Robert L. Wiegand

Effects of Two Instructional Approaches on Skill Development, Knowledge, and Game Performance

Two instructional approaches that have been of interest in promoting sport have been the Sport Education Model (SEM) and the Traditional Style (TS) of teaching physical education. The purpose of this study was to investigate how SEM and TS would affect skill development, knowledge, and game performance for volleyball at the secondary level. A 2 × 3 (group × time) research design was utilized on 47 secondary students testing volleyball skills, knowledge, and game performance. Participants were placed in either the SEM or the TS via stratified randomization, and then were tested pre, mid, and post intervention through the 20-lesson volleyball unit. The 2 × 3 repeated measures Analysis of Variances (ANOVAs) with Bonferroni correction revealed no significant difference between models for skills and knowledge, but there was for game performance for group [F(1, 45) = 10.27, p < .008, η2 = .19], time [F(2, 90) = 8.62, p < .008, η2 = .16], and group × time interaction [F(2, 90) = 8.43, p < .008, η2 = .16]. If the goal of the physical education program is to promote quality game play, the SEM may be more effective than the TS.

Motor schema formation and retention in young children.

The variability-of-practice hypothesis, a major prediction of Schmidts (1975) motor schema theory, was tested in an attempt to investigate motor-schema formation. In addition, schema retention was observed after a 2-week retention interval. The task involved preschool children in tossing a bean bag for appropriate distance. Four treatment groups received 100 practice trials equally divided over five days. Variation was provided by varying the weights of the bean bags. The testing situations involved tossing a criterion weighted bean bag as well as a novel weighted bean bag which none of the groups had experienced previously. In addition, all groups were tested on a new but similar task. The results supported the variability-of-practice hypothesis in terms of schema formation and transfer to novel tasks in the same movement class. After a two-week retention interval, loss in performance was significantly less for the group with variability of practice than all other groups.

Curricular Issues in Physical Education Teacher Education.

Abstract Which foundational courses do PETE students really need? Should more time be spent on pedagogical content knowledge? Is the curriculum presented in the best order? Read on.

Infusing Health-Related Physical Fitness in Physical Education Teacher Education.

Our growing appreciation for physical activity and its health-related henefits exemplifies the need for physical educators who are adequately prepared to Facilitate the development of the skills, knowledge, attitudes, and fitness levels that will enable a child to maintain a physically active lifestyle across the life span. Unfortunately, there is some evidence to suggest that physical education teacher education programs may not adequately prepare prospective physical educators to meet this professional responsibility. Faculty members within the West Virginia University School of Physical Education have recently initiated a curricular revision that is intended to enhance the prospeclive physical educators ability to promote childrens physicd activity and fitness by infusing this content throughout the undergraduate curriculum. The purpose of this paper is to describe the infusion of a health-related physical fitness education strand into the physical education teacher education cuniculum.

IMPORTANCE OF THE POST-KNOWLEDGE DELAY INTERVAL ON TRANSIT REACTION

The purpose of this study was to determine if transit reaction or anticipation of coincidence could be improved by allotting more processing time. 120 subjects were randomly assigned to one of six treatment groups. The groups were formed by changing the temporal location of knowledge of results within the research paradigm, specifically to control the possible confounding from the inter-response interval. Data were analyzed via a series of two 6 (treatment conditions) × 5 (trial blocks) factorial analyses of variance, with repeated measures on the last factor for absolute and variable errors. The post-knowledge delay interval was the most important time of the paradigm, and transit reaction was positively related to duration of processing.