Students’ perception of dominant objectives in Physical Education: the Purpose of Physical Education Scale

Background Possible PE discourses and possible outcomes of such discourses are frequently debated in PE research. According to the literature instrumental and performance discourses, as well as more holistic, developmental discourses exist but there is reason to question how far into the PE teaching and thus PE students' learning processes these discourses reach. At present, we do not know to what extent discourses identified in the discursive climate around PE are recognized by students in terms of learning objectives and because of this we do not know how the mix of discourses conveyed through teachers affects students' learning, development, attitudes and behavior. Due to a lack of an adequate and validated instrument, dominant principles for teaching PE have not been confirmed statistically in large samples of students.