Relationships of organization, time, and student achievement in physical education

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between the way time is used in physical education classes and student achievement. Teachers of 10 classes and their middle school/junior high school students were the subjects for the study. Students were pretested and posttested on the volleyball forearm pass and serve using previously validated tests. Between the two testing sessions students received 7 days of instruction in these skills. All classes were videotaped using a two-camera split screen system so that virtually all activity in the gym could be identified later. Digitally displayed running time was superimposed on the video image. Student achievement for each class was determined separately for each skill by regressing posttest on pretest and calculating a residual score for every student. The mean of the residual scores for each class was calculated and used in subsequent analysis. A multifaceted observation instrument was developed and validated for collecting data which reflected how time was spent in class. Mean residual achievement was correlated with time spent in the various categories of class organization. For both skills, total time spent in practice with teacher feedback had a significant positive correlation with student achievement. When subcategories of practice were considered, individual student practice and reciprocal practice by student pairs were positively correlated with achievement. The use of scrimmage had a negative correlation with achievement in situations where it was used for skill practice. This study provides powerful empirical validation of the relationships between class organization, time, and achievement in physical education.