Effects of a Music-Movement Program in Elementary School Physical Education Classes on Pupils’ Motor Skills

This study aimed to develop a short music-movement program and evaluate its effectiveness in improving elementary school pupils’ motor skills. Two hundred forty-five pupils (10.5±.526 years) randomly assigned into intervention and control group participated in the study. The pupils performed two tasks, selected from the Bruinninks Oseretsky Motor Proficiency Test (2nd edition) related to rhythmic coordination: (a) Dribbling a ball-Alternating hands and (b) Stepping sideways over a balance beam. All Participants completed the tests before, immediately after and two months after the implementation of the program. Pupils in the intervention group attended the music-movement program during the warm-up phase of the standard Physical Education (PE) lesson, whereas those in the control group attended the regular PE warming up according to the national curriculum. The program was implemented for 13 weeks twice a week. The results of the ANOVA with repeated measures on time revealed a significant improvement of both motor skills in intervention group pupils as compared to control group pupils. A follow-up measurement indicated that the effect of the program was maintained two months after the intervention. The findings of the study support the effectiveness of a music-movement program during the warm-up phase of the PE lesson on fifth and sixth grade pupils’ motor skills. Keywords: motor skills, physical education, music-movement, intervention program, warm-up phase, rhythmic coordination DOI: 10.7176/JEP/10-21-11 Publication date:July 31st 201