A Professor at UoB Writes a Book for Students and Researchers in Physical Education 

An Introduction to Scientific Research in Physical Education and Sports Sciences 

A Professor at UoB Writes a Book for Students and Researchers in Physical Education 

The Kuwaiti Publishing and Distribution House “That Al Salasil” has recently published a book by Dr. Faisal Ahmed Al-Mulla, Professor of Physical Education at the College of Health and Sports Sciences (CHSS) at the University of Bahrain (UoB), entitled “An Introduction to Scientific Research in Physical Education and Sports Sciences”. 

The book is medium-sized with 480 pages divided into seven chapters that include the stages of scientific research starting with: sensing and identifying the problem, choosing the appropriate research method, writing a research plan, collecting data using the appropriate tools, and analyzing the results using descriptive and inferential statistical methods, in addition to writing and evaluating the research report. 

The first chapter included the concept of scientific research and its basic principles, as the most prominent definitions of scientific research, its objectives, its significance, and its characteristics were reviewed. Also, it contained methods of obtaining scientific and non-scientific knowledge, and types of scientific research, explaining classification and stating the ethics of scientific research, in addition to the most important issues of scientific research in physical education and sports sciences and their proposed solutions. 

The second chapter included the elements of the scientific research scheme, namely: research title, research introduction, research problem, research objectives, research questions or hypotheses, research importance, research terms, research determinants, review of previous studies, research methodology and procedures, in addition to a list of references. 

While the third chapter discussed the most commonly used types of scientific research methods in physical education and sports sciences, which are the historical method, the descriptive method, and the experimental method. The topics related to these types were presented in several axes, starting with the emergence of these methods and the analysis of their various concepts, as the book dealt with the most important purposes that these methods target, the most important types of descriptive studies, the most important types of different experimental designs, and the most important basic steps that the researcher takes when using such methods, and it ended by presenting the most important advantages and disadvantages of these research methods. 

The fourth chapter included the research samples in terms of the concept of each of the research community and its sample, and reviewed the methods of probability samples and their different types of random, regular, stratified, cluster, and the non-probability and its types of the accessible, the intentional, the quota, and the voluntary, in addition to the errors in selecting the sample, the methods of determining the sample size, and the relationship between the sample size and the sampling error, as well as the factors affecting the determination of the sample size. 

Moreover, the fifth chapter discussed the tools used in data collection in scientific research related to the questionnaire, observation, interview, and test. The topics related to these tools were reviewed in several axes, starting with the concept of these tools and their general characteristics, their different types and classifications, the steps of their preparation, their method of use and fields, and finally ending with their main advantages and disadvantages. 

The sixth chapter discussed statistics in scientific research, in terms of the concept, purposes, and classifications of statistics that are represented by descriptive statistics, which are concerned with describing, organizing, classifying and displaying data through the use of tables of frequency distributions, drawings and graphs, or through the use of measures of central tendency, dispersion, percentile degree and normative degree, or through the use of correlation coefficients and inferential statistics, which is concerned with examining and comparing averages through the (c) tests, variance analysis, and Tukey’s test for dimensional comparisons.  

The book concluded with how to write and evaluate the research report and focus on the general frameworks related to the main and sub-sections of the report, and the method of documentation in the text and the list of references depending on the method used by the American Psychological Association (APA). Also, the elements of evaluating the research report were addressed, in addition to some questions related to each element of the evaluation, which can guide arbitrators and researchers when evaluating research reports, before giving quantitative estimates and writing a detailed report on the research. 

Prof. Faisal Al-Mulla is one of the Bahraini academic and research competencies with scientific contributions, as he has much scientific research published in refereed scientific journals, books and publications taught in some Arab universities, and hundreds of articles published in local and Arab newspapers. It is worth mentioning that Al-Mulla holds a PhD in Physical Education and Sports Science from the University of New Mexico in the USA.