How can we positively motivate adolescent females in physical education to further promote lifelong physical activity?

Students in British Columbia are required to take Physical and Health Education 10 (PHE 10) as a graduation requirement, and for many, especially females, it may be the last Physical Education (PE) course they choose to take. As a secondary PE teacher, I felt it critical to research this further by documenting my PHE 10 students' experiences using a mixed methods survey. Students completed a 4-point Likert scale questionnaire and open-ended questions on what they enjoyed, disliked, felt was an idyllic class, and why or why not they selected the elective Active Living 11 course (the next course in the PE sequence). The data was analyzed highlighting similar themes with the literature that indicated an increased dropout from sport, especially by teenage females. The survey results with respect to general enjoyment, inclusion and satisfaction in PE were high. The female student average of 3.05 notably lower than the 3.5 average of the males. The imbalance was also noted with the percentage of females opting to take senior elective PE courses at 32% compared to the males at 60%.