Effects of a Health-related Physical Education Curriculum, Teacher Development Program and Students Assessment on Children's Fitness Level and their Exercise Enjoyment

Abstract

PURPOSE: To face the challenges of the changing environment in school physical education, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a health-related curriculum, a teacher development program and student assessment on school children's levels of fitness and exercise enjoyment. METHODS: By using the Fullan's (1982) multidimensional framework, 1120 students were randomly assigned to either a control group (TMO) or three different experimental groups <E1-TMTD, E2-TMSA, E3-TMTDSA> to examine the effects on students' fitness levels and their exercise enjoyment before and after a 10-month intervention period. RESULTS: results showed that all students were significantly improved on the item of “push up” regardless of their groups (p<.05). Students of E1 group were significantly improved on the items of “curl up”, “sit & reach” and “trunk lift” while students of E2 group were significantly improved on the items of “1-mile run” and “sit & reach” respectively (p<.05). For E3 group, it is notable that students were improved significantly on the items of “BMI”, “1-mile run”, “curl-up”, and “sit & reach” after the intervention (p<.05). In terms of exercise enjoyment, only students of E3 showed statistically significant improvements on the items of “I find exercise energizing”, “exercise is very stimulating” and declined on the items of “I feel exercise bored”, “I dislike exercise” and “I am very frustrated by exercise” significantly (p<.05). Finally the overall exercise enjoyment index of E3 group was also found to be significantly improved (p<.05). CONCLUSIONS: In conclusions, Fullan's assumption is a useful theoretical framework for illustrating and analyzing students' learning outcomes while multidimensional changes to a complex set of components is required. Keywords: Children's Fitness, Exercise Enjoyment, Health-related PE Curriculum