Effect of Learner Strategies With Modular Versus Traditional Instruction on Motor Skill Learning and Retention

Abstract

This study investigated the effectiveness of learner strategies on learning and remembering a series of juggling skills, using modular versus traditional modes of instruction. The 48 subjects (M age = 16.6 years) were randomly assigned to one of four groups: (a) a group taught by a live instructor (traditional) using learner strategies; (b) a traditionally taught no-strategies group; (c) a self-instructed group that used strategies with a modular instructional approach; and (d) a control group exposed to a similar module without the use of strategies. Two juggling experts rated subjects on their ability to perform five juggling skills immediately following eight learning sessions (acquisition) and 7 days after the first test (retention). The use of ANOVA revealed that the groups which used modular instruction, as opposed to traditional instruction, and strategies in comparison to no strategies, performed significantly better when scores on the acquisition and retention tests were combined. Performance on the retention test was similar for all groups. The results provided partial support for the use of modular instruction and learner strategies in the learning and remembering of complex gross motor skills. However, contrary to expectations, the combination of these factors did not elicit performance superior to that elicited by the other conditions.     

Research on Teaching in Physical Education: Questions and Comments

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to study the effect of swimming on the learning and performance of two complex gross motor skills. Forty college men were matched on the basis of a pre-test and formed into experimental and control groups. The experimental group learned the two selected skills in addition to swimming, whereas the control group learned only the selected skills. Two scoring systems were used, and findings indicated no significant difference between groups.     

The Differential Effect of Indirect Instruction in the Teaching of Sport Skills on Critical Thinking and Self-esteem of Early Adolescent Boys Placed at Risk

The purpose of this study was to examine the differential effect of sport skills instruction (SSI) and sport skills instruction plus initiative games (SSI +) on the critical thinking (CT) and self-esteem scores of early adolescent boys placed at risk. Students in the SSI + group ( n = 36) participated in initiative games classes in addition to their sport skills activities. Students in the SSI group (n = 44) participated in the sport skills activities only. Since the boys were divided by age (10-11 & 12-13), the influence of age on the dependent variables was also investigated. Classes taught by the initiative games teacher were student-centered while the sport skills classes were teacher-centered. Significant differences between teacher behaviors occurred in interaction patterns, instructional strategies, and management concerns. There were no differences on self-esteem scores. The results supported the addition of initiative games to SSI to foster CT with this group of participants.     

Coeducational and single-sex physical education: students’ situational interest in learning tasks centred on technical skills

Background: A student’s choice to engage in a learning task is highly related to the student’s environmental stimuli and his or her perception of interest. From this perspective, the construct of situational interest (SI) has been used to interpret students’ motivation in task engagement. SI is assumed to be transitory, environmentally activated, and context specific. It has been conceptualized as a multidimensional construct with five dimensions: instant enjoyment, exploration intention, attention demand, novelty, and challenge. Few prior studies have compared SI between girls and boys in physical education (PE) contexts, and these studies have offered contrasting findings. They were conducted in coeducational (coed) or single-sex contexts and used learning tasks centred on a variety of outcomes: technical or tactical skills, creativity and cultural understanding.

Purpose: In the context of the debate on single-sex and coed classes in PE, this study aimed to estimate the effects of single-sex and coed PE classes on students’ situational interest (SI) within learning tasks centred on technical skills. The researchers decided to study learning tasks centred on the development of students’ technical skills, since these tasks are often used by teachers in PE.

Participants: The sample consisted of 177 Swiss secondary school students, aged 11–17 years (M?=?14.07, SD?=?1.41, 96 boys, 81 girls).

Data collection: The students completed the French 15-item SI Scale after practising a technical learning task in single-sex and coed PE contexts. The researchers chose five physical activities (i.e. athletics, basketball, dance, gymnastics, and volleyball), which are commonly taught in the state of Vaud (Switzerland) and provide a balance between masculine and feminine activities.

Data analysis: A two-way repeated-measures MANOVA was performed to examine the main and interaction effects of student sex and class sex composition on the five SI dimensions.

Findings: The results showed a main effect of class sex composition on student SI but no main effect of student sex and no interaction effect of student sex and class sex composition. More precisely, the scores for three SI dimensions (i.e. instant enjoyment, exploration intention, and attention demand) were higher in the coed context than in the single-sex context.

Conclusions: This study encourages teachers to propose coed PE classes to enhance students’ motivation and engagement when practising learning tasks centred on technical skills. This study offers supplementary evidence of the teacher’s role in promoting student SI. Beyond accounting for students’ dispositional factors (e.g. sex), PE teachers can significantly impact students’ SI in technical learning tasks through instructional choices.     

The Development of Curricular Knowledge: A Case of Problematic Pedagogical Content Knowledge during Advanced Knowledge Acquisition

Abstract

The study examined, what and how 12 K-8 physical education teacher education (PETE) majors learned, about a movement approach that was discrepant from their experiences with physical education. This article describes one portion of the findings: what and, how PETE majors learned about a movement approach to game play/strategy and mechanisms of advanced knowledge acquisition that contributed to confusion about this topic. Analytic induction and constant comparison were used to analyze qualitative data from interviews, observations, and relevant documents. Eleven PETE majors initially maintained partial or inaccurate conceptions about a movement approach to game play/strategy or taught the content in ways that were inconsistent with their goals for physical education, their knowledge about learning and teaching game skills, and the information presented by faculty and cooperating teachers. Interacting with students' prior knowledge and what and how faculty taught, the following learning mechanisms contributed to confusion: (a) overgeneratizing a contrast between a movement and traditional approach, (b) forming associations prior to adequate differentiation, and (c) overrelying on bottom-up thinking when intially developing lesson/unit progressions.     

Relationships between Psychological Functions Tests and Selected Sport Skills of Boys in Junior High School

Abstract

Junior high school boys (N=181) took part in this study. There were 91 athletes and 90 nonathletes who took five psychological function tests² and eight sport skill tests to determine (a) whether differences existed in selected psychological functions and selected sport skills between junior high school boy athletes and nonathletes, (b) the degree of relationship between psychological functions and sport skills, (c) the implementation of a six-multiple variation equation in predicting probable individual sport skill scores, and (d) the degree of relationship between a long and short form psychological functions test and a long and short form sport skills test.

The Stoelting visual reaction timer apparatus was used to test for simple reaction time. The Howard-Dolman apparatus was used to test for depth perception. The McClure perimeter was used to test for peripheral vision left eye, right eye, and total angle. The sport skill tests used were soccer combination skills and volley; basketball dribble shoot and volley; volleyball volley and serve; and baseball volley and repeat throws.

Significant differences existed on all psychological function tests and sport skill tests between athletes and nonathletes, in favor of athletes. The psychological function tests were independent of each other except for peripheral vision total angle with right eye and left eye. There was a low to moderate relationship between the psychological functions and the sport skills. The six-variable multiple R regression equation had a 70 percent predictive accuracy on individual scores for each sport skill test. The short form psychological functions test and the short form sport skills test could replace their respective long forms. The short form psychological functions test could moderately predict sport skill performance in the sport skill areas selected.     

A Comparison of Traditional versus Programed Methods of Learning Tennis

Abstract

Two college service classes, each containing 20 subjects, were taught beginning tennis skills. The traditionally taught Group (Group A), and the programed group (Group B), were first determined homogeneous in height, weight, the Hewitt Revised Dyer Backboard Tennis Test (HRDBTT), and the American College Test before the teaching methods were initiated. After 14 periods of instruction, the groups were compared on various measures. The results of the study indicated that: (1) the general skill level of the groups, as measured by the Hewitt Revised Dyer Backboard Tennis Test, and a single-elimination tournament, was not significantly different; (2) the traditionally taught group improved significantly in general skills while the programed group did not; and (3) the programed group received better subjective rating scores on form than did the traditionally taught group.     

Effects of Light and Heavy Equipment on Acquisition of Sports-Type Skills by Young Children

Abstract

This study was made to test certain hypotheses concerning proprioceptive facilitation by observing the relative effects of the use of lightweight and heavyweight equipment on the acquisition and retention of selected skills by second and third grade children. The 96 7-and 8-year-old children were equaled into four groups on the basis of summed scores derived from a five-item physical performance test battery. Each group consisted of 12 boys and 12 girls, ande were two equated groups in each grade level. One group at each grade level was randomly assigned to use lightweight plastic equipment, while the other grade group used the standard-type equipment classified as heavyweight equipment. Each lightweight group and each heavyweight group were taught the four sports-type skills and tested in the performance of the skill 2 days after the instructional lesson and retested 9 months later. It was concluded that the learning of sports-type skills by young children of limited strength may be facilitated by the use of lighter-weight equipment. To some extent, this relationship among the factors of equipment weight, strength, and the acquisition of skill would seem to be in accord with the “flower spray ending feedback” theory of proprioceptive facilitation.     

Contextual Interference Effects in Learning Three Badminton Serves

Abstract

This study investigated the generalizability of results of contextual interference effects by extending previous laboratory research to a field setting. Thirty female subjects (N = 30) learned three badminton serves in either a blocked (low interference), serial (mixed interference), or random (high interference) practice schedule. The subjects practiced the serves three days a week for three weeks. On the day following the completion of practice the subjects were given a retention and transfer test. Results replicated previous findings of contextual interference research by showing a significant group by block interaction between acquisition trials, retention, and transfer. The random group performed better on both retention and transfer than the blocked group. The significant trial block by contextual interference interaction also supports the generalizability of contextual interference effects, as posited by Shea and Morgan (1979), to the teaching of motor skills.     

Task Classification and Strategy Utilization in Motor Skills

Abstract

A task classification scheme was developed in accordance with a conceptual model of motor behavior. The scheme suggests that motor skills be categorized as to the processing demands placed on a learner, feedback availability, and pacing conditions. Additionally, potential learner strategies were identified and defined in relation to both the model and the classification scheme. Consideration was given to the fact that strategies should be taught in addition to movement skills. Ultimately, appropriate strategies should be self-generated. Recommendations were provided for the consideration of task-learner-strategy interactions in the design of instructional material and development of instructional programs.     

Generic anthropometric and performance characteristics among elite adolescent boys in nine different sports

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the Flemish Sports Compass (FSC), a non-sport-specific generic testing battery. It was hypothesised that a set of 22 tests would have sufficient discriminant power to allocate athletes to their own sport based on a unique combination of test scores. First, discriminant analyses were applied to the 22 tests of anthropometry, physical fitness and motor coordination in 141 boys under age 18 (16.1 ± 0.8 years) and post age at peak height velocity (maturity offset = 2.674 ± 0.926) from Flemish Top Sport Academies for badminton, basketball, gymnastics, handball, judo, soccer, table tennis, triathlon and volleyball. Second, nine sequential discriminant analyses were used to assess the ability of a set of relevant performance characteristics classifying participants and non-participants for the respective sports. Discriminant analyses resulted in a 96.4% correct classification of all participants for the nine different sports. When focusing on relevant performance characteristics, 80.1% to 97.2% of the total test sample was classified correctly within their respective disciplines. The discriminating characteristics were briefly the following: flexibility in gymnastics, explosive lower-limb strength in badminton and volleyball, speed and agility in badminton, judo, soccer and volleyball, upper-body strength in badminton, basketball and gymnastics, cardiorespiratory endurance in triathletes, dribbling skills in handball, basketball and soccer and overhead-throwing skills in badminton and volleyball. The generic talent characteristics of the FSC enable the distinction of adolescent boys according to their particular sport. Implications for talent programmes are discussed.     

Distribution of Practice in Motor Skill Acquisition: Different Effects for Discrete and Continuous Tasks

Abstract

Research on the benefits of distributed practice for the acquisition and retention of motor skills has a long history. The majority of this research has involved skill acquisition of continuous tasks. However, there is some evidence to suggest that distribution of practice effects are quite different for discrete tasks than for continuous tasks. In the present study, we used a single task, formed discrete and continuous versions of the task, and examined how acquisition and retention were affected by the length of inter-trial interval. The basic task was a movement timing task that involved either one timing estimate per trial (the “discrete” version) or twenty successive estimates per trial (the “continuous” version). Separate groups of subjects learned one version of the task under either distributed (25 s inter-trial intervals) or massed (0.5 s inter-trial intervals) practice conditions. Both massed and distributed retention trials were performed on the same version of the task according to a double transfer design. The results confirmed the apparent disparity: Acquisition and retention were facilitated by distributed practice on the continuous task, but by massed practice on the discrete task. These results were discussed in terms of the role of the inter-trial interval in discrete and continuous tasks.     

Research Abstracts

Abstract

Retention and relearning of five novel gross motor skills after a long period of no practice were studied. College women were classified into high, average, and low skill groups in a previous experiment, and this classification of 36 of the original subjects was retained in the present retesting study. A high degree of skill was retained after approximately one year of no practice. Relearning to previously attained skill levels was rapid. There were significant differences among classified high, average, and low skill groups in learning, retention, and relearning.     

Comparative Effectiveness of Two Methods of Teaching Physical Education to Elementary School Girls

Abstract

This study was designed to determine whether there was a difference in the effectiveness of the traditional method and the movement exploration method of teaching physical education activities to elementary school girls. Four classes of fourth-grade girls (N = 67) were randomly assigned to the experimental conditions. A 2 × 2 × 3 factorial ANOVA with repeated measures on the last factor was used to analyze the data. The first factor consisted of the traditional and movement exploration teaching methods. The second was a combination of instructional time and retention time. The third was test period and had three levels: pretest, posttest, and retention test. Skills taught were gymnastics and tumbling, and basketball. It was concluded that a combination of methods should be used in teaching elementary school physical education activities, depending upon the activities to be taught. A four-week unit (two 50-min periods per week) is suggested as the appropriate length for nine and ten year olds.     

Relative Effectiveness of an Instant Replay Videotape Recorder in Teaching Trampoline

Abstract

The problem undertaken in this investigation was to examine the effects of teaching sports skills with and without an instant replay videotape recorder. Two random groups of freshman students at Washington State University were taught a 12-week unit in beginning trampoline. The experimental group used the VTR. The post-test-only control group design was used. Evaluation of performance was made by a three-man jury. The group means for the experimental and control groups were 80.57 and 79.36 respectively, clearly not significant at the preset level of acceptance of .10 (t = .27).     

The biomechanical effect of warm-up stretching strategies on landing mechanics in female volleyball athletes

ABSTRACT

Female volleyball athletes incorporate dynamic and static stretching into a warm-up, with evidence generally supporting dynamic stretching to improve performance. However, the effects of these stretching practices on injury risk during subsequent volleyball manoeuvres have yet to be fully elucidated in the warm-up literature. Three-dimensional kinematic data associated with non-contact, lower extremity injury were recorded on 12 female collegiate club volleyball athletes during unilateral landing tasks on the dominant and non-dominant limb. Participants performed landings as part of a volleyball-simulated manoeuvre prior to and post-dynamic (DWU) and combined dynamic-static (CDS) warm-ups. A significant reduction in non-dominant hip adduction angle was found at 15 min post CDS warm-up (p = 0.016; d = 0.38), however, no other warm-up differences were detected. The non-dominant limb demonstrated greater knee abduction (p = 0.006; d = 0.69) and internal rotation angle (p = 0.004; d = 0.88), suggesting that this limb demonstrates more risky landing patterns that are potentially due to altered trunk positioning upon landing. The results show that the majority of selected landing kinematics are unaffected by additional static stretching to a dynamic warm-up and that the non-dominant limb may be at a higher injury risk in female volleyball athletes.     

Retention of Perceptual Motor Skill: An Analysis of New Methods

Abstract

New methods of determining the amount and type of forgetting pioneered by Bilodeau, Sulzer and Levy were applied to gross perceptual motor skill retention. The changing interdependencies in time of R₁, the learned response; KR_r, recalled knowledge of results after an interpolated rest interval; and Ra, postrest performance, were studied. No evidence of forgetting occurred except for KR_r, which deteriorated in accuracy over a 21 to 23 day rest interval. Limitations of the new paradigm were discussed.     

Associated ACL risk factors differences during an unanticipated volleyball blocking movement

ABSTRACT

The lateral tilt of the arms accompanied by trunk lateral tilt is a typical blocking manoeuvre in volleyball. However, during this unanticipated blocking movement, an associated risk of ACL injury may result. The aim of the present study was to compare associative ACL risk factors at the initial contact and the first and second peak of VGRF during an unanticipated blocking movement with different arm positions. Synchronized kinematic and kinetic data were collected for each trial of each condition. Student paired t-tests and effect size were used to determine differences between two conditions (S – with arms straight up from the body) and (T – with the arms and trunk laterally tilted). The results showed that the T condition significantly decreases knee flexion, increases VGRF at the foot contact, first peak force and increases the valgus moment at the first peak force. The values of the associated risk factors for a non-contact ACL injury appear to be related to the tilted arm position accompanied by trunk tilt towards to right lower limb during landing. The players should be taught to land with greater knee flexion and, if possible, a double-leg landing to decrease right lower limb loading during the blocking manoeuvre.     

The Role of Interference and Task Similarity on the Acquisition,Retention, and Transfer of Simple Motor Skills

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to determine if two levels of task similarity influenced acquisition, retention, and transfer performance of three simple motor skills. Sixty right-handed subjects were randomly assigned to one of five (n = 12) experimental conditions. Each subject performed 72 trials during acquisition. Twenty-four trials were recorded for each movement task. Following a 5-min unfilled retention interval, subjects performed 4 trials on each task before completing 12 transfer trials of a novel movement. Contextual interference effects for acquisition and retention were supported for low but not high similarity tasks. Further, the results suggest that a different memory representation exists for high and low similarity tasks.     

How Much Does Experience Matter in NCAA Division I Volleyball? A Retrospective Study

Purpose: To evaluate the relationship between years of collegiate playing experience and success of NCAA Division I volleyball programs. Methods: Data were gathered from the 2010–2015 seasons for each volleyball program in the “power five” conferences. Players that were involved in at least 66% of the sets were selected for analysis. Each player’s years of college experience were tabulated and a team average experience score was created. This score was correlated with the end of season Ratings Percentage Index (RPI). Years with a significant correlation between success and experience were further analyzed for differences in on-court statistics by years of experience. Results: The range for team average experience score was 2.52–2.66. Only the 2012 season showed a moderate correlation between the team average score and RPI (ρ = ?0.421, p = .001), indicating that more experienced teams finished with a higher national ranking. Within this year, teams with more experience had a statistically significant (p < .05) higher season win percentage, higher conference win percentage, higher hitting percentage, more kills/set, and more assists/set than teams with low or only moderate experience. Conclusions: These data suggest that more collegiate playing experience does not always result in a significantly more successful season, but trends indicate that a relationship does exist between experience and success. In the one year that showed significance, more experienced teams had more favorable statistics related to skills that terminate play (e.g., kills) rather than ball control skills (e.g., digs and passing).