Influence of Different Physical Education Pedagogical Approaches on the Health and Development of 5-6 Year Old Children (SAMPLE-PE)

Liverpool John Moores University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Physical Activity; Child Development; Child; Health Behavior

Treatments: Behavioral: Nonlinear; Behavioral: Linear

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03551366

LiverpoolJMU

Details and patient eligibility

About

The Skill Acquisition Methods underpinning Pedagogy for LEarning in Physical Education (SAMPLE-PE) project aims to investigate the influence of different pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning in physical education (PE) on 5-6 year old children's health and development. Schools from deprived areas are invited to take part in the project and will be randomly assigned to either: (1) linear pedagogy PE curriculum programme, (2) nonlinear pedagogy PE curriculum programme or (3) carry on as normal. The linear and nonlinear pedagogy PE programmes will be underpinned by different and contrasting theories of skill acquisition and are delivered by trained coaches over 15 weeks. Children will be measured to assess their physical, psychological, cognitive, and emotional health and development, and their physical activity levels at the start of the study, immediately after the 15 week PE programme, and again after 12 months. It is expected that children taking part in the linear and nonlinear PE programmes will demonstrate greater physical development than children attending schools that carry on as normal. Furthermore, it is also anticipated that children taking part in the nonlinear PE programme will show greater gains in psychological, cognitive and emotional outcomes than the linear and usual practice programmes.

Enrollment: 361 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 5 to 6 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Children aged 5-6 years attending Liverpool primary schools.

Exclusion criteria

• From the details given in participant's Child Medical Form, any child diagnosed with health or co-ordination issues that could affect motor competency will be excluded from analyses.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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361 participants in 3 patient groups

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Subjects in this group will continue with their usual PE curriculum for 15 weeks.

Linear

Experimental group

Description:

Subjects in this group will receive a linear PE curriculum for 15 weeks. Linear Pedagogy is underpinned by neuro-computation approach to motor learning such as information processing theory and prescribes that an ideal movement pattern exists for each task and that the teacher's role is to help learners recreate that pattern. Furthermore, theorists have suggested that learning is a gradual, linear process. This linear pedagogy is supported by a teaching and learning approach that includes both prescriptive and repetitive actions, utilising technical demonstrations that provide learners with a 'visual template or criterion model' for the desired skill . As a consequence, a PE pedagogy has developed whereby the teacher's role is to make all the decisions, and the learner's role is to follow their instructions on cue - a teacher-led approach to PE.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Linear

Nonlinear

Experimental group

Description:

Subjects in this group will receive a nonlinear PE curriculum for 15 weeks. Nonlinear pedagogy is grounded in Ecological Dynamics theory. Ecological dynamics regards learners as complex adaptive systems which afford opportunities for action from their environment and generate movement solutions to satisfy the combination of personal, environmental and task constraints imposed upon them. According to nonlinear pedagogy, the teacher's role is to design learning experiences that create behavioural symmetry between learning and the performance environment. The teacher is a facilitator and manipulates constraints to channel the learner's physical development, while learners are left free to experiment and select the movement solutions that best answer their individual needs. This child-focused, less prescriptive approach may enhance a child's intrinsic motivation by offering freedom to choose, and an emphasis on exploration and problem solving.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Nonlinear