Middle school students’ experience of joy in different activities during physical education—a case study

Joy of movement is central in the physical education subject and has received more attention in the public debate and in research following the new Norwegian curriculum in 2020. There is a lack of quantitative studies that measure students joy of movement in activities in the subject—which this study addresses regarding the activities of dance, strength/endurance, play, football, and ball sport. Data collection was conducted using a questionnaire among 269 secondary school students in Mid-Norway. The results show that secondary school students generally experience joy of movement in most activities. Furthermore, the study shows that boys generally experience a higher degree of joy of movement than girls in all activities, except for dance, where girls report higher numbers. Ball sports stand out positively in terms of the experience of joy of movement, while the findings indicate a need for change in the teaching of dance. The findings of this study related to dance suggest that current dance teaching does not create joy of movement among boys and only limited joy of movement among girls. To achieve a change, there will be a need to increase teachers’ competence in dance in general, and in dance from youth culture in particular.