Measuring Research Trends of Physical Education Department PhD Thesis Titles using Text Mining Technique

Abstract

In India Physical Education was taught for over hundred years as a subject in colleges and universities, which was classified and placed under major subject Education. Research in Physical Education flourished in India from 1972. The research trends in Physical Education subject for past ten years in Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University (TNPESU) was not measured. Hence this study was
carried out to find out the research trends in physical education. The PhD research thesis Titles awarded by TNPESU in Physical Education Department from 2009- 2019 ten years was selected as data for this study. The thesis titles words grouped into four main categories namely type of research, core/interdisciplinary subject, variables selected and type of subject choices for study. A total of 209 research topics were analyzed for this study and the inferences were drawn. From the analysis it was found that 158(75.60%) research topics are found to be experimental research in which 96(60.75%) research are sports training methods based research
which is core of physical education subject. Majority of the research selected physical, physiological and psychological variables. Fifty five percent of research scholars chose players as their subjects and the rest of 45% chose school, college, obese, students for their study. Therefore form this study the research trend for past ten years was mapped and presented.