Physical education (PE) plays an important role as children grow up because it enables them to obtain sports experience and develop all their motor skills, without which they cannot develop fully. Well-developed motor skills have a significant impact on the positive development of the motor skills aspect of pupils and their intellectual and socio-emotional aspects, which is why the planning and implementation of the PE subject in schools must be ensured at a high level of quality.
The presented doctoral dissertation’s main purpose was to determine which factors of a teaching process can lead to the higher quality and more effective implementation of PE lessons, and then, based on these findings, create a model of high-quality teaching for this subject.
In the theoretical part of the doctoral dissertation, we first defined certain terms, namely ‘movement’, ‘exercise’, and ‘sport’, and explained the differences between them. We described how important movement is for children, its effect on the development of intellectual and socio-emotional aspects, as well as on a healthy lifestyle. We explained the role of the PE subject and how its planning and implementation take place. We also defined the quality indicators of PE lessons, as well as listed and described certain aspects of teaching that may affect the greater effectiveness of lessons.
In the empirical part of the dissertation, we first presented the procedure and results of the pilot study, with which we verified the measuring instruments and calculated their measuring characteristics. In continuation, we presented the main study, which was carried out similarly to the pilot study, only on a larger sample and using a more perfected measurement procedure. In the main study, 108 PE lessons at primary school grade level were observed and measured, of which the first 58 were taught by pupils, and the next 50 were taught by teachers. There were 648 pupils in total (324 girls and 324 boys), who wore acceleration measuring devices during the lessons, and we measured the effective time of learner engagement for 432 pupils (216 girls and 216 boys). Furthermore, 108 questionnaires on the self-evaluation of teaching were completed, and 324 questionnaires on the evaluation of teaching. The questionnaire on how they felt during the PE lesson was completed by 324 pupils. In this study, we used a quantitative research approach and a causal non-experimental method.
Data on the quality of lessons were first reviewed using basic statistics, and then using a hi-square test to check whether statistically significant differences in effective lessons management appeared between students and teachers. In order to determine any statistically significant differences between the two groups in terms of achieving medium- and high-level intensity of student engagement and well-being during sports lessons, we conducted a t-test for independent samples. In doing so, we first determined the homogeneity of variances at the univariate level using Levene’s homogeneity test. To determine statistically significant differences in teacher self-evaluation between teachers and students, we used the nonparametric Mann-Whitney test, and between self-evaluations and evaluations, the nonparametric Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test. Both tests were selected based on the normality of the distribution of variables, which we verified using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests. Using the same tests, we first checked the normality of the distribution of variables in identifying teaching quality factors; then we used the Mann-Whitney test within each dimension to identify statistically significant differences in the frequency of each factor in the effective and ineffective lessons. To determine any connection between various learning contents and the quality of lessons, we first conducted Levene's test to check the homogeneity of variances. For the first dimension on the interestingness of class lessons, the result of Levene's test was statistically significant, so we proceeded using the Tamhane post hoc test. However, for the second dimension on the well-being of students during lessons, the result of Levene's test was not statistically significant, so we proceeded using ANOVA and Tukey's post hoc test. According to the obtained results on the well-being of students in individual learning contents, we also checked the connection between various learning contents having an effective time and level of intensity of students' activities during lessons. For the effective times, Levene’s test was statistically significant, so we proceeded using the Tamhane post hoc test for calculations. However, at the activity intensity level, Levene’s test was not statistically significant, so we proceeded using the ANOVA and Tukey's post hoc test.
The results showed that the general level of quality and the effectiveness of PE lessons at grade level was assessed on the basis of the set quality indicators (amount of the pupils' effective time of learner engagement, amount of the pupils' time spent performing medium and high-intensity activities, and how the pupils felt during these lessons) was exceptionally low and that there were no statistically significant differences between pupils and teachers that taught the lessons.
Concerning the self-evaluation of the quality of their own teaching and their lessons, the teachers with many years of experience evaluated themselves more highly than the pupils did, while both the pupils and the teachers evaluated their work better than the three external evaluators (observers) did.
The teaching factors that turned out to be the most important in the achievement of higher levels of PE lesson effectiveness were ensuring differentiation and individualisation in the performance of elements by the pupils, the teachers’ position near the pupils while teaching in the sports hall, the continuous provision of new recommendations and advice to the pupils (in addition to the already provided instructions), teaching with enthusiasm, respecting the views of pupils and showing empathy to them, carefully listening to the pupils’ questions and answers, calling pupils by their names, providing positive feedback when correcting their performance and using different forms of within-class grouping in one lesson.
The results also showed no statistically significant differences between the students and teachers regarding how frequently they used the various teaching factors, whereas the teaching content did affect the quality and effectiveness of the lessons. The most effective lessons, based on all three quality indicators, were athletics-based lessons.
In the conclusion, we presented a model of high-quality teaching of PE lessons, which was created based on the obtained results and represents our contribution to PE didactics and the science of teaching. The model includes those factors of teaching PE lessons that indicated statistically significant differences given their frequency of use in the effective and ineffective lessons. It shows us which teaching factors could be used to achieve greater effectiveness in PE lessons considering the set criteria of high levels of activity and the well-being of the pupils.
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