A task analysis of a sport education physical education season for fourth grade students

Background: Previous research on Sport Education in which the participants were in the primary grades has focused on perceptions of fun and enjoyment as well as other components of motivation. To date, no study in Sport Education has examined the accomplishment of the various instructional and managerial tasks by upper primary school children, with the specific purpose of assessing the extent to which they are capable of successfully completing those tasks.Purpose: The purpose of this paper was to determine if upper primary aged children are able to work independently of the teacher and manage the numerous organizational tasks associated with Sport Education.Participants and data collection: The participants in this study were 40, fourth grade students from a school in the southeastern USA. Within both managerial and instructional systems, an ecological framework was used to examine the type of task, task explicitness, task duration, and also the extent to which students were compliant with the task demands.Data analysis: One-way analysis of variance was used to compare the percentage of lesson time for each task across the three season phases to determine if there was difference in the distribution of time over the course of a season.Findings and conclusion: Results indicated that as the season progressed, both managerial and instructional tasks became increasingly implicit and irrespective of the explicitness of task, compliance was high. It was concluded that students in the upper primary grades are indeed capable of successfully working independently of the teacher to achieve the goals of Sport Education