The aim of the master’s thesis was to assess the results of the SLOfit measurements in children from Spain, and what compare their motor efficiency and physical characteristics to children from Slovenia.
The sample included 72 pupils of the 4th, 5th and 6th grade of the Enric Farreny primary school from Catalonia and 59080 pupils of Slovenian primary schools. The average age of Spanish children was 11 years and 2 months and of Slovenian children 11 years and 5 months.
The data were obtained by the SLOfit test battery. We had two anthropometric measurement tasks for obtaining data for body height and weight and 5 motor measurement tasks. These included long jump, bent arm hang, sit ups, 60 meters dash and 600 meters run. The obtained data were analyzed with the statistical program IBM SPSS and Microsoft Excel.
The analysis showed that Catalan boys are 5,5 cm lower than Slovenian boys (151,3 cm) and weigh on average 4,6 kg less than Slovenian boys (40,4 kg). Catalan girls are on average 6,7 cm lower than Slovenian girls (151,9 cm). The body weight of Slovenian girls is 5,2 kg higher than the Catalan (39,6 kg).
Statistically significant differences (p < 0,01) were detected in all measurement tests. The average result of the long jump for Catalan boys were 143,8 cm and for Slovenian boys 161,7 cm which means that Slovenian students had 11% better performance. Slovenian boys made an average of 42,2 sit ups per minute while Catalan boys made 34,9 repetitions which means that they made almost 18% less repetitions than their Slovenian peers. Slovenian boys endured 33,9 second in the bent arm hang test which is almost 47% more than Catalan boys whose average result was 18,2 seconds. In the 60 m dash Slovenian boys (10,8 s) ran about 6% faster than the Catalan (11,4 s). The Catalan boys the distance of the 600 meter run in 193,5 seconds while the Slovenian boys managed the same distance in 165,6 seconds which meant 15% faster time.
In Catalan girls the average result of the long jump was 137 cm while in Slovenian girls it was 154,8 cm which was 11,5% longer than in Catalan girls. In the measurement task of sit ups, Slovenian girls made on average 16% more sit ups (40,6) than Catalan girls (34,1 repetitions). Slovenian girls lasted managed 31 seconds in the bent arm hang which was 17% longer Catalan girls who managed 22,6 seconds. In the 60 m dash, Slovenian girls achieved the time of 10,9 seconds which was 5% faster than in Catalan girls (11,5 s). The Catalan girls managed the 600 meter run distance in 213 seconds which was almost 19% slower than the average time of Slovenian girls (173 seconds).
The results of our research show that there are large differences in physical and motor development between children from Slovenia and Spain. The growth tempo of children from Slovenia is higher and that there seems to be also higher quality of work in physical education in Slovenia, which is strongly reflected in the motor development of children from Slovenia compared to their peers from Catalonia, Spain. The research also showed that one of the key reasons for the poor results of Catalan children could be attributed to inadequately designed physical education curriculum and poor material conditions for deliverance of the subject.
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