A quantitative analysis measuring professionals’ perception about Quality Physical Education (QPE)

Abstract Embedding quality provision in physical education (PE) programmes in school settings remains a perennial concern among stakeholders worldwide. The demise of PE and sports participation in schools elevated the dialogue to comprehend the underpinning issues which erode its progress in Iraq. The study’s three aims are as follows: First, it aims to identify the potential items that define the quality aspects of PE (primary through university level) among professionals. Second, gender perceptions were gauged on the retained factors through an exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Third, perceptions of professionals working in various jobs were measured on the aspects of quality PE (QPE). Except for two statements (Items 6 and 44—low communality), professionals perceived all items to potentially indicate QPE. The items were gauged through an EFA for each subfactor separately. A t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were implemented to measure the differences in gender and job positions on the subfactors of QPE. Male and female professionals reported significant differences in all the subfactors. However, the perception of QPE by job position did not show any significant differences. Further, a 2 (gender) × 3 (job positions: primary school vs. high school vs. university) MANOVA was analysed, which highlighted a significant interaction effect (Wilks’ l = .92) among the professionals; but η2 (=.038) had a medium effect. The study provided a foundation for identifying items for measuring the QPE among professionals in Iraq. Nevertheless, significant gender differences for all QPE subfactors warrant future research to comprehend the underlying issues.

The physical inactivity crisis leads to global obesity.It had an equal impact on developing, underdeveloped, and developed nations.As a result, stakeholders and researchers from around the world are looking for ways to lessen the impact of obesity.Increasing people's physical activity levels is the best way to combat obesity.It appears that children spent a significant amount of their day in school.Additionally, schools provide a structured environment where children can receive adequate instruction on the value of physical activity in daily life.The movement for quality development in physical education (PE) has gained attention as a result of the demand for more opportunities for physical activity and sports in schools.This study helps identifies the potential items that define the quality aspects of PE among PE professionals.Gender perceptions and professionals working in various jobs were measured also on the aspects of the quality of PE.The study was significant because it laid the groundwork for identifying the QPE measurement instruments to be used among Iraqi professionals.However, significant gender differences across all QPE subfactors call for additional studies to understand the underlying problems.

Introduction
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has endeavoured to embed quality provisions for physical education (PE) in schools globally.Unfortunately, for more than four decades of UNESCO's manifestation of regularising PE as a mandatory subject in schools, substantial lacunas have been reported worldwide for its advocacy, including inadequate policy implementation (UNESCO, 1978).
The term "quality physical education" (QPE) is a conceptual idea of UNESCO that appeared officially in their documents in 2005(UNESCO, 2005)).QPE is defined as "a planned, progressive, inclusive learning experience that forms part of the curriculum during the early years of primary and secondary education in the QPE guides for policymakers" (UNESCO, 2015).QPE provides children with a base to comprehend the importance of lifelong engagement in physical activity and sport.Therefore, it helps children to enhance their psychosocial, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual skills to lead healthy and active lives (UNESCO, 2015).Apparently, discrepancies in PE policies herald a range of health risks, such as non-cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, arthritis, cancer, and others (Ahmed et al., 2017).Furthermore, the movement for quality development in PE ensures individuals' right to play, helps in designing an attractive curriculum to motivate children to pursue movement education, delivers adequate professional training and coaching education, enhances innovative research, and develops policies to promote the profession (Ho et al. 2019;UNESCO, 2015).
Several international apex organisations such as the International Council of Sport Science and Physical Education (ICSSPE), International Committee of Sports Pedagogy (ICSP), Centres for Disease Control (CDC), and National Association for PE and Sports (NASPE) have contributed immensely to developing the basic framework and policies related to QPE.QPE has received burgeoning interest and support from stakeholders; however, its implementation remains a challenge.Perceived challenges are linked to de-escalation of discrimination for not giving PE an equal status to other academic subjects, inadequate time allocation for conducting classes, unqualified teachers' appointments, lack of governmental support, and gender equality, including making it compatible with all societies with varied environmental, cultural, and economic conditions (UNESCO, 2015).
Until recently, measuring these issues in PE was an issue due to the unavailability of any validated tool that could gauge different quality aspects in PE.To fill this gap, contributions in this field made by Ho et al. (2016Ho et al. ( , 2017Ho et al. ( , 2019aHo et al. ( , 2019bHo et al. ( , 2020Ho et al. ( , 2018) ) have immensely advanced its progress to this dialogue.Specifically, Ho et al. (2018) developed a tool that was validated with psychometric properties that can measure PE professionals' perceptions regarding quality PE in their schools, cities, or countries.

Status of PE in Iraq
The Iraqi education system plays a prominent role in delivering quality education in all Middle Eastern countries.Iraq hosts several reputed universities which closely work to meet the objectives of disseminating quality education throughout the country.Unfortunately, Iraq has remained a war zone for the past few decades which has unequivocally impacted their entire education system.As such, PE has also been impacted.Reviewing literature in the fields of PE and sport from Iraq provided the authors with a lucid picture of various determinants that adversely impacted the profession's progress and development in the country.
Notably, several misconceptions of PE have been identified as the major obstacle for degrading its status in Iraq.Often in Iraq, PE relates to religious beliefs-whereby performing any form of physical training goes against their faith and societal customs.This religious doctrine evolves potential gender discrimination, especially when women are restricted from publicly participating in any form of recreational and physical activity (Yassin & Shihab, 2008).Inadequate infrastructure and poor sports facilities also remained a key problems for the dilapidated conditions of PE in Iraqi schools.Yassin and Shihab (2008) highlighted that schools in Iraq are neither provided with adequate sports equipment; nor do they not receive insufficient time for PE classes.Unfortunately, the study also found that school administration was reluctant to enhance the provision of physical activity and PE in schools.
Iraq remained a war zone for a long time, which destroyed people's property.These wars resulted in a large number of orphans and homeless individuals and forced them to migrate to different locations for residence.This resulted in changes in social status and lifestyle.To support this imbalanced and traumatic life, diverse activities in schools, especially extracurricular activities (for example, sport) play a crucial role in keeping students active and bringing smiles back to their faces.Furthermore, sport has the potential to reduce inequity and act as a means of development and therapy among victimised children.Despite the prominent role of sport in easing several social issues, it is largely neglected by educational institutions in Iraq (Al-Luhaibi, 2021).This crisis demands the government's strong incorporation of enhancing the efficacy of school administration to advocate the necessary provision of PE in Iraq (Majhool, 2020).In addition, local schools should leverage employees with provisions to meet their professional requirements (Majhool, 2020).Female teachers in Basra province reported potential behavioural issues among rural and urban school children (Jabbar & Resan, 2016).In their study, Salman and Ali (2019) found that female teachers appointed in boys' middle schools in Diyala, Iraq perceived considerable emotional stigma, professional skill teaching, and administrative barriers.Unfortunately, these issues were identified in more than 120 schools in Iraq.To curb these issues, continuous professional training among female teachers, including adequate counselling among students, would enhance classroom experiences.
In Iraq, schools do not receive adequate governmental support, attention to PE curricula, and unfacilitated administrations to employ quality programmes.In this context, Thamer et al. (2016)'s study conducted on Baghdadi teachers (N = 123) investigated how the lack of government funding is a barrier to teaching effectiveness and success of PE programmes in schools.It also restricted the development of sport in the district.Unfortunately, their study identified that PE did not have much importance as other academic subjects.Furthermore, their study recommended that school administration should play a prominent role in implementing sound lesson plans, disseminating duties for teachers, and developing strategies to handle teaching obstacles if they arise.Interestingly, Naif and Naif's (2012) study showed that the availability of effective sports resources in an area helps children protect themselves from criminal and delinquent activities.
In 1982, during the presidency of Saddam Hussain, Iraq won UNESCO's prize for eradicating illiteracy from their country.Interestingly, at that time, the education system was largely secular, and the education rate of women ranked at the top among all Middle Eastern countries.This progress could not be sustained as the literacy rate dropped by 24% among women and 56% among men with the invasion of Kuwait and the United States in 2003 (Jain, 2007).Apparently, in colleges and universities, women interacted freely with their male counterparts.Despite the coeducational setting, potential gender discrimination has often been identified as a key barrier to the propagation of PE in Iraq.These issues demotivate students to study PE and pursue this as their career.Furthermore, PE teachers in Basra province perceived considerable issues with their managers and work burden.While maintaining the perception of professional success, teachers were confused about whether they should work in the private sector or in the public sector (Nazzal, 2014).Hardman's (2008Hardman's ( , 2009) ) research has contributed considerably to the work of quality PE worldwide.However, the majority of his work was reported through invalidated statements.Data were interpreted using means, standard deviations, and frequencies (percentages).In addition to the literature mentioned above and the severity of diabetes among children and adolescents, especially in females (mean age 11.80 ± 3.12), seeks urgent implementation of health education for managing and curbing its prorogation in Iraq (Tofeeq et al., 2016).Therefore, Hardman's previous studies unequivocally provided some information on the background of PE globally; however, to determine professionals' concerns regarding these issues, future research in this area is warranted.

The present research
Reviewing the literature from Iraq and internationally and highlighting the questionnaire used in this study will provide a true reflection of all the situations discussed in the above section.Participants who were invited to participate in this study were all educated and have sound understanding of PE.They were all employed at schools (primary and secondary) and universities in Iraq.Based on their qualifications, it is assumed that they are familiar with PE policies, and they implement policies at their schools.Understanding the perceptions of PE professionals will help us receive inputs that can lead us in the right direction.Furthermore, it will help us form a thorough and valuable programme that could facilitate students' involvement in quality PE programmes.Therefore, it is believed that the findings of this study will help us understand the potential determinants and antecedents to the progress standard of PE in Iraq.In addition, this study leverages the analysis and design of concrete strategies to overcome any identified barriers.
Therefore, based on the provided rationale, three aims have been formulated for this study.First, the study will identify the potential items perceived by the professionals on the seven subfactors.Second, using the composite scores of the retained items from the factor analysis, gender perceptions were gauged from each of the subfactors.Third, the perceptions of professionals with different jobs were also measured.We examined the following hypotheses H 0 1: Validated items were used in this research to measure professional perceptions about quality PE in Iraq.Therefore, it is hypothesised that all items would be retained through exploratory factor analysis.H 0 2: There would be a significant difference between male and female professionals in all subfactors.H 0 3: Significant differences exist among the three job positions of professionals.

Measure
Permission to conduct this study was approved by the University of Macau, Macau.This study was conducted under the project of the "Global Index of Quality Physical Education".The questionnaire consisted of two parts.The first part collected biographical information (e.g., gender, cities, years of experience, job positions, and school type).The second part involved the participants completing Ho et al.'s (2018) Professional Perception of Quality Physical Education questionnaire (PPQPEQ) to measure professionals' perceptions of the quality provision of PE in schools in Iraq.The PPQPEQ consists of 48 items which measure eight broad subfactors.Furthermore, all the items were followed through the back-to-back (English to Arabic) translation (Kashef et al., 2018).For this study, separate EFAs were implemented for each of the subfactor.Specifically, seven EFAs were employed separately for seven subfactors.The Original version of the PPQPEQ consists of eight subfactors, however, for this study we have merged two factors as one.The reason for this merging is linked with its application, as EFA cannot be run if the factor has two items only (Hair et al., 2010).In our case, one of the original factors has two items that restricted the usage of EFA.The incorporation of two items may be unidentified a model and provide a negative degree of freedom (df).Again, if we take three items the model may be identified, but df will remain 0 and would have a perfect fit (e.g., CFI/GFI = 1) (saturated chi-square and goodness of fit).Therefore, the original factors of "Factor4-Plans for feasibility and accessibility of physical education (2 items)" and "Factor5-Social norms and cultural practice (3 items)" are combined as one factor.After its merging, this factor was renamed as "Social Norms and Cultural Practice" which is the same as the Factor5 of the original factor.Furthermore, it was ensured that the conceptual meaning of the factor does not deviate and intact with what the domain intended to measure.
All the subscales of this questionnaire had acceptable internal consistency values (Cronbach, 1951) within the sample.The subfactors include "Skill Development and Bodily Awareness (SDBA) (7 items, Cronbach a = .884)","Facilities and Norms in PE (FNPE; 11 items, Cronbach a =.958)", "Quality Teaching of PE (QTPE; 6 items, Cronbach a =.924)", "Social Norms and Cultural Practice (SNCP) (5 items, Cronbach a =.908)", "Cognitive Skill Development (CSD; 5 items, Cronbach a = .906)","Habituated Behaviour in Physical Activities (HBPA) (6 items, Cronbach a =.900)", and "Governmental Input for PE (GIPE; 5 items, Cronbach a =.985)".Sample items for each subscale include, "Our city's physical education programme contains teaching elements that help to assist students to how to communicate their ideas and feelings effectively with others (SDBA)", "The city's educational authority has clear policy to solve the economic issues to the development of an equal learning opportunity in school's physical education programme (FNPE)", "The schools in our city have safe and suitable equipment for teaching and learning in physical education lessons (QTPE)", "Our city's school physical education programme raise students" independent thinking ability' (SNCP), "The knowledge of growth and its relationship to activities are being well taught through the school physical education programme (CSD)", "Students in our city are given suitable opportunities for active learning in physical education lessons (HBPA)", and "Students" physical skills development is being effectively enhanced through our school's physical education programme (GIPE)'.Responses to the items were recorded on a 10-point Likert scale ("Strongly Agree = 10" to "Strongly Disagree = 0").The original version of the questionnaire has excellent internal consistency (ranging from = 0.82-0.93)for all subscales and test-retest (four weeks) reliability (range = 0.78-0.93,Macau; 0.79-0.90,India).Furthermore, a confirmatory factor analysis through structural equation modelling (SEM) provided sound psychometric properties as follows: CFI = .903,NFI = .861,TLI = .896,PCFI = .842,RMSEA = .058.
Notably, the item's wordings are modified per the requirement of this study.However, there is no change in the meaning and logic rooted in each of the items.In other words, the meaning of all the items is conceptually intact and consistent.A few examples are provided here to demonstrate how the modification has occurred in the items wordings are as follows, ("Enhance their physical skills (original)", "Item1: Students' physical skills development is being effectively enhanced through our school's physical education program (modified)"; ("Enhance students' knowledge of sport-related terms" (original), "Item2: Knowledge of sport and physical activities are being well learned through the school physical education program (modified)"; (Teacher should be qualified to teach physical education (original)", "Our city's educational authority recognizes that good quality physical education depends on well-qualified educators ."(modified).Furthermore, this practice is common in psychometrics and have used widely in our field (Akela et al., 2018;Zhang & Chelladurai, 2013) as well as in others (Teo, 2016).
Apparently, it is customary to standardize rating points when we use items from other validated scales.As such, instead of using a 6-point rating scale (Ho et al., 2018), this study focused on a 10point rating scale.The overarching reason for using this inclusion is quite intentional.The waning condition of the physical education program in Iraqi schools remained an irresistible point of discussion to comprehend what impedes its progress in their country.As such, the QPE questionnaire seems to be the most suitable tool that can dialectically describe the present situation in Iraq.However, to know this, the incorporation of a 10-point rating scale outperforms the original 6-point rating scale of the questionnaire (Ho et al., 2018).Because a 10-point rating scale is relatively easy to use and is much preferred to express participants' feelings adequately (Preston & Colman, 2000).In this context, Bendig (1954)'s study highlighted that the short rating scale may lack in providing consistency in participants' responses as well as identifying the discrepancy in views, especially in a large set of items.Besides, participants in this study are educated and have adequate knowledge in the area of physical education, especially the subjects' status in their country.As such, a 10-point rating scale seems to have the potential to garner in-depth information from the participants.On reviewing the literature, it was highlighted that if the respondents are less educated and less literate, it is recommended to use a scale with low ratings (Ma, 2014).In particular, the use of a midpoint (odd number of scale points, e.g., 5-point) is a scaled category that may have some culture-specific sensitivity (Chen et al., 1995, Grandy, 1996).

Procedure
The principal investigator (PI) and the collaborator in Iraq have known each other for a long time.Therefore, as a potential collaborator, the PI invited the Iraqi professor to participate in this study.After the agreement, the collaborator procured permission from his university to conduct this study in Iraq.Concerned authorities of universities, college presidents, and PE teachers were contacted by the Iraqi collaborator to discuss the objectives of the study and obtain their approval to conduct the research.With their approval, participants were invited to participate in this study through webinars, workshops, and email invitations.Contact was made by the Iraqi collaborator and one of the female research assistants.Participation in this study was voluntary; participants had the right to withdraw at any time, and their responses were confidential.Participants who agreed to participate in the study were requested to provide informed consent, and they were then given the study questionnaire packet.The packet could be completed at the participants' convenience and returned in person, through email, or by postal mail.Data collection was completed by the end of 2020.The demographic characteristics of the participants are presented in Table 1.

Data analysis
Descriptive statistics (e.g.M, SD, frequencies, skewness, and kurtosis) were computed.To determine the potential items perceived by professionals about quality PE in school settings, seven separate exploratory factor analyses for each subfactor were conducted.Cronbach's alpha was used to explore the consistency of all subfactors and overall QPE score.Data were then analysed using a seven (subfactor) by five (gender: male vs. female, job position, primary vs. middle vs. university) MANOVA.Prior to employing MANOVA, various assumptions were checked: responses on the variables were multivariate & normally distributed within each group; the population in each group was equal; did not observe any potential outliers; and participants are randomly and independently recruited from the population.As an adjunct to the MANOVA results, eta squared (η 2 ) values were computed and interpreted against Cohen's (1988) guidelines where 0.01 = small, 0.06 = medium, and 0.14 = large differences.The significance level was set at .05 for all statistical tests.The data were analysed using SPSS software, version 23.

Results
This study examined PE professionals' (working at different institutions and positions) perception about the quality provision of PE in Iraq.Data were gathered from four cities in Iraq.An EFA was performed to evaluate the survey instrument.Professionals' perceptions were measured using EFA separately for the seven dimensions (SDBA, FNPE, QTPE, SNCP, CSD, HBPA, and GIPE) of QPE.An eigenvalue greater than one was considered acceptable as the criterion (Hayton et al., 2004).All the factors provided a one-factor solution, and the items loading below 0.05 were deleted.
Table 2 provides information regarding potential items perceived by professionals.Furthermore, the table provides information on the percentages of variance defined by each item, factor loading, and communality value for each of the extracted items performed by the EFA.Specifically, it explains what items represent selected factors and suggests the removal of non-representation items for the factor.Next, internal reliability tests were conducted for each dimension based on the final items extracted (Table 3).
An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to reduce the number of items that explained the respective subfactors.Here, the value of communality, which explains the extent of variance, is considered for the extracted factor.If the communality value is less than 0.5, it would be removed   from the factor.Seven statements related to "SDBA," 14 items to "FNPE," six items to "QTPE," five items to "SNCP," five items to "CSD," six items to "HBPA," and five statements that represent have identified under each factor through EFA.While performing the analysis, seven items of SDBA explained 59.03% the variance, 13 items of FNPE explained 66.55% of the variance, QTPE (six Furthermore, in the case of "Facilities and Norms in Physical Education" out of 14 items, one item was excluded because of low commonality (.32).Further, from the five items in the factor of "Cognitive Skill Development (CSD)", one item was excluded because of low commonality (.39) (Table 3).For both factors, adequate commonality (<0.5) values were reported for all the items.Furthermore, by reviewing the commonality for all items in Table 2, none of the items valued > .5.
A reliability analysis was conducted to comprehend the consistency of each subscale's data.The value of Cronbach's alpha more than 0.6 was considered to define a factor.However, if the factor showed a lower Cronbach's alpha than the stated reliability value, then there was a need for improvisation of data either by transformation or collecting more data.Table 3 shows the internal consistency of each of the subfactors.Interestingly, all subfactors highlighted excellent internal consistency because their values rated higher (> α. 80) than the standard alpha value (α.= 0.6).Therefore, it may be assumed that the perception garnered by professionals is reliable.
The descriptive statistics for each subscale item are presented in Table 1.Independent t-tests and one-way analyses of variance (ANOVA) on each dependent variable as follow-up tests to the MANOVA were conducted to evaluate the hypothesis that would compare all seven factors of QPE of the male and female professionals from Iraq.Using the LSD method, each ANOVA was tested at a .05level.All subfactors were tested using a two-tailed hypothesis.

Discussion
For decades, stakeholders worldwide have emphasised the perennial concern of quality aspects of PE in school settings.However, an in-depth understanding of factors influencing the demise of PE and sports participation, especially in underdeveloped countries such as Iraq, is lacking.This study had three broad aims that identify potential items from primary through university level and measured the perception of professionals working at different job positions as well as gender aspects on the quality aspects of quality PE.

Professional perceptions on the items of the QPE
Interestingly, of the 50 items, 47 items retained through an exploratory factor analysis provided excellent internal consistency (ranging from α = .88to α = .98)which was similar (ranging from α = .82,α = .93)to the original version of the questionnaire devised by Ho et al. (2018).Loading of the extracted items highlighted the agreement of the professionals regarding the quality aspects of PE in their country's institutions.Specifically, it posited that all retained items are relevant in measuring the quality of PE programmes in their school settings.However, of the total items, two statements (Items 6 and 44) declined because of low communality.Description of the items is provided as follows: "Item 6: Positive sport-related attitudes and values are the focus of learning in PE in our city."and "Item 44: All PE teachers in our city are qualified to teach physical education."Future studies are warranted to comprehend the underlying issues that devalued these two items among Iraqi professionals.

Gender differences on the retained items
Male and female professionals reported significant differences in all retained subfactors.A higher sum value for an item reveals a higher consensus among professionals.Interestingly, female professionals reported higher mean values for all the subfactors.This implied that female professionals valued all the retained items to be more important than their male counterparts.
The SDBA subscale emphasised students' opportunities to participate in PE programmes and interact with classmates to enhance self-awareness of their own bodies.Thereby, it familiarises them with how bodies work during various sports and physical activities.Furthermore, it prioritises students' knowledge of the sport, physical skills, and body growth and development.The PE programme is not mandatory in all Iraqi schools.Therefore, emphasising all these quality aspects among Iraqi students would be unequivocally pivotal.Hollett et al. (2016) also highlighted that peer interactions in the school environment could significantly improve children's bodies and spatial awareness.In a similar context, Chaddock-Heyman et al. (2013) have also found that motor skill advancement remains a key booster for children's self-awareness and mindfulness.As the progressive acquisition of mental and motor skills contributes to an active lifestyle, it further improves physical, cognitive, and mental health.
The subfactor of FNPE indicated the provision of a structured PE curriculum across primary, junior, and senior high schools.Furthermore, safety concerns for the smooth running of a programme, including the provision of adequate equipment, facilities, and environment; appointing qualified teachers; and developing norms for enhancing quality provision in the PE programme in schools are emphasised in this factor.In 2015, UNESCO (Article 5) endorsed the adequacy of safe spaces, facilities, and equipment to meet the needs of PE, physical activity, and sport in schools.This should consider the different needs associated with the climate, culture, gender, age, and disability of children.This could be the reason why female professionals in Iraq prioritised this factor.Findings from the study of Yassin and Shihab (2008) highlighted that Iraqi schools faced an acute crisis of inadequate sports facilities, infrastructure, and insufficient time allocation for conducting PE classes.
The factor of QTPE exhibited the necessity of teaching elements such as developing basic motor skills and knowledge of different physical and sports activities, exchanging ideas with peers, developing decision-making strategies, and setting personal goals for enhancing healthy and active living among students (Ahmed et al., 2017).It also facilitates educators to comprehend and explain high-quality PE teaching and delineate ways for its delivery through a specific curriculum (Ho et al. 2018;Light et al., 2014).As such, the study by Light et al. (2014) clearly explained how the conceptualisation of "Game Sense" also delivers quality teaching and learning in PE programmes.Game Sense is a research-informed pedagogical method for sports and PE that locates the game at the core of the session.It inspires players to develop skills such as tactics and decision-making in a realistic context.Interestingly, it encourages students to ask questions about what they have learned in the game context (McNeill et al., 2008).The higher mean value reported by female professionals may be attributed to their low satisfaction with the delivery of PE provision in Iraq (Majhool, 2020).Female teachers in Basra province reported potential behavioural issues among rural and urban school children (Jabbar & Resan, 2016;Zayed et al., 2018).Unfortunately, as regards curbing these issues, lack of professional training among female teachers, including inadequate counselling among students, lead to challenges among professionals (Salman and Ali, 2019).
The social norms and cultural practice (SNCP) factor prioritised "concerns about religion, culture, gender discrimination, and socio-economic status-issues that lead to unequal learning opportunities in PE" (Ho et al., 2020).The reason for female professionals prioritising this factor could be linked to the possible discrimination which restrained them from participating in sport and PE because of religious faith, local customs, and social norms.Surprisingly, women are not allowed to perform any form of public recreational or physical training (Yassin & Shihab, 2008).The long-term war in Iraq degrades the status of PE and sport.To revive the lost qualities in PE programmes in schools in Iraq, an embedded PE curriculum, provision of safe and suitable sports gear, facilities and infrastructure, and a motivational climate (Ahmed et al., 2020) in schools are irresistible.As such, professionals advocated the provision of PE for all children, irrespective of their ability/ disability, sex, age, culture, ethnicity, or religious, social, or economic background (Ahmed et al., 2020;Ho et al., 2018).Orphans and homeless children who migrated to different places in Iraq due to fear of war brought significant changes to their social statuses and lifestyles.To provide respite from their disturbed and traumatic lives, there should be adequate PE and sport to improve children's happiness (Ahmed & Konukman, 2021, Al-Luhaibi, 2021;Chen et al., 2020;Majhool, 2020).
The CSD subscale includes items such as "helping students develop their critical thinking skills, problem-solving, innovative thinking, and independent thought to enhance socially acceptable moral thinking and conduct" (Ho et al. 2018).Studies have successfully proved the adequacy of organised physical activity for developing students' cognitive skills.Reed et al., (2010) highlighted a significant relationship between PA and fluid intelligence.This indicates the capacity of a person to reason rapidly and conceptually.Interestingly, children undergoing regular moderate-tovigorous physical activity (MVPA) during PE classes performed better than their less active peers on the most demanding tasks, had better overall academic performance (Ahmed, 2013, Castelli et al., 2007), scored better in mathematics tests and had improved memory.
The habituated behaviour in physical activities (HBPA) depicts the provision possessed in a city to provide adequate PE programmes that contain opportunities and assist students in developing habits of regular exercise and maintaining active and healthy living (Kremers et al., 2008).It helps students to advance proficiency in different physical and sports activities, thereby understanding its relationship with personal and social development and contributing in and out-of-school programmes available within the community (Ho et al. 2018).This may be the reason why female professionals had high mean scores and reliability scores for the HBPA subscale.Furthermore, inculcating good habits in children envisages healthy living because behaviour accomplished continually may be automatically activated by environmental cues and thus become habitual (Aarts et al., 1997).
The factor of GIPE indicates the government's initiatives to implement necessary policies to advocate PE as human rights, enhance public awareness towards healthy and active lifestyles, appoint qualified teachers, and promote networking of the institutions (nationally/internationally) to include PE in the educational aided programmes.These dimensions should be prioritised to incorporate quality aspects into PE programmes.The government plays a vital role in manifesting legal requirements for upgrading the status and making PE a mandatory subject in school curricula (Doll-Tepper & Scoretz, 2001).In this connection, the report of Jain (2007) highlighted that in 1982, Iraq received UNESCO's prize for maintaining percent literacy and brought the rate of women's education at the top in the Middle Eastern countries.The continued war in Iraq devastated their education system, deescalating the progress of women's education by 24% and male education by 56%.Governments must confirm that health and PE programmes occur and function legitimately and without discrimination (Ho et al. 2018).Additionally, the co-educational setting in institutions has been largely impacted, including elevated potential gender discrimination.Apparently, parochial and religious beliefs restrict people in Iraq from participating in sports activities.The number of teenagers dropping out of sports is increasing; in some places, this rate exponentially increases, especially among females.As such, the government should conduct awareness programmes so that girls can enjoy the benefits of sports and physical activity (Yassin & Shihab, 2008).Government initiatives providing adequate funding (Thamer et al., 2016) and sports facilities could help youth protect themselves from criminal and delinquent activities (Naif & Naif, 2012).

Conclusion
The goal of quality teaching and learning is to enhance students' deep comprehension of PE.The development of strategies to improve students' movement activities is greatly aided by QPE.They gain more confidence, become competent, and can use their creativity to engage in different PAs.Importantly, it is crucial to instill movement skills in young children and teenagers in order to set them on the path to positive PA.Moreover, it is designed to experience the enthusiasm of participating in PA, showcase their creativity, and set goals for leveraging a healthy and active lifestyle.These interwoven factors of teaching and learning facilitate students' motivation to learn, speak, exchange, and execute their ideas.The study provided a well-vetted foundation for identifying potential items for measuring the quality aspects of PE among professionals.However, significant gender differences for all the subfactors of QPE warrant future research to comprehend the underlying issues.This will help ensure a secure and safer future for PE in Iraqi institutions.

Table 3 . Reliability analysis and factors description Items Initial numbers of items Number of items retained Cronbach's alpha
SNCP (five items) explained 73.27%, CSD (five items) explained 78.02%, HBPA (six items) explained 66.67%, and GIPE (five items) explained 76.26% of the variance.