Lesson video

Hi there.

Welcome to your lesson.

Today's lesson is on factors affecting participation, and it's part of your social cultural influences unit in your GCSE PE.

My name's Ms. Hacking, and I'm really looking forward to being your teacher today.

So by the end of today's lesson, I'm hoping that we can identify the factors affecting participation in sports and physical activity, and that we can actually reflect on our own experiences and our own factors that have shaped our experience of physical activity.

Here are today's keywords, factors affecting participation, media, role models, and stereotype.

You may wish to pause the video now to make a note of these keyword definitions so that you know them for today's lesson.

Our lesson today is split into two sections.

In the first section, we're going to look at a number of different factors that can affect participation in physical activity.

And for the second part of the lesson, we're going to reflect on the factors that shape our own participation in physical activity and sport.

Let's get started.

So factors that affect participation are different aspects that can affect whether people take part in physical activity or not.

So there may be reasons why you do the certain physical activity you do, but there may also be reasons why you don't do certain activities as well.

Maybe you've never heard of those types of activities or those types of sports, or maybe you don't live near accessible environments to ensure that you get that opportunity to do them.

I would like you to consider any factors that may affect participation in sport.

You may wish to discuss this with someone else, in which case you can pause the video.

So you might have already talked about some of these factors in your GCSE PE lessons, things like gender, age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, religion, and culture, and disability, because they are all factors that affect what sports or what physical activities we do and how likely these types of people are in taking part in physical activity as well.

But there are also other factors, and I wonder if you can think of any more.

We're going to talk about some of these factors in today's lesson.

These include our attitude, role models, accessibility, media coverage, stereotyping, or sexism, family, available leisure time, familiarity, education, disposable income, and adaptability and inclusiveness.

These are all the factors that could affect someone's participation in physical activity.

Let's look at these in a little bit more detail.

So people can have both positive and negative attitudes towards physical activity, which can affect whether they choose to participate or not.

That might not just be as in physical activity as a whole.

It might be certain types of physical activity.

For example, someone might say, "I hate running, but I love playing netball," for example.

So people often come with preconceived ideas or attitudes regarding physical activity.

However, attitudes can be changed.

And by changing attitudes, it can make people more likely to take part in physical activity.

So it's about addressing the different types of attitudes that people have and maybe trying to overcome those different attitudes.

For example, attitudes towards women's football have become a lot more positive since England's success in the 2022 Euros.

So again, attitudes can be changed, whether it's about participating or whether it's about a sport or physical activity in general.

Here we have Jacob who said he used to hate sport and PE until he started kickboxing.

So again, he started with quite a negative attitude towards physical activity, but when he found the sport he really enjoyed doing, then his attitude may be changed towards physical activity.

So again, attitudes can change, but attitudes can be a factor about whether we participate or not in physical activity.

Often, people are more likely to participate in an activity that their family also participates in.

And this is often because family members can act as role models.

So if, for example, you see your parents, or your family members, or your siblings taking part in an activity, often it makes you want to do that too.

And especially as a child growing up, if your family are always participating in a certain activity, then you're probably more likely to take part in that too.

Sometimes family members will take their children to the activities that they used to like doing or they enjoy watching.

So again, a barrier for children in accessing physical activity is they don't always drive, well, they won't always drive the car, but they won't necessarily be able to get themselves there, and so therefore they're relying on their family to take them.

Now if the family are more likely to take them to the activities that they like doing, then that's probably the activities that the children are going to end up taking part in as well.

Also, family time is a shared time to participate in physical activities together.

So the fact that you might do things as a family maybe at a weekend or on an evening might mean you're more likely to take part in that activity.

For example, when I was a child, my dad used to always take me, and my brother, and sister swimming every Sunday morning.

And as a result of just doing that shared family time together, we were all quite good swimmers and quite confident in the water just because we regularly did that as a family.

So the physical education or PE experiences a person has at school can also influence the activities they choose as they get older.

So think of another school, and why might students at that other school get a different PE experience to you? So PE experiences can depend on the facilities or provision that a school has.

For example, if a school has a really amazing swimming pool as part of their facilities, then possibly they'll do swimming in their PE lessons, which means that more of the pupils and more of the students will get an opportunity to take part in swimming, and be more confident swimmers, and maybe enjoy swimming more than a school that doesn't have a swimming pool, where they might not get that opportunity to take part in swimming.

So therefore those students might not feel as confident or is able to go swimming when they get older.

It's also time.

Different schools have different lengths of time PE lessons.

So some schools might have a 40-minute PE lesson, which means that it's quite tight.

Once you get changed and you get out onto your lesson, you might not have that much time to do certain activities, whereas other schools might have longer, they might have a double lesson, for example, and might have a two-hour lesson, which means that they're able to maybe travel a little bit further away from school and maybe explore other types of physical activity, like outdoor education, because they've got the time in the PE lesson to go and do that.

Sometimes you find that the head of PE or the PE teachers will often teach the activities that they are stronger teaching or that they are more confident doing.

And again, with the students, the students that maybe have a preference in types of activity.

Again, it depends on the students and the teachers' preferences as to maybe what the head of PE will plan as the curriculum for that school.

So participation levels in sport can depend on how much available time a person has.

I wonder if you can think about some of the reasons why someone might not have as much available time.

So it can be affected by work or school commitments.

So for example, if you're at school all day, you might have less opportunity during the day, Monday to Friday, to take part in physical activity other than your PE lessons, for example.

And the same with work commitments.

If you work long hours, you might have less available time therefore to take part in physical activity.

Also, people have responsibilities, to look after family.

It might be looking after children or looking after older relatives.

That means that they are not able to get out as much to do physical activity or they don't prioritise physical activity as much as they possibly should because they've got other priorities to consider.

Also, housework can impact the amount of available leisure time someone has to take part in physical activity or sport.

So for example, looking after the house by cleaning, or cooking, or doing all the day-to-day tasks, like paying bills and getting organised there, can eat into time that people have to take part in physical activity.

Okay, let's have a go to check.

True or false, if your family participate in gymnastics, you are more likely to participate in gymnastics.

Yeah, that's true.

Can you tell me why? Yeah, it's because they provide more role models.

So being a family member that takes part in gymnastics, you're providing role models there for the younger children.

You're also probably more likely to provide transport to an activity that you like.

So your children may also be more inclined to take up that sport.

And also, it might be that you practise together in your free time.

So, you know, you might practise at home, or at the beach, on holiday, you might be practising your gymnastic skills.

So again, yes, it's true that if your family take part in gymnastics, you are also more likely to take part in gymnastics.

Well done if you got that right.

Okay, disposable income is the money left after paying bills.

And participating in sport or physical activity can cost money.

So we've looked at this.

We've touched upon this earlier when we talked about socioeconomic status and how people with more money have more opportunities to take part in more sports, whereas people without that big amount of disposable income, that might be a bit of a barrier for whether they take part in sport or whether they take part in certain sports as well.

What might you need to spend money on in sport or physical activity? Yeah, you might need to spend money on memberships, or match fees, or facility access.

And you might need to buy things like specialist equipment.

And also, travelling to and from taking part in physical activity or sport also cost money as well.

So some activities are more expensive than others.

I'd like you to consider which activities out of the three below are most expensive and why.

So I'm hoping that you've thought about with the horse riding that you've put it towards the most expensive end, because you will have to pay for the equipment.

So things like the helmet, things like the correct types of shoes, things like the safety vest for if you fall off, you don't want to get injured, the protective clothing.

But also, by horse riding, you would either need to have a horse yourself and pay for that or you would need to pay sort of a maintenance fee for the horse as well.

So that would cost a lot of money.

I would then move on to golf, and golf is expensive.

It's an expensive sport.

Again, with the equipment, golf clubs do cost a lot of money.

But also, to maintain the green and to maintain the golf course correctly so that it's really nice to play golf on, again, it costs a lot of money.

So often, golf clubs often charge really high memberships to enable them to function in looking after the facilities really well.

I would probably be putting football towards the least expensive end of this spectrum.

And that's because, yes, you would need to buy sort of football boots or AstroTurf trainers, and you would obviously need some kind of sports clothing to take part, and there might be some club memberships if you're playing competitively, or some match fees.

But other than that, if we compare to the other two sports, there's not a lot of costs.

And you can often find those kinds of equipment quite cheap at different places.

So some activities may not be easily accessible to everyone.

And this is due to cost and location are factors that can impact how accessible some physical activities are.

So what do you need to access, to participate in these sports? So with ice skating, you obviously need to have access to an ice rink in order to be able to ice skate.

And without that, you're not going to be a very good ice skater.

In terms of windsurfing, you would need some kind of open water, whether that be a lake or the sea.

You would need somewhere where you would be able to take your windsurf out.

And obviously with climbing, you would need to have access to a climbing wall or an outdoor rock face in order to be able to participate in climbing.

Stereotyping can lead to discrimination.

And this can often influence attitudes towards the different sports people can access.

If a sport is perceived as discriminatory toward a particular social group, that group is less likely to participate in it.

I wonder if you've ever heard any stereotypes or felt discrimination in sport? For example, sometimes people assume that a person is going to be good at a certain sport purely because of a characteristic or a place where they've come from.

So saying something like, "She's Canadian, so she will be good at ice hockey," that's a stereotype, that's judging.

She might not be good at ice hockey just because she's from a certain place.

And again, they can be negative as well.

So just assuming girls can't play rugby, that because they are a particular type of gender, for example, that they're unable to take part in certain types of physical activity.

So stereotyping can lead to discrimination, which can really negatively affect participation in some sports.

Sexism is a belief that one gender, typically men, is superior or more capable than another.

I wonder if you can think of any other examples of sexism in sport.

I gave you one earlier, with the girls not being able to play rugby.

So sexism in sport can be for a number of reasons, and we can see it manifesting in a number of ways.

Coaching opportunities.

So again, if we look in the media or if we look about all the coaches that there are maybe at the Olympics or in certain football teams or rugby teams, majority of coaches are male.

And traditionally, there's always been a pathway for males to access those coaching roles and less opportunities for females.

There's also certain types of dress code that are based on potentially what males would prefer to wear, which actually some females might not always feel comfortable in.

So for example, a few years ago, the England women's rugby team were asked to wear white shorts in line with what the men would wear, in line with the kit, and that was something that the women didn't feel comfortable on, such as when they were on their periods, and it was changed as a result of the feedback.

But again, there's a lot of things that are in sport or in physical activity that are just assumed that because men like to wear it a certain way, that maybe females are the same.

There's also unequal facility access.

So this again is changing, but it's not there yet.

So you'll notice that in all the big stadiums, often, like male sport will always be played, but it's only more recently that female sports have also been allowed to play in certain stadiums as well.

If we look back to, if you ever watched the documentary "Copa 71," which is about the England women's football team going to the World Cup in Mexico, you'll notice that they talk about how the women's training facilities, which was just a field, and they weren't allowed to take part in football in any of the big stadiums in England.

And actually, the FA and other sort of members of the football community were not allowing women to play and not allowing them access to the facilities for fear of sort of damaging the facilities for the men.

So traditionally, in the past, there's been unequal facilities.

That is still a thing today.

It is changing.

Media coverage.

Again, if you put some sports on, there's a much greater chance that you will see males playing sport than you will females.

And that is something that is changing slightly, but it's still predominantly males that are seen in the media.

And there's also pay disparity.

This links to sponsorship.

So males can often receive more sponsorship than females.

And males, for sort of the same level, so the best man and the best woman in a certain sport, the man is more likely to receive higher sponsorship than the woman.

And that that links back to the media coverage that maybe the woman would get as opposed to the man, but also in terms of prize money as well.

So in some competitions, there's a disparity between what the man that wins would get and what the woman that wins would get as well.

Okay, let's have a go at a question.

Sofia has very little disposable income.

Identify an activity most accessible for Sofia.

Would it be a, horse riding, b, jogging, c, golf, or d, snowboarding? Yeah, I would've said jogging because all the other activities would need expensive equipment, and potentially for snowboarding, a lot of travel, to get money to pay for travel to get there, whereas jogging, all she'd really need is her trainers and she'd be able to run near her house, she might be able to run to school, she might be able to run around the local park.

She doesn't need to spend a lot of money in order to be physically active there.

So well done if you got that right.

Okay, if a sport isn't shown very much in the media, fewer people will know about it or be inspired to participate in it.

So there may be some sports that you've never heard of but actually you'd probably really enjoy if you had the opportunity to take part.

But because they're not being shown in the media, you know nothing about them and therefore you're not inspired to participate in them.

Equally, if a sport gets negative media attention, it can make people less likely to participate in it, for example, if there's drugs, scandals, or violence.

So if the media is showing a type of sport where there's a lot of violence and people are often getting hurt, then you might be put off playing or taking part in that activity because you think you're going to get injured, and that's not something that you want to do.

So that's how the media can negatively and positively impact on participation.

Quick question.

Which sports do you see in the media the most? Because there is a link between the sports you see the most in the media and the most popular sports.

So for example, we do see a lot of football in the media, whether that's in the newspapers, on TV.

We hear about it in the news on the radio.

We see it all the time on social media.

So we see a lot about football.

But also, football is really popular because the more people see about it, the more people want to play it and invest in it as well.

Badminton is nowhere near as popular as football, but we do see it in the media on occasion, particularly at big tournaments and at things like the Olympics.

And then we have something like curling.

That is not very popular.

And that could be for a number of different factors, but we don't see it often in the media at all.

We don't see it on television, we don't see it in the newspaper, so therefore less people could be inspired to take part in it.

Okay, a role model is someone who you aspire to be like.

I wonder if you could consider who are some of your role models in sport? It might be a family member, a coach, a teacher, an elite athlete, or a friend.

Okay, let's have a go to check.

I would like you to fill in the gaps to explain how media coverage can affect participation.

So increased media coverage helps raise awareness and interest in a sport, encouraging blank people to participate.

However, limited or blank media attention, such as reports of cheating, can reduce blank in that sport.

Three words, can you fill in the gaps? Okay, so I'm hoping that you've got increased media coverage helps raise awareness and interest in a sport, encouraging more people to participate.

However, limited or negative media attention, such as reports of cheating, can reduce participation in that sport.

Those three words, more, negative, participation, well done if you've got those right.

Okay, people often participate in sports that they are familiar with as they already know the rules and how to play.

And familiarity can come from education.

So again, if you've done a certain type of sport in your PE lessons, you've learned the rules, you know how to play, you feel quite comfortable and quite confident, you are probably more likely to take part in that activity outside of school because you've already got that base knowledge and you've already got that confidence to play.

It might be from your family.

Again, if your family are taking part in a lot of sport, you might therefore feel more familiar doing that and more likely to take part in it outside of experiences with your family as well.

And also, media exposure.

So if you are seeing a lot of a certain type of sport on social media or on television, then you are quite familiar with how it is played, you know the rules, you know the tactics, you would feel quite comfortable going out and playing that in a situation.

So the sports that you feel familiar with, you're comfortable, you know about it, and therefore you're more likely to participate in it compared to a sport you know nothing about as that might be quite nerve wracking to go and take part in a sport that you don't actually know anything at all.

Also, role models.

So having a positive role model, or someone maybe in your family, or, again, through the media that you see and you see successfully take part in a sport, you might choose to copy them and feel more comfortable and more familiar doing that.

So which sports do you feel familiar with? Some sports are more inclusive because they can be easily adapted to accommodate the needs of different participants.

For example, wheelchair basketball, that is a sport for everyone, not just for people in a wheelchair.

So often, if you go to a wheelchair basketball club, there will be people that are wheelchair users that are taking part, but there'll also be people that are not wheelchair user staking part, but they would still use a wheelchair for this game.

There's also classes like parent-and-me fitness classes, which mean that a fitness class is adapted to allow newborn babies or babies to be part of the activities as well so that it breaks down the barrier a little bit of new parents that don't have time and are not able to leave the child on its own, obviously.

So they bring the child with it, and it's incorporated into the fitness class as well.

And also, making things more accessible through reducing cost.

So golf, obviously we've talked about, is a very expensive sport.

However, there can be some golf courses that are a lot smaller so they take up a lot less maintenance.

They still give people the opportunity to take part in golf, but the golf courses are a lot smaller and therefore a lot cheaper.

Okay, true or false.

Okay, let's have a go to check.

True or false, adapting a sport allows less people to access the sport.

Yeah, that's false.

Can you tell me why? Yeah, adapting a sport allows more people to access the sport.

For example, wheelchair basketball can be accessed by wheelchair users, as well as non-wheelchair users.

Okay, now it's your turn to have a go at practise task.

For the first part of the task, I would like you to identify at least six factors that can affect participation.

For the second part of the task, I'd like you to read this scenario.

Aisha like to play tennis.

Her mom and stepdad both play tennis.

She loves watching Wimbledon when it's on television.

I'd like you to discuss two factors that may affect Aisha's decision to play tennis.

You may wish to pause the video now to give you time to write down your answer.

Okay, so you're asked to identify six factors that can affect participation.

Now, you may have said any of the following.

We've got a long list, so any of the following would've been correct.

Gender, age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, religion, or culture, disability, family, education, available leisure time, disposable income, access, discrimination or stereotyping, attitude, media, role models, familiarity, and adaptability and inclusiveness.

So well done if you've got at least six of those correct.

It shows that you've really been listening and working hard today.

So for the second part of the task, you were given the scenario about Aisha, where she likes to play tennis, her mom and stepdad both play tennis, and she loves watching Wimbledon when it's on television.

And you were asked to discuss two factors that may have affected Aisha's participation in tennis.

You may have said something along these lines, that Aisha's mom and stepdad both play tennis, which likely provides strong encouragement and opportunities for her to engage in sport.

Having family members who play can make it easier for her to participate, whether through shared practise sessions, access to equipment, or family outings to tennis courts.

Aisha enjoys watching the media exposure of Wimbledon on television, which exposes her to professional tennis and high level athletes.

Watching these matches can inspire her to continue playing and improve her skills as seeing her role models perform on a big stage may motivate her to participate more in the sport.

So talking about her family and how that can influence her participation positively.

Media exposure.

Seeing Wimbledon and seeing more tennis players helps to provide role models.

So well done if you mentioned those points.

Okay, it's now time to move on to the second part of today's lesson.

We're going to reflect on factors that shape your participation in physical activity and sport.

So, often, factors can positively influence whether we participate in a certain physical activity or sport.

Our choice to participate may be unconscious, but it can have a lifelong impact.

So we have Aisha, and she says, "I have always played basketball with my aunt and sisters." Jacob mentions that he saw skateboarding on TV, so he learned how to skateboard.

And Lucas said, "I play wheelchair rugby because my local club is nearby." So these are all factors.

These all have factors that have affected their participation.

Aisha has had positive influences from her aunt and sister.

Jacob has had a positive influence from the media of showing him skateboarding.

And Lucas has a positive influence of accessibility because his local wheelchair rugby club is nearby.

What I'd like you to do is identify one factor that has helped to shape your experience of physical activity positively.

So you might have said any number of factors here, but you could have talked about all the factors that we have discussed in the first part of the lesson.

So you might, for example, have said that because your parents play a certain sport, you were influenced to do that sport, or you might have said that you feel really familiar with cricket because you do it in PE lessons, and that has been a factor that's influenced your participation in cricket.

Sometimes though, factors can have a negative impact and can create a barrier to taking part in particular sports.

And this is usually down to a negative experience or a lack of experience.

So possibly having a bad experience of a certain physical activity or sport, for example, it took you three hours to get to your table tennis club because the buses are so slow.

So because of that, you might not want to therefore play table tennis because it is such a long way away or something happened on the journey.

But it also might be like a lack of experience.

So a lack of experience and just not knowing about that activity or not having tried that activity means that you weren't able to access it.

So if the media don't show it, if your family don't do it, if you don't have access to an ice rink to do ice skating, maybe these are all reasons that can negatively affect the participation in certain physical activities and sports for you.

So here are some examples of how students may have been affected negatively by some of these factors.

So Aisha talks about that girls don't play rugby.

So again, that's a stereotype that she's had to hear, and therefore she feels that she might not be able to play rugby because of that discrimination.

Jacob says he was never taught netball at school, so it doesn't feel that he knows how to play.

So again, he's not familiar.

And because of his education not teaching him netball, he is not familiar with the sport and therefore less likely to go and do it.

Also, Lucas has said that he can't afford to go skiing.

So his disposable income means that he is unable to access skiing due to the fact that he does not have enough money to maybe travel there and to get all the equipment as well.

So what I would like to do now is a quick check.

Identify one factor that had a negative impact on your experience of physical activity.

So again, this is very personal to you, so you may have said any of those factors that have affected or maybe not given you an experience in a certain sport.

Okay, for your practise tasks then, I'd like you to do three things.

For the first part, I'd like you to identify one example of how a factor could positively influence a person's participation.

For the second part of the task, I'd like you to identify one example of how a factor could negatively influence a person's participation.

You might want to include a different one to what you've already written for your checks.

And for the third part of the task, I'd like you to reflect on the factors that have influenced your participation level by completing the table below.

You can include as many of the factors as you want.

You may wish to pause video now in order to give you time to complete the tasks.

Good luck.

Okay, so for the first part of the task, you were asked to identify one example of how a factor could positively influence a person's participation.

You may have said something along these lines.

Seeing a lot of football in the media encourages more people to play it.

Okay, you could have picked any of the other factors to talk about as long as you said how it would positively influence a person's participation.

For the second part of the task, you were asked to identify one example of how a factor could negatively influence a person's participation.

And again, you could have picked any of the factors, but you might have said something along these lines.

Someone having very little available leisure time because they work long hours could negatively impact if a person participates in physical activity.

So as long as you have said how one of those factors could negatively affect participation, you would've got that right.

And then you've been asked to reflect on the factors that have influenced your experience of physical activity.

Now this is very personal to you and will be different to the other people in your class.

But you might have written something along these lines.

So a family.

A family member could have positively influenced, as I would go swimming with my family every weekend.

That one is personal to me.

Education.

I'm a good dancer because we did it a lot at school and had a specialist dance teacher.

Access.

I live really close to a park with basketball hoops, so I play there a lot with my friends.

Adaptability.

I wasn't able to join the sailing club because the facilities didn't have wheelchair access.

So that one's a negative.

Gender.

As a male, I had more opportunities to play football and was inspired more to play by role models, media coverage, and family.

So that's how gender might have affected your participation.

And role models.

My aunt has always competed in golf competitions and inspired me to join a golf club.

So again, role models within the family might have influenced your experience of physical activity.

Okay, that gives us just enough time to summarise today's lesson.

So there are many factors that can affect participation in sports and physical activity, and these include gender, age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, religion, culture, disability, family, education, available leisure time, disposable income, access, discrimination and stereotyping, attitude, media, role models, familiarity, adaptability and inclusiveness.

Factors can affect participation positively through exposure and experience but also affect negatively through bad experiences or lack of exposure.

Well done today.

There was a lot of factors to get through.

You've worked really hard.

And I look forward to seeing you again soon.