Academic Learning Time in Elementary and Secondary Physical Education Classes

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine how much academic learning time is experienced by elementary and secondary school students during regular physical education classes (ALT-PE) and to investigate three major ALT variables, that is, time devoted to specific content areas, learner engaged time with relevant material, and student's success rate. Subjects were 30 elementary and 31 secondary school physical education teachers; all had two of their regular classes observed according to the ALT-PE observational procedure developed by Siedentop and his colleagues. Group average results were found to be consistent over time, but individual data showed very little stability. The ALT-PE mean results were 31.3% and 36.5% respectively for the elementary and secondary school level and were significantly different. From 19% to 34% of the class period was spent, on the average, in other than P.E. content activities. When class groups, as a whole, were involved in P.E. content activities, students, considered individually, were effectively engaged in those activities 50% of the time. The non-success rate of the students was found to be quite low (10% approximately) and, therefore, did not contribute greatly to decreasing the ALT-PE figures. It was felt that a better management of the student's involvement during P.E. content activities might contribute to increasing significantly the percentage of student academic learning time in a given class period.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: