A systematic review investigating the effects of implementing game-based approaches in school-based Physical Education and Sport among Primary school children

Abstract

Background: Physical Education (PE) is a formal part of the curriculum in most primary and secondary schools worldwide, and plays a significant role in the development of skills, in a wide variety of movement-based contexts. Game-based approaches (GBAs) are an alternate approach to teaching important aspects of the PE curriculum in both primary and secondary schools. However, the effects of GBA on game-performance, physiological, psychological and behavioural outcomes of primary school students have not yet been synthesized, thus the true potential of GBA in engendering beneficial effects remains unknown. Our aim of this paper was to conduct a systematic review of published research that has evaluated the effectiveness of GBAs conducted with primary school children via PE on game-related, psychological, physiological, and behavioural outcomes. Methods: This systematic review follows the guidelines of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) and was registered with the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) (registration number CRD42020183462). A systematic search of six electronic databases (EBSCO, EMBASE, ProQuest, PsycINFO, SCOPUS, SPORTDISCUS) without date limitation was conducted on 11th June 2020. Each database was searched independently. Search results were screened for relevance and quantitative studies conducted with children (6–12 years old) that investigated associations between GBA and physical activity levels, motor or game skills, and psychological outcomes. Results: The search yielded 4,674 potentially relevant articles, with 16 articles from 9 countries included following full-text review. Seven studies measured game performance, four studies measured Fundamental motor skills (FMS), five studies measured health-related indicators and three studies measured physical activity (PA) levels of children. All included studies reported statistically significant intervention results for game-performance, FMS, health-related indicators, and physical activity levels. Four studies did not report any information regarding any teacher training delivered. Discussion: The available evidence from this review illustrates that GBA interventions are capable of engendering improvements in children’s game-performance, FMS, health-related indicates and PA level outcomes. With regard to the improvement of the physiological and psychological health of pupils, it is difficult to judge which type of GBA is reliable due to the great heterogeneity. Declaration of conflicting interests: My co-authors and I acknowledge that we have no conflict of interest of relevance to the submission of this abstract.