Fair Play: What are the Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes of 5th–6th Grade Lithuanian Pupils?

Annotation. Sport, when practiced fairly, in a social and cultural context, enriches society, and on an individual level, offers the opportunity for self-awareness, expression and fulfilment, personal achievement, social interaction, enjoyment, and good health. However, sport is also facing fresh dangers and challenges from all corners of the globe. This article analyses the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of 5th–6th-grade Lithuanian pupils regarding the Olympic value of Fair play.


Introduction
Sport is a growing social and economic phenomenon, which makes an important contribution to the European Union's strategic objectives of solidarity and prosperity (European Commission, 2007). Sport is associated with a broad range of positive psychosocial, physical health, and education benefits (Andermo et al., 2020;García-Hermoso et al., 2021;Sarkauskiene, 2015). In the pedagogical plane, sport is important in the development of values. Sport can teach values such as team building, equality, discipline, inclusion, perseverance, and respect (Unesco, 2021). However, sport is also confronted with new threats and challenges, which have emerged in European society, such as commercial pressure, exploitation of young players, doping, racism, violence, corruption, and money laundering (European Commission, 2007). Sensational statements in the press reflect the complexity of this alarming situation, present in many sports. We frequently hear about at more than 12,000 schools across Brazil and abroad to experience new sports for the first time. Starting in 2013 with 15 schools in Rio de Janeiro, the initiative included lessons and coaching sessions, as well as sports festivals where kids and adults alike can try something new (IOC, 2022). IOC presents a selection of different kinds of educational initiatives implemented around the world. They are inspired by Olympic values and targeted at young people from 8 to 18 years old. This is a work in progress: 21 initiatives have been listed so far. They come from Olympic National Committees (NOCs), Olympic Academies, and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). This is the first step! The objective is to increase this number in the future (IOC, 2021).
In Lithuania, a lot of attention is paid to the development of the value of Fair play in children. Various programs are implemented by the Lithuanian Olympic Academy and the Lithuanian National Olympic Committee (LNOC). Lithuanian Schools Games cover 59 Lithuanian municipalities. About 200,000 pupils from more than 1000 schools participate in the Games every year. The best of the best meet in the finals, which usually take place during the LTeam Olympic Winter Festival and the Olympic Day. LNOC was among the first in the world to translate this programme into our country's language and, with the approval from the IOC, to offer training to Lithuanian educators. In two years, 14 training courses aimed at educators of Lithuanian schools took place. They were attended by over 350 educators (LNOC, 2021).
Many programs promoting Fair play are being implemented both internationally and nationally, but there is very little research that reveals how the value of Fair play manifests in children.
When researching the Olympic value of Fair play in 5th − 6th grade pupils, one typically delves into what knowledge and understanding the children have in this area. Luquin and Elosua (2012) investigated the perception of Fair play in children and youth sport. Bronikowska et al. (2019) researched the understanding of the principle of Fair play. Researchers (Cruz et al., 2018;Lamoneda, & Huert, 2017;Palou et al., 2020) have also analysed the effects of various experimental educational programs on the interiorization of the value of Fair play.
Children are often aware of the Olympic value of Fair play and how Fair play presents itself in sport, but their behaviour in specific situations is particularly important. Pilz (1995) has found that juveniles who have played for more than four years accept rule violations more often, and describe them significantly less often as being unfair. Despite efforts to encourage children to exhibit Fair play behaviour in sports, this problem remains relevant to this day. (Cruz et al., 2018). Zorba (2018) research shows that even though the young sportsmen (futsal players), who participated in the study, displayed Fair play behaviours, they can move away from Fair play behaviours during competitions.
Lithuanian researchers analysed the expression and development of adolescents' moral values based on Olympic education (Budreikaite, 2011). Žilinskienė et al. (2016) revealed the features of the expression of values among 13−17-year-old track and field athletes. Sukys et al. (2017) examined the effects of an integrated Olympic education programme on the development of prosocial behaviour in adolescents.
Research conducted in Lithuania that integrally analysed the knowledge, skills, and attitudes regarding Fair Play among children aged 11−13 who participate in sports could not be found. Only with real facts about educational reality, can we continue to successfully design the educational process; therefore, this study raises these problematic questions: 1. Do Lithuanian pupils know and comprehend the Olympic value of Fair play, and do they base their sports activities on it? What are their attitudes -their subjective position -towards this Olympic value? 2. Does the participation of pupils in sports affect the interiorization of the value of Fair play? The aim of this study was to examine the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of 5th-6th grade Lithuanian pupils regarding the Olympic value of Fair play and to compare the obtained results in terms of gender and participation in sports activities.

Materials and methods
The survey was conducted online (http://www.manoapklausa.lt/surveys) from February 2020 to June 2020. During this period, Lithuania enacted a quarantine due to the Covid-19 pandemic and lessons in general education schools were being held remotely. Study participants were 5th-6th grade pupils (aged 11-13) from all 10 Lithuanian counties. Before conducting the survey, the Education Departments of all Lithuanian counties were provided with detailed information about the planned research and were requested for permission to conduct it. After gaining their permission, the web page link to the questionnaire "Olympic Values" and detailed information about the ongoing research was sent to Lithuanian general education schools. The education of Olympic values is an integral element of the physical education curriculum for 5th-6th grade Lithuanian pupils, therefore the children filled in the questionnaires during the physical education lessons.
The research sample consisted of 4412 respondents. Some questionnaires were poorly completed and had low-quality responses, others were completed by pupils outside the research age range, therefore these results were eliminated. Data from 3378 pupils who took part in the study were analysed. The study involved 48.3% (n = 1633) of 5th grade pupils and 51.7% (n = 1745) of 6th grade pupils. 45.9% of respondents were girls. 65.1% of respondents participated in sports, i.e., attended after-school sports clubs at school or sports clubs/schools.
In 2018, a questionnaire based on the analysis of literature sources was prepared. The pilot study was performed in one of the regions of Lithuania -Klaipeda County (Kaškevičiūtė & Šarkauskienė, 2018). The pilot study highlighted some questionnaire questions that required improvement. Based on these results, a correction of the questionnaire was made. The approbation of the improved questionnaire was done by the Department of Physical Education (now the Department of Sport, Recreation and Tourism) at Klaipeda University (Protocol № 46SV-KK-12, 2019-04-24). The Olympic values survey questionnaire consisted of two parts: the Demographics and the Olympic Values Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes section. In the latter part, five essential Olympic values were singled out: Excellence, Respect, Friendship, Joy of Effort, Fair Play. Six questions were assigned to assess each value, with the first two questions reflecting the pupils' knowledge, followed by two questions about their skills, and the rest about their attitudes. When answering the questions, the children had to choose one of the following definitions/statements or one statement according to the five-point Likert scale from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree".
Internal scale compatibility was assessed. Since Cronbach's Alpha coefficient value score was 0.781, it can be assumed that the whole scale is a homogeneous and reliable measurement instrument.
This article analyses part of the research data -the knowledge, skills, and attitudes regarding the Olympic value of Fair play. The analysis revealed that pupils could misunderstand or misinterpret one question -"Do you compete to win 'at any cost'?" -that was aimed to reveal the pupils' skills (behaviour) thus these results were eliminated.
Percentage frequencies were calculated while analysing demographic data and the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of 5th-6th grade pupils regarding Olympic values. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the results of two independent samples. Differences in results were considered statistically significant at p ≤ 0.05. Data analysis was performed using SPSS Statistics (version 26).
All respondents were informed about the scientific aim of the research, that their participation would be anonymous, and that the gained results would only be used for scientific purposes. Furthermore, the respondents were informed of the possibility of withdrawing in cases where they felt the need to not answer certain questions included in the questionnaire.

Results
Most pupils correctly identified the definition of Fair play (94.2%) and the example of Fair play behaviour (88.4%) from the presented options. More than half (62.7%) of the survey participants chose the answer "strongly agree" when answering the question "Do you strive to achieve victory by behaving honestly and without fraud?", almost a third (31.8%) chose "agree". The results regarding attitudes were not so good. The children were given a situation: "Imagine that your opponent has a torn sneaker. You have spare shoes you can lend. Would you help your opponent? " 34.0% chose the statement "strongly agree", 38.6% -"agree", 20.9% -"undecided". If a teammate cheated, 37.8% of children would seek justice by reporting misconduct by a teammate, 54.4% would talk to the teammate and warn him, and 7.8 % would say nothing because they are teammates.
A comparison of the results according to gender is presented in Table 1. In only one case, when answering the question that revealed the concept of Fair play, boys outperformed girls. Girls more often than boys seek victory without cheating and through honest behaviour (U = 1319199.500, z = −4.063, p < .001), the girls would help the opponent by lending their spare sports shoes (U = 1219322.00, z = −7.390, p < .001) and would report the cheating teammate (U = 1361639.00, z = −2.200, p = .028). The Mann-Whitney U test revealed the differences in the knowledge, skills, and attitudes regarding the Olympic value of Fair play among athletic and non-athletic 5th-6th grade pupils ( Table 2). The first two questions were about the knowledge and understanding of Fair play. The first question was answered statistically significantly (U = 1242870.50, z = −3.861, p < .001) better by pupils who do not participate in sports, and the second -by those who participate in sports (U = 1246063.00, z = −2.592, p = 0.01). In order to find out how children behave in certain situations, they were asked the question "Do you strive to achieve victory by behaving honestly and without fraud?" Pupils who do not participate in sports seek victory without cheating significantly more often (U = 1098129.00, z = −8.171, p < .001) than those who attend after-school sports clubs. The indicators of the attitudes towards Fair play differed. Statistically significantly (U = 1232827.00, z = −2.183, p = .029) more athletic children would report or talk to a cheating teammate. Table 3 presents the indicators of the Fair play knowledge, skills, and attitudes of 5th-6th grade pupils according to the duration of their participation in sports. In almost all but one case, the results differed significantly. One of the very important results is that children who participate in non-formal physical education are less likely to seek victory without cheating and through honest behaviour (U = 558043.00, z = −4.103, p < .001).

Discussion
The present study aims to examine the Fair play knowledge, skills, and attitudes of 5th-6th grade pupils and to determine their differences according to gender and participation in sports.
The term Fair play is constantly used in sports. The way in which this important term is understood conditions the way in which it is examined (Serrano-Durá et al., 2020).
On many occasions (Binder, 2010;2012) we find that it is used as a synonym of good behaviour, playing by the rules. IOC (2017) emphasizes that today, Fair play has a meaning beyond sport and beyond just following the rules. This "spirit of fair play" is hard to define, but is easy to identify through specific types of behaviour (e.g., shaking hands at the end of the game). This work analyses the Fair play knowledge, skills, and attitudes of 11-13-year-old children, therefore only those aspects of Fair play that are significant at this age are discussed.
Fair play does not happen automatically when children and young people participate in team or group activities. Educating one to practice Fair play behaviours as one of the most universal principles in sports (and beyond sports) is, or at least should be, one of the most fundamental duties of modern education, not just through school physical education classes, but throughout the schooling system. Its significance and influence on the moral development of its participants have been confirmed by research (Binder, 2010;Budreikaite, 2011;Lamoneda & Huertas, 2017). Learning falls into one of three categories: knowledge, skills, attitudes, all of which are comprehensively analysed in this work.
Our study revealed that 5th-6th grade pupils have excellent knowledge of the Olympic value of Fair play. When asked if they know what this value means, 94.2% answered correctly, and after receiving examples of Fair play behaviour, 88.4% chose the correct answer. Similar results are presented by Budreikaitė (2011). The researcher found that the majority (78.5%) of 12-14-year-old pupils are aware of characteristics that reflect this value. According to the subjects, the Olympic value of Fair play encompasses mercy, honesty, sacrifice, adherence to the rules of the game, helpfulness, and compassion.
The indicators of the responses to the question, which reveal the Fair play skills of 5th-6th grade pupils, are not so good. 62. 5% of surveyed 5th-6th grade Lithuanian pupils "strongly agree" with the statement that they "strive to achieve victory by behaving honestly and without fraud", 31.8% of respondents "agree", 4.1% are "undecided". These results reveal that we need to pay more attention to developing the Fair play skills of children at this age. Binder, one of the most famous scholars in the field of children's Olympic education, who relied on L. Kohlberg's theory of moral development, observes that the changes in numerous aspects of moral development can be influenced by the execution of a specifically designed educational program. These findings substantiate the theory and empirical research which states that physical activity does not inevitably result in boosting moral growth. Instead, delivering a theoretically grounded course of study in a systematic and planned manner is required to affect change. By facilitating exposure to experiences that cause moral conflict and expose children to higher modes of thought than their own, teachers can assist pupils in developing their moral reasoning abilities (Fair play). When youngsters are confronted with true and challenging moral dilemmas, they are stimulated in their moral development (Binder, 2010).
Respondents' answers to questions that reveal their Fair play attitudes are also not as positive as their answers regarding their Fair play knowledge: a third of children would report a cheating teammate, just over half would talk to the teammate themselves, and 7.8% would say nothing because they are teammates. Karoblis et al. (2009) study results are very similar. Researchers, who analysed the attitudes of 11-17-year-old pupils (from Belgium, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary) regarding the Olympic movement and Olympic values, note that adolescents are familiar with Fair play in sports; however, study participants would disregard the principles of Fair play behaviour in real life situations: 11.4% of respondents would take performance enhancing drugs to win an Olympic medal, and 25.0% of girls and 32.3% of boys would play unfairly if they witnessed their opponent playing unfairly.
Researchers, who have conducted empirical research on the Olympic value of Fair play in 11-13-year-old children, find that results differ according to gender and that in girls this value is developed at a higher level, or that they consider it more important in the hierarchy of values. Luquin and Eloeua (2012) investigated the subjective perception of the importance of five dimensions related to Fair play in a large sample of young sportspeople (children and youth players, N = 762). Fair play, commitment, winning, having fun, and following the rules were designated as the five factors, the most essential of which differed according to gender: girls valued Fair play more than boys did, who, in turn, prioritized fun. Zorba (2018) aimed to examine Fair play behaviours of futsal players in high school regarding some variables. In total, 187 high school students (age mean was found to be 14,54±0,55), including 76 males and 111 females, participated in the study during the 2017-2018 education period. The Fair Play Scale in Physical Education and Sport was used to collect data. The only difference was found in "gamesmanship" when Fair play behaviours of futsal athletes were compared according to genders (p < 0.05). This result showed that boys are more prone to "gamesmanship" behaviours than girls. The underlying reason for this may be that the sense of justice of boys is lower than of girls (Zorba, 2018). Pilz (1995) questioned 1207 12-14-year-old football players on "select teams"concerning their attitudes towards Fair play and their comprehension of Fair play. Only 19.6% of female pupils, compared to 42.2% of male pupils, are prepared to commit an intentional foul right in front of the penalty area in order to block a goal. Simulating a foul within the penalty area to get an unwarranted penalty is deemed unfair by 22.2% of female pupils vs 59.8% of male pupils. Consequently, distinguishable variations in attitudes toward and understandings of Fair Play according to gender must be confirmed, as well as how willingness to commit an intentional foul is affected by gender. Pilz believes that this is the product of a gender-specific socialization process.
The findings of our study coincide with the results of the above-mentioned studies -11-13-year-old girls have better results regarding the Olympic value of Fair Play than boys of the same age. How can we explain these differences? Kohlberg's conclusions about the moral reasoning of females based on his model of "hierarchical stages of moral reasoning" were questioned by Gilligan (1982), a psychologist and his former student. She identifies that Kohlberg's research, which led to the development of the moral reasoning model levels, used males as the sample population. According to Gilligan, Kohlberg, like Freud and Piaget before him, observes that girls do not fit their models in some way. Gilligan claims that the typical inference is that something is wrong with the women whenever they do not conform to psychological expectations. Gilligan states that the assumption of duty for caring for others and sensitivity to others' needs leads women to consider different points of view and to listen to voices other than their own when making decisions. Thus, one can inextricably link women's moral weakness, manifested in apparent confusion when making judgments, to women's moral strength which is their preoccupation with relationships and duties (Gilligan, 1982).
Evidence suggests that sporting activity may not only have an influence on one's physical development, but also on moral development, both in positive and negative ways (Cruz et al., 2018).
Our study also compared Fair play knowledge, skills, and attitudes of pupils who participate and do not participate in sports. Bodasinska et al. (2016) note that by comparing results of physical education students with professional volleyball and handball players who were students at the same time, one may observe that 'just' PE students are characterized by a higher level of understanding of Fair play than those with professional sporting experience. The results of another study are similar. Pilz (1995) pointed out that among athletes, besides the official rules, there exists a so-called "informal system of norms", which allows for rule violations in the interest of success in sports. The notion of the football club as a socialization or selection institution where one learns the moral of the fair foul is supported by a comparison of the views of 12-14-year-old football players and same age pupils who do not play football in a club. The term Fair play is used in the sense of a "fair foul" by only 24.5% of the polled pupils, compared to 57.6% of football players aged 12-14. Only 18.9% of football players consider it unfair to use one's back to prevent a goal by making an intentional foul just in front of the penalty area, compared to 38.9% of pupils who think the same. Only 45.3% of pupils think this is a clever tactic, compared to 64.5% of football players. In contrast, only 22.6% of pupils believe that seeking to get an unwarranted penalty by simulating a foul in the penalty area is unfair, compared to 50% of football players. 28.5% of football players, compared to 65.9% of pupils, consider this to be a smart, although unfair tactic. Football players are less accepting of cheating than pupils. This could be a result of school life in general, namely the compounded pressure of academic success. It was found that the longer 12-14-year-old juveniles play soccer in a soccer club, the more they are likely to accept deliberate fouls as fair; thus, the more they internalize the moral of "fair foul". Based on these results, the efforts to promote Fair play and the chances of education in Fair play are discussed critically (Pilz, 1995).
The results of the study on the Olympic value of Fair play of athletic and non-athletic 5th-6th grade Lithuanian pupils revealed that those pupils who participate in sports are less likely to seek victory without cheating and through honest behaviour, but they view the misconduct of teammates unfavourably. The results of our study confirm the results of Pilz (1995) that children who participate in sports for a longer period are more likely to break the rules and behave dishonestly in order to win.

Conclusions
Most 5th-6th grade Lithuanian pupils know what the Olympic value of Fair play is, but their skills and attitudes regarding it are not good enough. This study highlights the importance of educating athletic (participating in sport) 5th-6th grade children on the Olympic value of Fair play. In their sporting activities, they are often faced with situations where they have to decide on Fair play behaviour, but as the results of this study have shown, already at this age a significant number of them behave dishonestly and plan to do so in the future. In the process of sports education, children must be directed towards the internalization of Fair play so that it becomes an integral part of their being, motivating and regulating their behaviour and activities. skaičiuojami procentiniai dažniai. Dviejų nepriklausomų imčių palyginimui buvo taikomas Mann-Whitney U kriterijus.