Influence of Different Physical Education Pedagogical Approaches on the Health and Development of 5-6 Year Old Children

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Child; Child Development; Health Behavior; Physical Activity
• Interventions: Behavioral: Nonlinear; Behavioral: Linear

• Registration Number: NCT03551366
• Lead Sponsor: Liverpool John Moores University

Brief Summary

The Skill Acquisition Methods underpinning Pedagogy for LEarning in Physical Education (SAMPLE-PE) project aims to investigate the influence of different pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning in physical education (PE) on 5-6 year old children's health and development. Schools from deprived areas are invited to take part in the project and will be randomly assigned to either: (1) linear pedagogy PE curriculum programme, (2) nonlinear pedagogy PE curriculum programme or (3) carry on as normal. The linear and nonlinear pedagogy PE programmes will be underpinned by different and contrasting theories of skill acquisition and are delivered by trained coaches over 15 weeks. Children will be measured to assess their physical, psychological, cognitive, and emotional health and development, and their physical activity levels at the start of the study, immediately after the 15 week PE programme, and again after 12 months. It is expected that children taking part in the linear and nonlinear PE programmes will demonstrate greater physical development than children attending schools that carry on as normal. Furthermore, it is also anticipated that children taking part in the nonlinear PE programme will show greater gains in psychological, cognitive and emotional outcomes than the linear and usual practice programmes.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2018-01-04
• Study First Submitted: 2018-05-10
• Study First Submitted QC: 2018-05-28
• Study First Posted: 2018-06-11
• Primary Completion: 2019-03-30
• Status Verified: 2019-08
• Study Completion: 2019-08-13
• Last Update Submitted: 2019-08-13
• Last Update Posted: 2019-08-14

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 361

Inclusion Criteria

• Children aged 5-6 years attending Liverpool primary schools.

Exclusion Criteria

• From the details given in participant's Child Medical Form, any child diagnosed with health or co-ordination issues that could affect motor competency will be excluded from analyses.

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Nonlinear	Nonlinear	Subjects in this group will receive a nonlinear PE curriculum for 15 weeks. Nonlinear pedagogy is grounded in Ecological Dynamics theory. Ecological dynamics regards learners as complex adaptive systems which afford opportunities for action from their environment and generate movement solutions to satisfy the combination of personal, environmental and task constraints imposed upon them. According to nonlinear pedagogy, the teacher's role is to design learning experiences that create behavioural symmetry between learning and the performance environment. The teacher is a facilitator and manipulates constraints to channel the learner's physical development, while learners are left free to experiment and select the movement solutions that best answer their individual needs. This child-focused, less prescriptive approach may enhance a child's intrinsic motivation by offering freedom to choose, and an emphasis on exploration and problem solving.
Linear	Linear	Subjects in this group will receive a linear PE curriculum for 15 weeks. Linear Pedagogy is underpinned by neuro-computation approach to motor learning such as information processing theory and prescribes that an ideal movement pattern exists for each task and that the teacher's role is to help learners recreate that pattern. Furthermore, theorists have suggested that learning is a gradual, linear process. This linear pedagogy is supported by a teaching and learning approach that includes both prescriptive and repetitive actions, utilising technical demonstrations that provide learners with a 'visual template or criterion model' for the desired skill . As a consequence, a PE pedagogy has developed whereby the teacher's role is to make all the decisions, and the learner's role is to follow their instructions on cue - a teacher-led approach to PE.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Change from baseline motor creativity level at 5 and 12 months	Baseline (month 0), after the intervention (approximately 5 months post-baseline) and follow-up (approximately 12 month post-baseline)	Motor creativity will be assessed using the Divergent Movement Ability Assessment (Cleland and Gallahue, 1993)
Change from baseline motor competence level (Locomotor and Object-Control Skills) at 5 and 12 months	Baseline (month 0), after the intervention (approximately 5 months post-baseline) and follow-up (approximately 12 month post-baseline)	Fundamental motor skill competency in locomotor and object control skills will be assessed using the Test of Gross Motor Development-3 (TGMD-3: Ulrich, 2013; Webster and Ulrich, 2017).
Change from baseline stability skill level at 5 and 12 months	Baseline (Month 0), after the intervention (approximately 5 months post-baseline) and follow-up (approximately 12 month post-baseline)	Fundamental motor skill competency in stability category skills will be assessed using the Test of Stability skills (Rudd et al., 2015).

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Change from Baseline Motivation at 5 months	Baseline (Month 0) and after the intervention (approximately 5 months post-baseline)	Self Determined Motivation in children will be assessed by a write, draw, show and tell, method, adapted from Noonan et al. (2017).
Change from Baseline Executive Functions at 5 and 12 Months	Baseline (Month 0), after the intervention (approximately 5 months post-baseline) and follow-up (approximately 12 month post-baseline)	Executive functions will be assessed by three activities from the National Institute for Health toolbox (Weintraub et al., 2013; Zelazo \& Bauer, 2013)
Body Mass Index	Baseline (Month 0), after the intervention (approximately 5 months post-baseline) and follow-up (approximately 12 month post-baseline)	Stature (to the nearest 0.1cm) and mass (to the nearest 0.1kg) will be assessed to calculate and report BMI in kg/m\^2
Change from Baseline Perceived Physical Competence at 5 and 12 Months	Baseline (Month 0), after the intervention (approximately 5 months post-baseline) and follow-up (approximately 12 month post-baseline)	Perceived Physical competence will be assessed using the corresponding subscale within The Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance for Young Children (Harter \& Pike, 1984). The Physical Competence subscale includes items 3, 7, 11, 15, 19, and 23 from the Pictorial Scale. Each item is scored on a 4-point scale, where 4 represents the highest degree of perceived competence. The subscale score is computed by adding values of child responses and ranges from 6 to 24.
Waist girth	Baseline (Month 0), after the intervention (approximately 5 months post-baseline) and follow-up (approximately 12 month post-baseline)	Waist girth (nearest 0.1cm) will be assessed as marker of central adiposity
Change from Baseline Self-Regulation at 5 and 12 Months (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire)	Baseline (Month 0), after the intervention (approximately 5 months post-baseline) and follow-up (approximately 12 month post-baseline)	Self-Regulation will be assessed by the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997; Stone et al., 2010), as completed by the child's class teacher.; The Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire consists of 25 items within 5 subscales (emotional, conduct, hyperactivity, peer and prosocial).; There are five items on each subscale with each item scored 0, 1 or 2. Scores therefore range from 0-10 for each subscale, with 10 indicating higher levels of difficulties (emotional, conduct, hyperactivity, peer subscales) or strengths (prosocial subscale) and 0 indicating lower levels.; A total difficulties score is also generated by summing scores from all the scales except the prosocial scale, with scores ranging from 0 (low) to 40 (high).
Change from Baseline Self-Regulation at 5 and 12 Months (Response to Challenge Scale)	Baseline (Month 0), after the intervention (approximately 5 months post-baseline) and follow-up (approximately 12 month post-baseline)	Self-Regulation will be assessed by the Response to Challenge Scale (RCS: Lakes, 2012; 2013); The RCS is an observer-rated measure of children's responses to a physical challenge and includes 16 bipolar adjectives (e.g., Vulnerable-Invincible) rated on 7-point scales (scored 1-7).; There are three subscales assessed: "Cognitive" (6 items, scoring range from 6 to 42), "Affective" (7 items, scoring range from 7 to 49) and "Physical/Motor" (3 items, scoring range from 3 to 21). Negatively worded items are reversed prior to aggregation, so that possible scores on all subscales ranged from 1 to 7, with higher scores indicating greater self-regulation.
Change from Baseline Physical Activity at 5 and 12 Months	Baseline (Month 0), after the intervention (approximately 5 months post-baseline) and follow-up (approximately 12 month post-baseline)	Physical Activity will be assessed by wrist-worn accelerometers (ActiGraph GT9X+) on their non-dominant wrist continuously for seven days. Parents are asked to keep a diary on when the monitor was has been worn.
Change from Baseline Perceived Movement Skill Competence at 5 and 12 Months	Baseline (Month 0), after the intervention (approximately 5 months post-baseline) and follow-up (approximately 12 month post-baseline)	Perceived Skill Competence will be assessed by the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Movement Skill Competence for Young Children (Barnett et al., 2015).; The Scale consists of twelve items with two subscales of six items each representing "Locomotor Skill Perceived Competence" and "Object-Control Skill Perceived Competence", respectively. Each item is scored on a 4-point scale, where 4 represents the highest degree of perceived competence. Subscale scores are computed by adding values of child responses and range from 6 to 24 (higher values indicate higher perceived competence).; All 12 items are summed to generate the Perceived Movement Skill Competence scale score, which ranges from 12 to 48 (higher values indicate higher perceived competence).
Maturation	Baseline (Month 0), after the intervention (approximately 5 months post-baseline) and follow-up (approximately 12 month post-baseline)	Stature, mass, and sitting height will be combined to determine maturation status using an age and sex specific maturity offset calculation (Mirwald et al., 2002).

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Liverpool John Moores University; 🇬🇧 Liverpool, Merseyside, United Kingdom