facilitates the deliberate learning of life skills to athletes/students. This study used the
taught approach as it was deemed the most appropriate approach for young
adolescents. It was thought that young people need guidance, to be taught what life
skills are and how to use them in different life domains.
The deliberate teaching of life skills appeared to be an important aspect of
TAP. The interview data revealed that both the participants in intervention group and
the PE teacher involved in the study thought the taught approach had facilitated
learning and transfer of the seven life skills. The PE teacher recognised that the
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intervention group had understood and had some knowledge of the seven life skills
being taught. For example, the boy’s knew about discipline and teamwork and were
able to explain how the skills could be used in PE lessons and sport environments.
Many of the boys had highlighted that they had already used some of the
skills, such as teamwork, in PE on a regular basis. What the boys had initially
struggled to understand was how the life skills used in sport and PE, could also be
used in other academic lessons. This required the participants to learn the skills in
more depth. For example the boys knew about communication but did not realise that
communication included verbal, non-verbal, visual and written forms. They also
knew about setting themselves targets and goals but did not realise goal setting
included short-term and long-term goals and they did not know how to set realistic
goals. At the end of the programme, the PE teacher said that an important aspect of
the programme was that the boys were made aware of the links between PE and the
rest of the curriculum and how life skills could be used across the school domain.
This suggests that future programmes also need to include discussions regarding the
transfer of life skills. The findings from this study indicate that the taught model
alone is not enough. Future school based, life skill programmes should systematically
teach life skills and facilitate discussions around life skill transfer
It is also possible that the boys in the intervention group caught various life
skills by participating in the sporting activities. The boys may have learnt skills such
as time management, commitment, and problem solving skills that were not part of
the life skills taught in the programme. It could be that the intervention group just
picked up or caught these skills through their participation without the skills being
identified or discussed. Therefore, one argues that the taught aspect of the
programme may not have been the only method that the intervention group learnt
skills. However, it is likely that the taught method was the most effective way of
facilitating life skill transfer. When the boys in the intervention group were asked,
during the interviews, if they had learnt any other skills, they unanimously replied
no, they had not learnt any other skills. This supports the notion that although life
skills may possibly be caught during sport participation, such skills are unlikely to be
recognised and transferred, unless the life skills are taught.
The findings from this study suggest that the cause of underachievement may
not be due to factors discussed within the literature review (see Chapter 2.1) but due
to a lack of life skills. The most cited causes of underachievement are fixed variables
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that cannot be changed such as gender and ethnicity or factors that cannot be easily
addressed such as family structure, socio-economic status, poverty and social class.
This has caused problems when trying to eradicate underachievement based on these
factors. However, it may be possible that factors such as family structure, poverty
and social class mean children are not provided with the appropriate life skills they
need to succeed in academic environments.
The participants involved in this study were from various ethnic backgrounds
and included students receiving and not receiving free school meals (free school
meals are used an indicator of socio-economic status). The cause of
underachievement was not clear in this study unless underachievement was caused as
a direct result of the participant’s gender. However, the cause of underachievement
was not a concern, this study wanted to explore the role of life skills and to determine
if life skill transfer may be a possible solution to underachievement. The programme
provided the boys in the intervention group an opportunity to learn and explore seven
life skills that were related to the school environment and were life skills the school
thought the boys were lacking.
Children live complex lives and a number of uncontrollable factors could
have impacted upon the participants’ academic performance. However, the results
presented in Phase 1 show the intervention group as a whole increased their
academic performance to a level where they were no longer underachieving. The
comparison group however, were still underachieving at the end of the programme.
This suggests that underachievement may be about a lack of life skills needed in the
school environment and not necessarily about factors such as ethnicity and socio-
economic status. Although these factors may influence the type and number of life
skills a child is taught during their childhood. The findings from this study suggest
that life skills could present a new approach to underachievement, particularly when
trying to reduce underachievement in UK schools.
This section has explained how this study has contributed to the literature by
addressing several of the gaps highlighted by Gould and Carson (2008). This section
has also demonstrated that the taught concept may be the most appropriate method to
use with adolescents and young people and is the most likely method to facilitate life
skill transfer from one environment into another life domain. This study has shown
that young people are unlikely to make the links between skills learnt in PE and skills
that can be used in other school environments. It appears that students think skills
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learnt in PE can only be used in PE. Finally, this section suggests that teaching young
people life skills related to the school environment may eradicate underachievement.
It is possible that P.E teachers, especially in the UK, are missing opportunities to
teach their students important life skills that could be used across the curricular. The
next section highlights the ways in which TAP has contributed to existing research.

6.3 Contribution to Existing Research

This thesis contributes to existing research by demonstrating that young
people can learn life skills in a sporting environment and then use the life skills
across various academic domains. Phase two explored whether the intervention
group perceived their ability to use the seven life skills to have increased throughout
the programme. The findings from Phase 2 suggest that the boys perceived their life
skills to have significantly improved during TAP, highlighting that such skills can be
taught in sport. These findings support those of earlier work (Danish and Nellen,
1997; Goudas and Giannoudis, 2008; Jones and Lavallee, 2009 and Petitpas et al,
2005). Phase two also explored whether the intervention group thought they had used
the life skills in other academic domains.
Although the intervention group participants were eligible for the study as
they were deemed to be underachieving in Science, the seven life skills were not
selected to help the boys in only Science. The school management team selected
some of the life skills as it was thought the boys lacked specific skills that they
thought were important in the school environment, such as discipline and persistence.
Other skills such as goal setting and self-confidence were selected through existing
life skill research, such as the GOAL and SUPER programmes (Danish and Nellen,
1997; Danish, 2002a; 2002b; 2002c). However, no other study could be found that
sought to teach so many life skills and was designed to specifically improve
academic performance. The use of the Science grades in TAP was only used to
recruit the boys (the school has the largest number of underachievers in Science) and
to monitor academic trajectory across the school year.
During the interviews undertaken at the end of TAP, the intervention group
highlighted a number of curricular subjects in which they thought they had used the
life skills taught during the programme. Some of the boys said they had used skills
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such as discipline, goal setting, and concentration in all of their lessons. Other
examples included using concentration in examinations, and using teamwork when
completing group tasks more effectively. Further examples show the boys used the
skills in English, Science, Mathematics, Information Computer Technology (ICT),
Religious Studies, History, Spanish, PE, Art, Drama and Geography. This suggests
that the life skills included in TAP did not just have a direct impact upon the boys’
Science grades but also helped more generally over the whole curriculum. It may be
possible that the programme had a similar impact on academic performance across
the whole curriculum or it may even have had a more significant impact on certain
subjects. Future research should seek to determine if certain life skills have more or
less of a significant impact on certain subjects or if the impact is similar across all
subjects.
Within the literature review (see Chapter Two: 2.2.4), it was argued that sport
might have a positive impact upon academic performance (Bailey, 2006; Trudeau
and Shephard, 2008 and Rasberry et al, 2011). It was also argued that life skills are
important for youth development and may also have a positive impact on academic
performance (Jones and Lavallee, 2009) (see Chapter Two: 2.3.5). It is important for
future research to continue to explore such statements. Was it the use of sports that
was important, as suggested by Marsh’s (1993) Athletic Participation model, or was
it the teaching of the seven life skills that was important in TAP? It can be claimed
that by using both the possible impact on academic performance would be more
likely but sport was mainly used during the programme as a vehicle to engage the
boys in the intervention group and to teach them life skills in a practical environment
rather than a classroom.
Petitpas and colleagues (2005) highlighted that context (sport), internal assets
(life skills) and external assets (caring adults) are important aspects of any life skill
programme. Particular attention was paid to the context and ensuring the internal and
external assets would be effective when planning TAP. The female PE teacher
involved in the programme was to be the external asset to the participants when the
author was not present in the school. The role of external assets is deemed to be
particularly important (Weiss et al, 2013) and whilst the author recognised the
importance of this relationship, the boys themselves did not recognise it. They
recognised the relationship with each other as important but did not acknowledge any
relationship with caring adults during the interviews. It is a limitation that this study
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did not explore that relationship further, however, the relationship with peers during
the learning and transfer phase of life skills is an interesting finding that warrants
further research.
More generally, this study has informed future research when designing
school based research methodology. It is possible that other school based
interventions, particularly life skill programmes may benefit from using the same
methodological procedures that were used in this study. The use of longitudinal
research would provide schools with sufficient time to engage with their pupils and
then allow students to practice/ implement the programme outcomes. The use of
mixed methods would also provide an in-depth and holistic understanding.
Qualitative data such as the interviews and focus groups conducted with the students,
the teacher and the parent provided insightful, rich data about the use of life skills
and the experiences the students encountered when transferring the life skills. The
quantitative data such as the academic grades and life skill research provided
statistical information on the impact of the intervention. It is possible that other
school-based interventions would equally benefit from using mixed methods and
including a range of data sources.
To summarise, this study has made several contributions to existing research,
TAP has demonstrated that young people can learn life skills in a sports environment
and then transfer the life skills into other academic domains (i.e., the classroom).
TAP supports the findings from previous research (Danish and Nellen, 1997; Goudas
and Giannoudis, 2008; Jones and Lavallee, 2009 and Petitpas et al, 2005) and agrees
that young people need to be deliberately taught life skills. The role of external assets
(caring adults) is deemed to be particularly important when working with young
people but this relationship was not recognised by the participants in this study.
However, the boys identified the relationship with each other as an important
enabler. Future research should seek to explore the importance of relationships with
caring adults and amongst peers. Finally, whilst recent research has started to explore
new areas of life skill interventions such as the thoughts of the coach, and qualitative
research has looked at the impact on athletes, there are still significant gaps within
existing life skill research. Future research recommendations are presented in section
6.7. The next section of this chapter discusses the contribution TAP has made to
practice and provides guidance to schools that may wish to deliver a similar
intervention.
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6.4 Contribution to Practice

This study has implications for government and policy, the PE National
Curriculum and PE teachers, and schools who may wish to develop a similar
programme to TAP. These implications are discussed below.

6.4.1 Government and policy

As highlighted in Chapter 1, the current Coalition government has made
several changes to school sport and PE provision in England and Wales. In 2012,
Jeremy Hunt who at the time was the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics,
Media and Sport, expressed the governments desire to promote a competitive spirit
within schools and to make PE lessons more performance driven and to contain a
competitive nature. This was to be encouraged through the introduction of the School
Games initiative, where Olympic- style events allow schools to compete against each
other.
Bailey and colleagues (2009) critically reviewed the claims that PE can
develop physical, social, affective and cognitive skills, qualities and knowledge. The
review was supportive of the potential of PE however; it was not supportive of the
overall developmental benefits students gain in their PE lessons. The review argues
that only physical skills are enhanced through PE. Whitehead and Woodhouse (2010)
claim PE teachers still focus heavily on physical skills and whilst these skills
underpin PE, PE teachers are not helping their students towards a full and effective
future if the broader aims and skills of PE are neglected. However, the government’s
plans for more competitive PE lessons will only serve to make PE teachers focus
solely on their students’ physical skills, possibly at the sacrifice of holistic learning.
Jacobs, Knoppers and Webb (2013) have suggested that the educational
policy and PE teacher education programmes throughout Europe do not equip
teachers with sufficient knowledge to systematically integrate social development
into their lesson plans. PE teachers are not formally trained to socially and
psychosocially develop children and the NC provides little guidelines on how to
accomplish such teaching. This is worrying as it is unlikely that the UK government
will provide additional support to trainee PE teachers and with the introduction of
competitive PE, it appears social, affective and cognitive skills will not be a priority
for PE teachers.
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As discussed in the introduction of this thesis (see Chapter 1), UK

governments have tried to use sport to ‘fix’ problems such as social welfare, public
health and national regeneration for many years. The political interest in sport began
over fifty years and in that time many strategies, policies and interventions have
come and gone. Government parties have also tried to change the perceptions,
importance and values associated with PE in both primary and secondary schools in
England and Wales. Although further research is needed to determine the impact of
life skill learning and transfer on academic performance, the findings of TAP suggest
that life skill training for the PE teachers should be supported and encouraged.
Whilst the NC expresses that PE teachers should make links between PE and other
subjects and areas of the curriculum, the NC does not provide support or details on
how teachers should do this. Despite the lack of guidance and training, PE teachers
should not be deterred from delivering life skills training to their students if they
desire to do so. The SPORT model for transfer (see section 6.5.3) may provide
schools and PE teachers with support when delivering sports based, life skills
programmes/ life skill based PE lessons.

6.4.2 The PE National Curriculum (NC) and PE teachers

It is widely recognised that PE teachers should develop physical and sporting
skills, teach children how to play a variety of sports, motivate students to be active
and prepare students for life-long participation in physical activity. However, is the
teaching of sports and games the only role a PE teacher has? Although their love of
sport and physical activity is probably what drives many individuals to become PE
teachers, the National Curriculum (NC) states they do have other roles to fulfil.
Whitehead and Woodhouse (2010), argue that a PE teacher is not just a PE teacher
and that every PE teacher has wider responsibilities to their pupils and the school.
The aim of the PE teacher in England, as stated by Whitehead and Woodhouse
(2010: 220) ‘is to enable all pupils to become successful learners, confident
individuals and responsible citizens’. In order to achieve this, the UK government
have identified six personal learning and thinking skills (PLTS) that should be
promoted in PE (Whitehead and Woodhouse, 2010). The six PLTS are:
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1. Independent Inquirers
2. Creative Thinkers
3. Reflective Learners
4. Team Workers
5. Self-managers
6. Effective Participants

The government claims that the PLTS framework allows individuals to

develop the essential skills of: managing self; managing relationships with others;
and managing own learning, performance and work. The UK government argues
these skills will enable young people to enter work and adult life as confident and
capable individuals. The aim of the framework is that every student between the ages
of 11-19 years old should apply skills from each of the six groups to a wide range of
learning contexts.
The NC recognises the wider roles of PE and PE teachers by stating that:
‘learning and undertaking activities in physical education (PE) contribute to
achievement of the curriculum aims for all young people to become:

 Successful learners who enjoy learning, make progress and achieve

 Confident individuals who are able to live safe, healthy and fulfilling
lives
• Responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society’.
(DfES, 2007: 189)

The NC also states (DfES, 2007: 195): that ‘during the key stage pupils should
be offered the following opportunities that are integral to their learning and enhance
their engagement with the concepts, processes and content of the subject. The
curriculum should provide opportunities for pupils to:

 Get involved in a broad range of different activities that, in

combination, develop the whole body
• Experience a range of roles within a physical activity
• Specialise in specific activities and roles
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• Follow pathways to other activities in and beyond school

• Perform as an individual, in a group or as part of a team in formal
competitions or performances to audiences beyond the class
• Use ICT as an aid to improving performance and tracking progress
• Make links between PE and other subjects and areas of the
curriculum’.
(DfES, 2007: 195)

If the role of PE is to deliver the National Curriculum then it is the role of the
PE teacher to make links between PE and other subjects and areas of the curriculum.
The findings of this study suggest that PE teachers may be well placed to teach their
students various life skills that they can use in other subjects and in other areas of the
curriculum. In order to do this PE teachers would have to make their students aware
of the skills they are learning during their PE lessons and make sure links between
PE and the rest of the curriculum are developed. Discussions about the transfer of life
skills will also need to be incorporated into PE lessons. The findings from TAP
suggest that boys prefer to learn such skills whilst active rather than learning skills in
a classroom environment but that is not to say a similar sports-based programme
would not be as equally effective with girls. Hills (2006) explored girls’ perceptions
of PE and maintains that generally, girls are now participating in more physical
activities and are enjoying playing sports that have typically been regarded as male
sports such as football. If PE lessons focus on life skills and holistic learning rather
than just physical skills as suggested by Bailey (2009) then girls may be more
inclined to participate in physical education classes. What is clear from this study is
that PE is well placed to teach wider skills as long as PE lessons are designed to do
so.
Therefore to briefly summarise, the findings of this study suggest that PE
teachers should look to develop various life skills in their students and incorporate
life skills training into their PE lessons. Despite a lack of teacher training and support
from UK governments, if PE teachers develop their students’ use of life skills and
make the links between skill use in PE and skill use in other academic domains, then
they will be going some way to deliver the aims set out in the National Curriculum.
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6.4.3 Guidance for schools

This study ensured that the teaching staff at the Case Study school had not
been made aware of TAP’s intentions. It was essential that teachers across the school
did not concentrate their efforts or provide students on the programme with
additional support. At the end of TAP, a variety of teachers who taught the boys on a
regular basis, recognised that students in the intervention group had learnt new skills
and had improved their concentration and communication in the classroom. The most
notable change however, was an increase in discipline, with a 44% reduction in
detentions when comparing the group from Year 7 to Year 8. The boys themselves
had recognised a difference in their own behaviour and attitude to school and they
also thought their parents had noticed a difference. Whilst interviewing one parent, it
was clear that although she knew little about the purpose of the programme, she
spoke very positively about her son’s engagement with TAP and had recognised
significant improvements in his academic performance. Using sport and P.E lessons
to make students aware of different life skills and discussing how to apply such skills
to other academic domains may help them to succeed across the whole school
domain. It is possible that within school, it is P.E teachers who are best suited to
teaching life skills, especially with students who enjoy and value their P.E lessons.
The qualitative findings from TAP have led to the development of a model
that can be used when promoting life skill use in an academic setting. The
transferability of life skills was examined, as suggested by Gould and Carson (2008)
and the findings led to the development of the SPORT Model for Life Skill Transfer.
It is possible that other schools that wish to implement similar life skill interventions
could use the SPORT model. The model includes five factors that schools may want
to consider and develop in order to facilitate the successful transfer of life skills from
one academic domain into another. These factors are Support from peers, Pride,
Opportunities, Rewards, and Transfer experience. The following section may provide
schools with information they may wish to consider when designing and
implementing life skill programmes. The SPORT model should be implemented in
consideration with the 5 C’s of positive youth development.
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6.4.3.1 Information for Schools implementing life skill programmes

The support the intervention group participants got from their group peers
was an important aspect of the programme. The boys highlighted both the support
and the idea’s they received from each other during the focus group as a facilitator of
transfer. The support they also received from each other during the school week and
away from the programme helped them to engage within their academic subjects and
continued their engagement with the programme. It is important that students
experience an element of self-discovery learning that is supported by their peers.
Allowing students to think and discuss life skill transfer amongst themselves appears
to make transfer seem more achievable and provides students with ideas and options
on how and when to use the life skills in other domains.
Pride also appeared to be influential and a motivator for life skill transfer. The
participants in the intervention group initially expressed feelings of pride just for
being selected for the programme. TAP was highly regarded around the school and
many students wanted to be part of the programme as it was seen as a cool thing to
do after school. This helped to maintain the interest of the intervention group of the
full academic year.
During the interviews, the intervention group regularly discussed feelings of
pride as an enabler of transfer. The boys explained that they experienced feelings of
internal pride when they had successfully transferred the skill but they were also
proud when external others highlighted their improvements. The majority of the
intervention group participants felt proud when their parents had become aware of
improvements in their behaviour and/ or academic performance. Some of the boys
also felt proud when teachers had recognised their improvements. Making sure that
students feel proud of their achievements and have an opportunity to recognise the
personal developments they experience is important as it is these proud feelings that
provide the students with the motivation to continue with a programme.
The boys in the intervention group discussed the opportunities that they had
been given by participating in the programme. They explained which opportunities
enabled transfer and how some of the opportunities prevented transfer of the life
skills from the sports hall into the classroom. These opportunities included:
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 Learning experiences
 Transfer opportunities
 Sport choices
 Teacher attitudes
 Boring lessons

It was apparent during the interviews that the boy’s in the intervention group
valued the learning of the life skills during the programme and enjoyed the
environment in which they were taught the life skills. Every sport session provided
the boys with an opportunity to learn and practice a life skill. Every third week they
would discuss amongst themselves, in a focus group setting, how they could use the
skill in the classroom and were regularly encouraged to transfer the skill into other
academic domains. Due to the longitudinal nature of the programme, the boys were
able to experience many transfer opportunities and this appeared to be an important
facilitator of life skill transfer.
Using sport as a vehicle to teach life skills was important in order to engage
the intervention group in the programme. It became apparent early on in the
programme that many of the boys were becoming or had already become disengaged
with school, particularly in the classroom. The behaviour of many of the boys in the
classroom was a concern for the school. Behaviour reports for several of the
participants commented on the lack of engagement in activities in the classroom and
with their homework tasks. Talking to the boys themselves it was clear that many of
them did not think they should listen to their teachers and/or had little respect for
many members of the teaching staff. What was apparent was that the boys enjoyed
their PE lessons. At the beginning of TAP, fourteen of the boys (out of the twenty
boys that started the programme) were attending trials for various teams that the
school had including football, cricket, rugby and athletics. That is not to say that the
boys would not have engaged in a programme that was not sports based but by using
activities that they enjoyed and valued was definitely an important facilitator of
programme engagement and life skill transfer.
As well as enablers of life skill transfer, the intervention group were also able
to identify factors that could prove to be barriers of life skill transfer. The
participants found that certain teacher attitudes were a barrier for transfer. Some of
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the boys explained that they found some teachers did not allow them or provide them
with opportunities to use the skills in their classrooms. The participants identified
negative teacher attitudes throughout the programme and it was often discussed to
why some teachers had negative attitudes towards certain students and what the
intervention group participants could do in certain circumstances. Also identified by
the boys, as a barrier to life skill transfer, was boring classroom lessons. Several of
the boys discussed their lack of enthusiasm and the difficulties they experienced in
classrooms which they did not find interesting and found it difficult to transfer the
life skills in these circumstances. They found they could not fully concentrate as they
‘switch off’ or disengage with the lesson. Although the boys in the intervention
group identified negative teacher attitudes and boring lessons as a barrier, it did not
prevent life skill transfer and many of the boys thought they could deal with these
situations better at the end of the programme than they could at the start of TAP.
Students should be provided with numerous opportunities to learn life skills, and to
experience transfer. In order to maximise life skill transfer, negative teacher attitudes
and boring lessons should be avoided, if possible, but more importantly students
should discuss how to effectively deal with such situations.
Rewards were important to the participants in the intervention group and they
came in both intrinsic and extrinsic forms. The boys were initially motivated to
engage in the programme due to the opportunity to play sport on a weekly basis.
However, as the programme began in earnest, the boys found the intrinsic rewards
they were receiving enhanced their motivation to learn more life skills. The
intervention groups’ motivation to learn also stemmed from their recognition of
individual development. The boys in the intervention group were able to identify
when they had transferred the life skills and recognised the improvements they had
personally made. Such improvements appeared to have had an impact on their
engagement with the programme and their desire to learn.
In addition to intrinsic rewards, the intervention group also enjoyed receiving
extrinsic rewards. These rewards were often school-based rewards that the boys
received from their classroom teachers such as merits for good work and/or
behaviour, verbal comments made directly to the boys, and written comments in their
classroom workbooks. Interestingly the boys also thought by receiving fewer
detentions from their teachers that they were receiving a reward by not being
punished. The school-based rewards were well received and welcomed by the
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intervention group and it appears that such rewards reinforced their engagement and
learning within the programme. Providing students with extrinsic rewards may help
to motivate and prolong engagement but intrinsic motivation should be promoted, if
and when possible. Helping students to identify their individual development may
promote their motivation to learn more life skills.
The final enabler of transfer that the boys’ in the intervention group identified
was the transfer experiences they encountered on the programme. The programme
was specifically designed in order to teach the boys the seven life skills, allow them
time to practice the life skill in a sporting environment, discuss amongst themselves
how and when transfer might be possible and advantageous, and finally TAP allowed
the participants plenty of time to practice and experience using the life skills within
other academic domains. The yearlong intervention was long enough for the boys to
realise that life skill transfer was possible and achievable and provided them with
support throughout the learning process. Allowing the students to have sufficient
time to learn and transfer life skills into another domain is important. If schools do
deliver life skill training as part of their PE lessons then they need to ensure that
students are not rushed when learning the skills, allowing plenty of time to discuss
transfer and allowing the students to transfer the skills as and when they feel
confident to do so.
To summarise, this section has looked at the contribution TAP has made to
current practice. This study has provided schools and teachers with a model they can
implement in order to promote the transfer of life skills from the sports hall into the
classroom. If schools want to deliver similar programmes or deliver certain aspects
of TAP in their PE lessons then the model will provide an insight of the elements that
facilitated life skill transfer in this study. It is important that schools plan a
programme or a series of PE lessons that are relevant to their own students. TAP was
designed with a specific aim and a group of students in mind. Schools should tailor
their own programmes rather than try to replicate TAP in its entirety. Whilst the
previous sections have identified the ways in which this study has made a
contribution to theory, research and practice, the next section provides a critical
evaluation of the programme.
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6.5 A critical evaluation and reflection of the intervention

This section aims to provide a critical evaluation of the intervention and
highlight some of the challenges and difficulties experienced throughout the research
process. Specifically, this section will evaluate the dose, cost, fidelity, delivery of the
intervention, and the problems with using underachievement as a measure.
As with any intervention, the dose provided to the participants must be
evaluated. The dose of TAP was deemed sufficiently long enough to answer the
research questions this study was seeking to answer. The programme was long
enough:

 To build a rapport and gain the trust of the young participants

 For the participants to feel comfortable with each other
 For the participants to learn the seven life skills
 To become cost effective for the school in terms of time saved in detentions
and time spent dealing with problematic behaviour from the participants in
class
 For a change in academic achievement to be observed

A change in academic achievement was observed at the end of term one (time
point two), however all of the students were still underachieving at time point two.
Therefore TAP needed to continue until the next wave of academic data was
collected at time point three, to determine if the participants could obtain a grade that
matched their predicted level and no longer deemed to be underachieving in Science.
With regards to fidelity, TAP was delivered as described in this thesis, as the
author was present throughout the whole process. The author designed the
programme and was present at every sport session. This situation meant the author
was both the deliverer and the researcher throughout the programme. There was an
invested interest for the intervention to be delivered as described. Future studies
should look to train PE teachers to deliver the programme and assess if fidelity
remains.
The dual-role of researcher and programme deliverer resulted in several
challenges and limitations. Research is rarely a linear, seamless and neat process and
it was apparent early in the process that TAP was not going to be an exception.
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Finding a school was problematic and time consuming. In total, twenty-one

secondary schools across London and surrounding counties were contacted. Fifteen
schools did not provide a reply, four schools declined to participate, and two schools
demonstrated an interest. The school that was selected was the most appropriate in
terms of the number of underachievers. It was due to the difficulties in finding a
school and the time consuming process that compromises were made when the
school insisted on allocating the participants to the intervention and comparison
groups.
Cross-infection was deemed to be highly unlikely during TAP as the
programme was really one that had to be experienced. It is possible that the boys in
the intervention group did discuss the programme with the boys in the comparison
group, although it is unlikely that conversations alone would have had an impact on
the comparison groups’ ability to use the seven life skills. The teachers at the school
were also unlikely to cross-infect the study, as many of the teachers were not aware
of TAP. The PE department was particularly isolated within the school structure and
as a result many teachers showed little interest in what the PE team were delivering.
The senior management team was aware of TAP but had little motivation to promote
the programme across the school, as they were reluctant to highlight
underachievement within the school. It was also important that the participants were
not labeled as underachievers. As a result, the participants positively received the
programme and cross-infection was highly unlikely due to the programme design.
As with many PhD. studies, resources were limited, which is why the author
had a dual role. As a result, the cost of TAP was minimal. The coaches and the
researcher in this study were not paid. The only cost incurred was for the sports
facilities at Brunel University and small quantities of specialist equipment such as a
goalball and frisbees. As it is not the intention for schools to replicate this study in its
entirety, schools could use the equipment and facilities they already own. If the
teaching of life skills were incorporated into the daily teaching of physical education,
then there would be no extra cost to the school or the PE teachers in terms of time or
labour costs. The only cost that the school would have to consider is the initial
training costs for the PE teachers in order for them to become competent in teaching
life skills. The intervention however, would be based on an economy scale, the more
students who receive the intervention the more cost effective the intervention will
become. It is also worth noting that a programme similar to TAP has the potential to
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impact upon a variety of academic subjects, not just Science making the programme
exceptionally cost effect when considering the potential benefits.

6.5.1 Problematizing the concept of Underachievement

It was highlighted in the literature review (see Chapter Two) that
underachievement is does not have a universal definition and there are several issues
that must be considered when trying to determine if and when underachievement is
present. Underachievement was used in this study due to the attention surrounding
male underachievement and the prevalence of underachievement in UK schools. As
the PhD was funded by Brunel University, it was a requirement of the bursary/
funding that the project was based on underachievement. However, the inclusion of
underachievement did present several problems.
The school selected all the eligible participants in this study based on gender,
age and the fact that all the participants were underachieving by at least one sub-level
in Science. The participants’ Science teacher’s identified the boys as underachieving
because their assessment grades and academic work was regarded to be of a standard
below teacher prediction/ expectation. However as the literature review
demonstrated, teacher predication is a subjective measure that can be influenced by
many factors (see Chapter Two, section 2.1.4).
Underachievement is often based the discrepancy between actual achievement
and potential achievement but how potential ever be predicted accurately? How can
teachers accurately predict what a child is capable of achieving? It has been argued
that it is not logical to separate potential behaviour from actual behaviour (West and
Pennell, 2003). Despite the fact that underachievement is problematic, teachers can
and often do calculate whether their pupils’ achievement is or is not in line with their
potential ability. However, such judgements are regularly subjective and perceptions
of underachievement vary systematically by age, sex and ethnicity (West and
Pennell, 2013). Not only are schools using mental-ability testing to determine
underachievement despite methodological uncertainties, they also ‘invest and expect
a great deal from them’ (Smith, 2007: 114). It appears that despite the shortcomings
in accurately predicating underachievement, schools will continue to be interested in
the concept for many years to come.
In hindsight, underachievement is far more complex than I had first
anticipated. I attempted to provide an overview of underachievement in the literature
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review (see Chapter Two) although it is by no means a comprehensive list. This

study may have been less problematic if low achievers were used as opposed to
underachievers. Using low achievement would be a less problematic concept to use
as low achievement based on academic results and does not rely on teachers’
subjective predictions. Smith (2007) argues for schools to move away from using
underachievement and concentrate more effectively on low achievement. However,
Smith (2007) also states that the impact schools can realistically have on low
achievement is questionable. Therefore underachievement provides an easier
challenge for schools to overcome.

6.6 Limitations
This study experienced the realities, difficulties and complications of
conducting research with adolescents in an education setting. Whilst promising, the
findings presented in Chapter 5 should be read with some caution as the study had
several limitations that need to be acknowledged. Firstly the eligibility criteria for the
study resulted in a small sample size. Although the sample size was appropriate to
address the qualitative research questions (some may argue that the sample size was
actually large for qualitative analysis), the sample size was relatively low for
quantitative analysis. The small sample size and the use of one school have made the
results from this study impossible to generalise to larger populations.
Working in an education environment can often be problematic, in reality the
school and its staff were found to be very supportive and engaged, however
compromises were made and some challenges were experienced throughout the
programme. Many of the challenges faced were not the fault of the school or the
researcher but occurred as result of conducting research within a school. During the
programme, teachers were undertaking strike action against pension changes and as a
result the school was closed on several days throughout the year. This resulted in one
session being cancelled, which delayed the start of the sport sessions. One session
had to be cancelled as the school was closed due to adverse weather conditions, and
one session was cancelled due to facility issues. Whilst these cancelations were
challenging in terms of scheduling, it did not have a negative impact on the
intervention.
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Due to the nature of the programme, the school wanted to take control of
randomly assigning students to the intervention and comparison group. This resulted
in design issues when analysing the results. The intervention group and the
comparison group were not identically matched and did not start the year at the same
performance level. As discussed briefly in the results section (see Chapter 5, Phase 1)
it was considered that using an ANCOVA would provide a control for the pre-
existing differences between the baseline grades of the comparison group and the
intervention group (see Chapter 5, Fig. 5.1) for baseline differences). However an
ANCOVA had to be ruled out due to uneven group sizes, non-linear relationships
and the lack of an independent covariant (Tabachnick and Fidell, 2013). It is entirely
possible that the discrepancies between the intervention and comparison group were
a result of random allocation but it is possible that the school ensured the participants
who were underachieving the most were deliberately assigned to the intervention
group. It is a limitation of this study that the school controlled the assigning of
participants. Future research should seek to allocate students using a matched-pairs
method.
Phase 2 of the study introduced some new limitations, particularly when the
participants provided examples of life skill transfer. All the participants were able to
identify experiences of using each life skill in the classroom, whilst this initially
seemed positive, on reflection it did not mean life skill use was directly linked to
TAP. It is highly possible that the participants had used the life skill in the classroom
but it is also possible such use was not a direct transfer from the sports hall into other
academic domains. It is possible that discussions alone on life skill transfer may be
sufficient and therefore further research is needed to explore the role of sport
sessions and identify the different processes of life skill transfer.
Phase 3 also brought several limitations. In particular, the interview data only
came from 18 participants, whilst this is a large qualitative sample, the sample size
does not allow generalisations to be made. It should not be assumed that
interventions similar to TAP would yield similar findings. TAP hoped to explore the
perceived enablers and barriers of life skill transfer from a sporting environment into
an academic context. Findings however, come from the participants’ retrospective
recall of the programme and may not be a true representation of enablers and
barriers.
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Another limitation of this study was that the intervention group may have
experienced a halo effect due to increased attention from teachers, coaches and the
main researcher. It is possible that increased attention from adults alone may have
had some influence on the adolescent male students. With this in mind, the fact that
the author of this study conducted most of the sport sessions and the interviews may
also have proved to be a limitation. Although every effort was taken to avoid leading
questions the qualitative findings should be read with some caution. It is possible that
the boy’s had wanted to please the researcher with their responses. When asked if
they thought they had transferred the life skill from the sports hall into the classroom,
many of the responses appeared to be very positive such as ‘I feel that I can use all
the skills that we learnt and I can take them into lessons and not just in school but out
of school as well’ or 'since the start of TAP I have started concentrating in every
single lesson’. It is possible that due to the young age of the participants, they wanted
to please the interviewer and provided answers they thought the interviewer wanted
to hear rather than what they really thought.
It was hoped that the dual-role would allow rapport to develop between the
researcher and participants. However, this relationship between participants and
researcher raised questions with regards to the trustworthiness of the data and the
potential problems linked to over-rapport. In an attempt to prevent over-rapport, a
member of the research team acted as a ‘critical friend’ as suggested by Sparkes and
Smith (2014). This researcher had no contact with the participants or the school and
was able to help guard against researcher bias. Due to the age of the participants,
rapport was vital and whilst the author recognises the limitations of rapport,
particularly with young people, rapport was an important and preferable aspect of
TAP, particularly during the interview phase of data collection. However, this
rapport may have led to a cause/effect situation, where the participants only engaged
in the programme because they had a positive relationship with the researcher. This
relationship needs to be explored further as it may have future implications on
reliability and fidelity.
The study was not able to determine the extent of the halo effect, if any, but it
is advised that it should be taken into consideration. It was hoped that the academic
grades for both the intervention group and comparison group would have been
available at the end of Year 9. However, the school did not have the resources to
provide this and due to time constraints the grades were not available to be part of
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this thesis. As it is possible that a halo effect may have contributed to the positive
findings and future research should seek to explore and determine the extent of a
halo effect. Gaining academic grades at the end of Year 9 would have also provided
more information on the long-term benefits of the programme. This information
would have helped to determine if the life skills learnt in TAP were sustainable. In
summary, this chapter has presented the limitations of this study, the next section
makes suggestions for future research.

6.7 Further Research

Pfeifer and Cornelißen (2010) highlighted the need for European research to
be conducted and this study sought to address the gap in UK literature. However
future research is needed in order to generalise results on a national scale. This study
was based on selective criteria. The intervention was developed based on media
coverage and the UK political agenda surrounding male underachievement in
particular, therefore only male students were included. That is not to say that a sport
programme would not benefit academic performance in female students. Future
studies should seek to address the link between school sport participation and
academic performance for both sexes within UK schools.
Whilst the results of TAP are promising, further research on transfer is
merited. TAP looked specifically at young people learning life skills in a school
sports environment and transferring such skills into an academic sphere such as the
classroom. Further research should seek to examine the extent of life skill transfer
into other life domains. The participants in TAP were also younger than those in
previous life skill programmes/interventions. TAP shows that participants who are
12-13 year olds can understand, learn and transfer life skills from the sports hall into
the classroom as long as such skills are systematically taught. The participants were
also able to identify enablers and barriers that facilitated or prevented transfer. Future
research should seek to examine the optimal age in which life skill transfer can have
the most impact on academic achievement. We also support Jones and Lavallee’s
(2009) recommendation that future research should look to determine the importance
of experience in life skill awareness and transfer.
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TAP did not control for ethnicity but future research should seek to determine
the effect of ethnicity and race on academic achievement. As highlighted in the
literature review (see Chapter 2) the effects of ethnicity and ethnic subgroups is well
documented and it is possible that TAP had a different impact on academic
performance for different ethnic groups. This is even more possible if the students
are experiencing negative teacher attitudes, which was also discussed in the literature
review. In addition to ethnicity, TAP did not control for socio-economic status. This
was also discussed in the literature review as a possible causation of
underachievement. Out of the nineteen intervention group participants that finished
the programme, only seven of the participants received free school meals (FSM).
FSM is a basic indicator of low socio-economic status. This suggests FSM was not
an influential indicator when selecting the participants. However, future research
should seek to examine the effects of socio-economic status in more detail.
Whilst Gould and Carson (2008) highlight the importance of quantitative
research to determine the scale and scope of individual personal development,
limitations do arise when discussing such findings. Understanding the level of
benefit individuals experience would allow for the development and implementation
of more beneficial and realistic programmes. Not all individuals will have the same
experience and/or experience the same level of benefit on the same programme.
Gould and Carson (2008: 69) argue that finding the mean percentage of participants
who experience specific types of personal gains (e.g. enhanced self-esteem,
leadership skills, and work ethic) from the youth sports experience would be
valuable. Whilst this is a valid recommendation and such knowledge would be
valuable, there is no standard tool for measuring such benefit, making it impossible
to generalise findings from other studies. Therefore, future research should look to
develop a gold standard measuring tool that could be used to determine the level of
benefit each participant experiences on a life skill programme. In agreement with
Gould and Carson (2008) both self-report measures and observational instruments
that can be used in various sport contexts are needed in order to further our
understanding of life skill programmes and the benefit young people may experience
by participating in such programmes.
Whilst the sport sessions were an important part of TAP, future research
should examine the role of sport and attempt to determine if sport is needed at all.
This study was able to engage the boys in a way that would have been difficult in a
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classroom environment. It was the sports and the active sessions that the boys in the
intervention group enjoyed the most and the sport sessions were what kept them
engaged throughout the whole academic year. However, it is possible that the
participants may also have found the third session of each life skill (i.e., the focus
group session) beneficial on its own, without the sporting element. Future studies
should seek to establish what structure works best for teaching life skills. It maybe
that young people today would engage equally well with a programme that is
delivered on-line. The participants would still be able to give each other support on
online group forums, through various social media channels such as Facebook and
Twitter, and the teaching of life skills could be delivered through on-line workshops
and podcasts.
Future studies should look to include a number of control groups and match
the intervention group participations to these control groups so each group starts at
the same achievement level. Also, having various control groups would allow
researchers to identify the important parts of the study. For example, having one
control group that participates only in the focus group element of the programme,
having another control group that participates in the sport sessions but does not
engage in the life skill element of the programme, having a third control group that
participates in a different activity such as drama or music but is still taught the life
skill element of the programme, and finally, including a control group who has no
intervention at all.
Finally, TAP sought to examine the impact of life skill transfer from the
sports hall into other academic domains (i.e., the classroom). Future studies should
look to examine the influence life skills may have on other areas of life. For example,
the impact a life skill intervention may have on friendships and in peer groups, at
school, at home, and other activities and hobbies young people may participate in.
This section has identified many areas where future research could focus its
attention. In summary, future research should seek to conduct more follow-up
research to determine both the long-term effects of school sport interventions on
academic performance and the possible impact of the halo effect, and determine what
role sport plays in teaching young males life skills. The next section provides a final
summary of this study.
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6.8 Concluding Remarks

Chapter 1 provided the reader with an introduction to the study and
highlighted several concepts that were important in the planning and implementation
of TAP, such as government policy and school sport, school sport interventions, and
the role of physical education. Chapter 2 examined underachievement in UK schools
and presented some of the main causes of underachievement. Chapter 2 also
reviewed the impact may have on academic performance and presented existing
research on life skills programmes/interventions. Chapter 3 introduced the Transfer-
Ability Programme, presented information on the intervention group and the
comparison group participants and the school. The programme schedule was also
supplied in this chapter.
Chapter 4 examined the philosophy and paradigms that shaped this study and
the methodological choices that were made in order to analyse the data collected
during TAP. Chapter 5 presented the findings of this study in three separate phases.
Phase 1 determined that the intervention group and comparison groups’ trajectory of
academic grades for the full duration of TAP. Phase 2 qualitatively and quantitatively
addressed the intervention groups perceived learning of the seven life skills. Phase 3
qualitatively presented the intervention groups’ perceived enablers and barriers of
life skill transfer.
Finally, Chapter 6 has discussed and expanded upon the results presented in
Chapter 5. The contribution that TAP has made to theory, research and practice has
been explained and the SPORT model for transfer has been presented. TAP has
informed future practice and supplied guidance to schools that wish to implement a
life skill intervention. The limitations of this study have been documented and
recommendations for future research have also been presented.
It was never the aim for TAP to be replicated in full. This study was designed
with a specific aim and the life skills were specifically chosen to develop the ability
of twenty males students to use the skills. The students were deemed to be lacking in
these specific skills by their school. It is hoped future research will continue to
examine the role of life skills and the influence they may have on academic
performance. This study has highlighted the importance of wider learning in PE, and
how a sports based, life skill intervention may influence academic performance. It is
hoped that UK governments understand the potential of PE beyond the development
 P a g e |175

of only physical skills. Above all though, it is hoped that PE teachers and schools
embrace elements of the TAP and begin to look at life skills within their PE lessons.

6.9 Final Comment

I have learnt many things about research and myself whilst completing this
study. I am now aware of the complexity surrounding underachievement and I fear I
may never understand the concept in its entirety. I have developed a greater
methodological insight and have improved my critical awareness. This study even
pressed for me to reconsider and then change my worldview. I have learnt the
realities of conducting school-based interventions, which at times was challenging
but ultimately rewarding.
I came into this study wanting to explore and expand the literature on sports
based, life skills interventions with regards to academic performance. Although I feel
I have contributed to existing knowledge, I am sure my work in this area is far from
complete. I have finished this journey asking more questions than I have found
answers and believe this is just the beginning of a career long research interest.
 P a g e |176

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Appendices
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Appendix 1 – Semi-structure Interview Guide

Introductions, basics, introduce TAPe recorder etc, permission to TAPe, happy to do

interview

Can you tell me what you thought about the sport programme?

Follow up questions

What you do think the programme was trying to achieve?

Follow up questions

Did you make any new friends by doing the programme?

How did that make you feel?

Why did you come to the programme every week?

What do you think you learnt by being part of the programme?

What did you think about the seven skills?

Did you transfer the life skills?

Do you think you were able to use any skills learnt in the sport sessions in the classroom?

Why, how, please explain, please talk a little about that, how did you feel

Which ones, why, how why not?

How do you think you transferred the skills?

If transfer did occur, what made it possible for you transfer the skills
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If not….What might have helped you to transfer skills

Did you learn other skills by being a part of the programme?

If you were to design the programme would you have done?

Probes to use with interview guide:

How are you going to try to deal with the situation?

Tell me more about that

How did that make you feel?

I don’t quite understand, what do you mean?

Can you give me an example of what you are talking about?

I think I understand what you mean.

Talk more about that, will you?

I'd like to hear you talk more about that.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by 'hanging out'. Can you help me understand
what that means?

I'm having trouble understanding the problem you've described. Can you talk a little more
about that?

I want to make sure I understand what you mean. Would you describe it for me again?
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Appendix 2 – Transferable Skill Questionnaire – Participant

Please complete the following questions by circling the number you think best suits the
skill level you think you have now. This is your own personal view of your own skills.
Please be honest with yourself, no members of staff will see this form.

Very low Very good

Discipline 1 2 3 4 5 6

Communication 1 2 3 4 5 6

Teamwork 1 2 3 4 5 6

Self-confidence 1 2 3 4 5 6

Concentration 1 2 3 4 5 6

Persistence 1 2 3 4 5 6

Goal setting 1 2 3 4 5 6

Short term goals 1 2 3 4 5 6

Long term goals 1 2 3 4 5 6

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Appendix 3– Transferable Skill Questionnaire – Teacher

Please complete the following questions by circling the number you think best suits the
skill level each student has now. This is your own personal view of the student’s skills.
Please be honest- no other staff member will see this.

Very low Very good

Discipline 1 2 3 4 5 6

Communication 1 2 3 4 5 6

Teamwork 1 2 3 4 5 6

Self-confidence 1 2 3 4 5 6

Concentration 1 2 3 4 5 6

Persistence 1 2 3 4 5 6

Goal setting 1 2 3 4 5 6

Short term goals 1 2 3 4 5 6

Long term goals 1 2 3 4 5 6

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Appendix 4 – Ethics Approval

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Appendix 5 – Research Information Sheet

Research Information Sheet

What is the purpose of the study?
This research study is a case study looking to see if a sport intervention
programme will have any academic impact on male youths.

Reasons for the Research:

 For the last several years, boys have consistently achieved lower
grades than girls in national tests at the ages of eleven and sixteen
 Governments are still spending lots of money trying to help boys
achieve higher grades
 Previous research suggests sport may positively impact on academic
experiences. This study wants to see if that is the case in a London
school with Year 8 boys.

At the end of the project, the information gathered may help schools to
provide sport programmes that may positively impact on student’s
educational experiences and academic achievement.

Why have I been invited to take part?

Your school has been chosen to be the case-study school for this research
study. Your teachers have identified you as a potential participant. I will
spend the 2011/2012 academic year at the school, talking to staff and male
participants, conducting interviews, developing action plans with participants
and delivering sport sessions once a week during term-time for the full
academic year.

Do I have to take part?

No! Your involvement in this study is completely voluntary. If you
choose to participate you can stop taking part at any time and you do
not have to give a reason. If you continue to participate you may refuse
to answer any questions you do not wish to answer and you will still be
able to participate in the study.

What if I decide to participate?

If you chose to participate in this study, you will be required to attend a multi-
skill sport session once a week during term-time. Sessions will take place
after school. The sessions will last 60 minutes. You will also be asked to take
part in an interview in July and take part in regular discussions. However, you
can drop out of the study at any point and you do not have to give a reason.
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What are the benefits?

The benefit of this study for you may be the opportunity to try new sports and
visit Brunel University. The information from this study may also help other
children throughout the country.

What are the risks?

We do not anticipate any potential risk or discomfort associated with this
study. However, when doing any sports you may become injured- the risk of
injury will be no greater than the risk in your P.E classes.

What do I need to do to participate?

In order to participate in this study you will be required to sign an assent
form and your parents/carers will be required to sign a consent form. Both
forms must be signed before you will be allowed to participate. Your
participation will remain confidential and you will not be named in any
documentation or published documents. Data will only be observed and
discussed by the researcher and supervisors at Brunel University. All data
will be kept secure and destroyed after analysis.

About the researcher

My name is Georgia Allen and I am a PhD student at Brunel University. This
research is being conducted as part of my PhD thesis. If you have any
further questions about this study please contact me on email:
georgia.allen@brunel.ac.uk. I have full CRB clearance and coaching
qualifications in football, athletics, netball, dance, disc sports and multi-
skills. I am also first aid trained and have completed child protection
courses. If you wish to contact my supervisor or have any questions you do
not want to raise with me then please contact Dr Jacqueline Hebron on
jacqueline.hebron@brunel.ac.uk.
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Research Information Sheet: Control

Group
What is the purpose of the study?
This research study is a case study looking to see if a sport intervention
programme will have any academic impact on male youths.

Reasons for the Research:

 For the last several years, boys have consistently achieved lower
grades than girls in national tests at the ages of eleven and sixteen
 Governments are still spending lots of money trying to help boys
achieve higher grades
 Previous research suggests sport may positively impact on academic
experiences. This study wants to see if that is the case in a London
school with Year 8 boys.

At the end of the project, the information gathered may help schools to
provide sport programmes that may positively impact on student’s
educational experiences and academic achievement.

Why have I been invited to take part?

Your school has been chosen to be the case-study school for this research
study. Your teachers have identified you as a potential participant to be part
of the control group. I will spend the 2011/2012 academic year at the school,
talking to staff and male participants, conducting interviews, developing
action plans with participants and delivering sport sessions once a week
during term-time for the full academic year.

Do I have to take part?

No! Your involvement in this study is completely voluntary. If you
choose to participate you can stop taking part at any time and you do
not have to give a reason. If you continue to participate you may refuse
to answer any questions you do not wish to answer and you will still be
able to participate in the study.

What if I decide to participate?

If you chose to participate in this study, you will be required to participate in a
small interview at the start of every half term and at the end of the study.
Sessions will take place after school. The sessions will last 90 minutes. You
will also complete an action plan for the year and talk about the action plan in
the interviews. However, you can drop out of the study at any point and you
do not have to give a reason.
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What are the benefits?

The benefit of this study for you may be the opportunity to engage in a sports
fun day once the study has finished. The information from this study may also
help other children throughout the country.

What are the risks?

We do not anticipate any potential risk or discomfort associated with this
study. However, when doing any sport events at the university you may
become injured- the risk of injury will be no greater than the risk in your P.E
classes.

What do I need to do to participate?

In order to participate in this study you will be required to sign an assent
form and your parents/carers will be required to sign a consent form. Both
forms must be signed before you will be allowed to participate. Your
participation will remain confidential and you will not be named in any
documentation or published documents. Data will only be observed and
discussed by the researcher and supervisors at Brunel University. All data
will be kept secure and destroyed after analysis.

About the researcher

My name is Georgia Allen and I am a PhD student at Brunel University. This
research is being conducted as part of my PhD thesis. If you have any
further questions about this study please contact me on email:
georgia.allen@brunel.ac.uk. I have full CRB clearance and coaching
qualifications in football, athletics, netball, dance, disc sports and multi-
skills. I am also first aid trained and have completed child protection
courses. If you wish to contact my supervisor or have any questions you do
not want to raise with me then please contact Dr Jacqueline Hebron on
jacqueline.hebron@brunel.ac.uk.
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Appendix 6 – Assent Form

Participant Assent Form

I have read the Research Information Sheet and I agree to
participate in this research study.

I understand my involvement in this research study is completely

voluntary. I understand I have the right to withdraw at any time.

I understand that my name will not be used in any documents or

reports and all data will be destroyed after five years.

Signature of Research Participant……………………………………

Full Name (please print)……………………………………………….

Date………………………………………………………………………

Please complete two copies of

this form

Hand in one form to the

researcher at the start of the
study

Keep one form for yourself

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Appendix 7 – Consent Form

Parental Consent Form

I have read the Research Information Sheet and I agree for my
child to participate in this research study.

I understand my child’s involvement in this research study is

completely voluntary. I understand my child has the right to
withdraw at any time.

I understand that my child’s name will not be used in any

documents or reports and all data will be destroyed after five
years.

Signature of Parent…………….……………………………………..

Full Name (please print)……………………………………………….

Date………………………………………………………………………

Please complete two copies of

this form

Hand in one form to the

researcher at the start of the
study

Keep one form for yourself

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Appendix 8 – Demographic Data Form

Participant Information

Name…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Age…………………………………………………………………

Date of Birth………………………………………

Address……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Ethnicity……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Is English your first language? (please circle) YES

NO

Do you receive free schools meals? YES

NO

Do you live with BOTH of your parents? YES

NO
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If No please specify who you live with:

………………………………………………………………………………

How many siblings do you have? 0 1 2 3 4 5

or more

Did your mother go to university? YES

NO

Did your father go to university? YES

NO

Do you enjoy school? YES

NO

Do you enjoy P.E? YES

NO

Are you considering going to college? YES

NO

Do you think will you go to university? YES

NO

What job do you want to do when you are older?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………