Effects of a health-related physical fitness intervention on middle school students’ academic learning time during physical education

Abstract

Background: This study examined the effects of the sports, play and active recreation for kids (SPARK) on middle school students’ academic learning time-physical education (ALT-PE) compared to the traditional physical education (PE) program. Methods: A total of 12 target middle-school students were randomly selected from a pool of 174 who participated in PE lessons over 9 weeks. Two raters used a 12-second-interval observation/record protocol to record the student’s context level (general, subject matter knowledge, and subject matter motor). In the SPARK school, target students attended the SPARK lessons for 9 weeks that included three curricular sport activities in the order of soccer, flag football, and ultimate Frisbee. Target students’ percentages of time spent in ALT-PE context categories and subcategories were calculated and compared by different PE programs and sport activities. A series of 2 × 3 mixed design ANOVA tests were conducted using SPSS statistical software. Results: Compare to traditional PE group, SPARK group had significant difference of percentage of time in general content (mean difference =−19.97%, P Conclusions: SPARK is an effective pedagogical strategy to increase youth’s ALT in school PE settings.