Effect of two alternated teaching units of invasion team sports on the tactical learning in primary schoolchildren

Abstract

The “alternated teaching units” (ATU) is an innovative proposal that consists of delivering two related contents alternatively during the Physical Education (PE) classes, making students aware that both contents are based on the same learning’s principles, increasing the students’ global learning time and making the students perceive one unique learning. This study aimed to compare the use of ATU with traditional teaching units (TTU) on the achieved tactical learning for invasion team sports in primary school students. The sample consisted of 104 students (49 girls and 55 boys; average age = 10.62 ± 0.62 years). Ten PE lessons of soccer and basketball were consecutively (TTU) and alternatively (ATU) delivered. Results showed that the ATU participants had a statistically significant increase in the scores of adjust, guard/mark and general performance indices in basketball, soccer and overall invasion sports compared with the TTU participants (r = 0.24 to 0.64; p < 0.05). Additionally, the ATU participants had a statistically significant higher change of scores in decision-making index in overall invasion sports than the TTU participants (r = 0.25; p < 0.05). ATU applied to related sports should be considered instead of delivering consecutively and unconnectedly blocks of teaching in PE.