A cluster randomised controlled trial to assess the impact of physical education training upon movement competency outcomes [post]

Steven Mann, Alex Lucas, Matthew Wade, Jack Shakespeare, Emily Budzynski-Seymour, Rebecca Conway, James Steele
2019 unpublished
Background. Greater physical literacy in children may lead to a sustained active lifestyle through an increase in confidence and competence, as well as enhancing psychological, social, and academic benefits. Previous research indicates that primary school Physical Education lessons should integrate elements of physical literacy. However, many primary school teachers do not possess the knowledge to sufficiently promote it. This study presents a randomised controlled trial that aimed to assess
more » ... impact of a teacher training programme, designed to elicit better physical literacy competency related outcomes, specifically movement competency, in primary schools. Methods. Participants were children (n=136) aged 5-7 years, from eight primary schools with a total of 9 classes located in Buckinghamshire, England. Measures were adapted from the Canadian 'Physical Literacy Assessment for Youth' methodology, including locomotion, throwing, kicking and balancing. Pre-post measures were collected six months apart during the same academic year. A wait-list control group received no intervention. Results. Pre – post intervention means for the control and intervention groups showed an increase in movement competency across all participants. Multilevel analysis showed that the outcome changes were not significantly significant when comparing between groups accounting for between school fixed effects and pre score values as covariates. However, there was a tendency for effect estimates and 95% confidence intervals to include higher values for change scores in the intervention group compared to the control group across most variables despite some overlap in likely population estimates between groups for all outcomes. Conclusions. Interventions that support teacher's delivery of movement competency skills may produce a small improvement in children's movement competency over an academic year. However, this did not differ statistically from usual physical education delivery. These findings may have implications for informing future programmes surrounding physical literacy. Upskilling of staff with the knowledge and resources necessary to enhance children's physical literacy at school may at best have a small impact though is generally easy and uncostly to implement. Further research with sufficient power should further test this small effect.
doi:10.31236/osf.io/nxpr2 fatcat:fv5z6jjlk5a7jkn24jv2wfhfa4