Children's fundamental movement skills (FMS) require planned and guided interventions to develop appropriately. We investigated the effect of a novel Physical Education (PE) method to develop children's object control, locomotor skills, and motor competence. Further, we examined children's trainability, i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Sports Act Living
November 2024
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present a scale that assesses students' perceptions of their engagement in physical education. The scale assesses all four dimensions of engagement (agentic, cognitive, behavioral, and emotional) in order to be consistent with the contemporary notion of engagement used in current educational research.
Method: A total of 231 eighth and ninth-grade students (108 boys, Mage = 14.
Maritime traffic is essential for global trade but faces significant challenges, including navigation safety, environmental protection, and the prevention of illicit activities. This work presents a framework for detecting illegal activities carried out by vessels, combining navigation behavior detection models with rules based on expert knowledge. Using synthetic and real datasets based on the Automatic Identification System (AIS), we structured our framework into five levels based on the Joint Directors of Laboratories (JDL) model, efficiently integrating data from multiple sources.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To investigate the relationship of biological characteristics (age, sex, and obesity), movement behaviors (physical activity and sedentary time), and family socioeconomic status with fundamental movement skills (FMS) in primary school children.
Methods: This cross-sectional study sampled 1014 children (537 girls) aged 6 to 10 years from 25 primary schools in Matosinhos, north of Portugal. Five object control skills (dribbling, kicking, catching, throwing, and underarm rolling) were assessed with a categorical scale using the Meu Educativo® platform.
Objective: The aim was to (1) estimate the relationship between physical fitness (PF) and object control fundamental movement skills (FMS), (2) identify child characteristics that relate with PF and FMS, and (3) examine associations between the school environment, PF, and FMS.
Methods: The sample included 1014 Portuguese children aged 6-10 years from the REACT project. PF was assessed via running speed, shuttle run, standing long jump, handgrip, and the PACER test.
Objective: This paper examines the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) using a multivariate multilevel approach and investigates the links between individual and school-related correlates with children's BMI and CRF.
Methods: This cross-sectional sample included 1014 children (6-10 years) from 25 Portuguese primary schools. BMI was calculated, and CRF was assessed with the PACER test.
Objective: Whether sleep is related to fundamental movement skills (FMS) in the pediatric population is largely unknown. The objective of this study was to examine the association between sleep characteristics (duration, efficiency, regularity) and FMS proficiency levels in school-aged children.
Methods: This cross-sectional study included 996 children (mean age: 8.
Objectives: The REACT project was designed around two main aims: (1) to assess children's growth and motor development after the COVID-19 pandemic and (2) to follow their fundamental movement skills' developmental trajectories over 18 months using a novel technological device (Meu Educativo®) in their physical education classes. In this article, our goal is to describe statistical analysis of the longitudinal ordinal motor development data that was obtained from these children using the multilevel ordinal logistic model.
Methods: Longitudinal ordinal data are often collected in studies on motor development.
Front Sports Act Living
August 2023
This article presents a discussion of research in Physical Education and Sport Didactics in Portugal. It starts by situating it from an historical perspective, placing the 1980s as the beginning era, mainly based on the studies provided by the two first Physical Education higher education institutes of the country. The initial research, first based on master and doctoral dissertations, progressed to ongoing projects that have been disseminated in international and national journals and books.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: The REACT project was designed around two main aims: (1) to assess children's growth and motor development after the COVID-19 pandemic and (2) to follow their fundamental movement skills' developmental trajectories over 18 months using a novel technological device (Meu Educativo®) in their physical education classes. In this introductory article, the first of the Journal's special issue dedicated to REACT, our goal was to present the project rationale, its methodology, training and certification of the team, statistical approach, quality control, governance, and study management.
Methods: We sampled 1000 children (6-10 years of age) from 25 of the 32 primary schools in Matosinhos, northern Portugal.
This study aimed to examine how a novice Physical Education teacher unfolded her pedagogical practice as a facilitator of learning during a hybrid Sport Education/Step-Game-Approach volleyball season; and to investigate students' perceptions about their lived learning experiences and active involvement in building their own learning process. For this purpose, an insider action-research design was implemented throughout one school term (20 lessons of 45 minutes each in total). Twenty-five students (aged between16 and17 years old), enrolled in the 12 grade at a Portuguese high school took part in this investigation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe purpose of this article is three-fold: (1) revisit the concept of life skills to position physical literacy as a social justice life skill; (2) make the argument that physical literacy is particularly relevant within a critical positive youth development perspective; and (3) propose a novel critical praxis for developing physical literacy amongst youth. When considering emergent social issues, youth programming has the potential to integrate concepts from a range of theoretical frameworks, which may help youth transform into social change activists and competent movers. Such critical perspectives may guide sport and physical education programming as contemporary society poses numerous challenges concerning youths' diverse emotional, mental, physical, and social needs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF: Although emerging research has explored the development of coach education curricula, coach learning and how a deep learning approach can be made accessible to aspiring coaches, the study of coach educators' scaffolding of micro-pedagogies in action remains a missing link in the field. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore scaffolding strategies adopted by an experienced coach educator to encourage aspiring coaches to adopt an active approach to learning. : A case-study was conducted for a full semester of twelve practical lessons in the unit "Sports Methodology I-Volleyball" of a renowned sport sciences coach education program.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFListening to adolescents' voices has been important to promote meaningful physical activity (PA) opportunities. Therefore, an updated systematic review of the available qualitative literature on adolescents' perspectives on the barriers and facilitators of PA was conducted, according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Studies published between 2014 (date of the last systematic review) and 2020 were searched in the Web of Science, EBSCO, and SCOPUS databases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF: This longitudinal study provided a retrospective examination of the impact of student participation in a year-long Sport Education curricular experience on physical literacy development. A focus was placed on students' reported motivation, attitudes and disposition to participate in physical education (PE) and sport, and their re-actualizations of a healthy sport culture in the years following the Sport Education experience. : Three years following the Sport Education experience, a cohort of 24 tenth-grade students (nine girls and 15 boys) were traced back and invited to share their recollected memories and accounts of their PE experience and subsequent attributes of physical literacy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe teaching and learning of games and sport-based activities has historically been the dominant form of the physical education curricula. With an interest in providing to students meaningful and culturally situated sporting experiences, Sport Education is probably the most implemented and researched pedagogical model worldwide. However, although there is considerable evidence that the model as a curriculum approach can benefit the development of social goals and healthy sport behaviors, not a single study as to date examined students' game-play development beyond participation in single and isolated teaching units.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: The purpose of this study was to provide an integrated analysis of a teacher's peer-teaching mediation strategies, the student-coaches' instruction, and the students' gameplay development across 3 consecutive seasons of sport education.
Method: Twenty-six 7th-grade students participated in 3 consecutive sport education seasons of invasion games (basketball, handball, and soccer). The research involved 3 action research cycles, 1 per season, and each cycle included the processes of planning, acting and monitoring, reflecting, and fact finding.
This study conducted a comparative analysis of students' knowledge development on athletics in Sport Education and in a Direct Instruction unit taking into account sex and initial skill level. The participants were an experienced Physical Education teacher and two sixth-grade classes totaling 47 students (25 boys and 22 girls). Each class was randomly placed in either Sport Education or Direct Instruction classes and participated in 20, 45-minutes lessons focused on shot put, hurdles and triple jump.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study examined students' technical performances improvements in three track and field events (hurdles, shot put, and long jump) following either a Sport Education season or a Direct Instruction unit. An experienced Physical Education teacher taught two classes totalling 47 sixth-grade students (25 boys and 22 girls, aged between 10 and 13 years old) in 20, 45-minute lessons over 10 weeks. The students' technical performances were analysed and evaluated through systematic observation of videos.
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