Health Related Fitness Physical Education Intervention: Self-Determination Perspective

Abstract

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of 8-week health-related physical education (HRFPE) intervention on 9th-grade students' health-related fitness knowledge (HRFK) level, physical activity level (PAL), and physical fitness levels. Methods: Experimental research with two groups, HRFPE, and skill-based physical education, with 154 students, was measured before and after the intervention. While the experimental group attended the HRFPE intervention, the comparison group attended the skill-based physical education intervention. Quantitative data were gathered from Health-Related Fitness Knowledge Test (HRFKT), International Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents (IPAQ-A), and Fitnessgram tests (Left & right leg Flexibility, Push-up, Pacer, Curl-up, and BMI). Data gathered from HRFKT, and IPAQ-A were analyzed by mixed-design multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). Data from Fitnessgram tests were analyzed by mixed-design analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results: The knowledge test results revealed a significant effect of HRFPE intervention on students' cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular endurance, training principles, and general health knowledge parameters of HRFKT. The intervention significantly increased the low and vigorous PAL of participants. The HRFPE intervention positively affected right leg flexibility, pacer cardiovascular, curl-up muscular endurance, and BMI. Results demonstrated the effect of self-determination theory based HRFPE intervention on developing students' HRFK level, physical activity behavior, and physical fitness test performances. Conclusions: This study revealed that physical education teachers could design and implement HRFPE course interventions in real school settings. Further recommendations were discussed regarding the content and implementation of intervention for physical education teachers, curriculum specialists, and future studies.