Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH

Flera internationella studier visar en nedgång i skolelevers motoriska kompetens. I Sverige saknas studier som dokumenterat förändringar i barns motoriska kompetens över tid.

Syfte: Att belysa lärares bedömningar av hur barns motoriska färdigheter förändrats de senaste 10–20 åren.

Metod: Sveriges lärare i idrott och hälsa, som undervisat i förskoleklass och/eller årskurs 1–6 under minst 10 år, inbjöds att i en enkätstudie skatta förändringar i barns motoriska förmåga. Som mätinstrument valdes elva motoriska färdigheter och en öppen fråga, vilka sammanställdes till MUGIH motorikskattning (MI-M11). Av 59 intresseanmälningar besvarade 46 lärare enkätformuläret.

Resultat: Såväl kvalitativa som kvantitativa data visar en betydande nedgång i motorisk kompetens under de senaste 10–20 åren i samtliga elva av lärare skattade färdigheter. En stor förändring till det sämre märks i både förskoleklass–årskurs 3 och årskurs 4–6. Resultaten tyder på att gruppen barn med låg motorisk kompetens har ökat från 15 till drygt 30 procent bland yngre barn (förskoleklass–årskurs 3) under de senaste 15–20 åren. I årskurs 4–6 märks en ökning från 10 till 23 procent under samma period.

Slutsats: De försämringar i motoriska färdigheter som redovisats är alarmerande eftersom motorisk kompetens har stor betydelse för barns deltagande i rörelselek och idrott samt för en livslång hälsosam livsstil. Observationer vid skolstarten kan vara en värdefull strategi för tidig upptäckt av elever i behov av extra motorikstöd. Ökad schemalagd idrottsundervisning, strukturerade motorikobservationer och anpassat motorikstöd skulle kunna bromsa den negativa trenden och eventuellt återställa de sänkta motoriknivåerna bland barn.

Bakgrund

En stor majoritet av svenska barn når inte upp till den rekommenderade dagliga nivån av fysisk aktivitet. Vissa, men inte alla, studier visar att extra fysisk aktivitet kan ha positiva effekter på barns skolprestationer, fysiska kapacitet och hälsa.

Syfte

Syftet var att erbjuda elever från årskurs 7 till 8 extra aerob pulshöjande träning, ledd av idrottslärare, och att utvärdera effekterna på kondition, muskelstyrka, skolbetyg och hälsa. Hypotesen var att extra aerob träning skulle förbättra fysisk kapacitet, skolbetyg och hälsa.

Metod

I det tvååriga projektet utgjordes 122 slumpmässigt utvalda elever i åldrarna 13-14 år från tre skolor en aerob grupp med 30 minuters extra träningspass (≥70 % maxpuls) två gånger i veckan. En slumpmässigt utvald kontrollgrupp på 26 elever som ingick. Alla 148 elever hade dessutom ordinarie idrottsundervisning.

Resultat

En måttlig till stor signifikant effektstorlek (via partiell eta-squared) av interaktionseffekten för aeroba gruppen jämfört med kontrollgruppen över tid sågs generellt för aerob fysisk kapacitet, muskelstyrketestet med armhävningar, skolbetyg i svenska, engelska samt idrott & hälsa, och i medelbetygsvärde för fyra skolämnen sammantagna, inkluderande även matematik. Inom den aeroba gruppen visades också signifikanta förbättringar över tid för kondition, uthållighetsstyrka i mag- och benmuskler och ett sammanfattat fysiskt index för fysisk kapacitet under det tvååriga projektet. Kontrollgruppen visade ingen motsvarande förbättring av dessa parametrar.

Förbättringarna i den aeroba gruppen sågs generellt bland båda könen vad gäller skolbetygen, medan förbättringar i fysisk kapacitet var klart mer uttalade bland pojkar och sällan bland flickor. Ett liknande mönster med betydande förbättringar i flera skolbetyg noterades i alla tre inblandade interventionsskolor, trots att en av skolorna hade en klart större andel barn som invandrat till Sverige och med generellt lägre socioekonomi.

Aeroba gruppen visade signifikant högre självskattning (med liten till måttlig effektstorlek) på flera frågor om fysisk självuppfattning än kontrollgruppen i slutet av 8:e klass.

Konklusion

Denna lärarledda skolintervention genererade ett hållbart projekt med flera förbättringar i fysisk kapacitet och skolbetyg. Projektet kan fungera som en inspiration för andra skolor att öka fysisk aktivitet för att förbättra fysisk kapacitet och eventuellt även skolbetyg.

A large majority of Swedish children do not reach the recommended daily activity level. Some, but not all, studies show that extra physical activity may have positive effects on children’s school performance, physical fitness and health. The present purpose was to offer pupils from the 7th to the 8th grade extra aerobic exercise led by physical education teachers and to evaluate the effects on aerobic fitness, muscle strength, school grades and health. The hypothesis was that extra aerobic exercise would improve physical fitness, school grades and health. In the two-year project, 122 pupils aged 13–14 years from three schools constituted an aerobic group with 30 min extra exercise sessions (≥70% maximal heart rate) twice weekly. A control group of 26 pupils was included. All 148 pupils also had regular 60 min physical education lessons (2/week). A moderate to large significant effect size (via partial eta-squared) of the interaction effect for the aerobic group compared to the control group over time was generally seen for aerobic fitness, the muscle strength test with push-ups, school grades in Swedish, English and physical education, and in average school grade for four school subjects combined, thus also including mathematics. Within the aerobic group, significant improvements were also shown for aerobic fitness, endurance and strength of abdominal and leg muscles, and the total physical test index during the two-year project. The control group showed no corresponding improvement in these parameters. Improvements in school grades were generally seen among both sexes in the aerobic group, whereas improvements in physical capacity were distinctly more pronounced among boys and seldom among girls. A similar pattern with significant improvement in several school grades was noted in all three intervention schools, although one of the schools had a distinctly larger proportion of children who immigrated to Sweden. The aerobic group showed significantly higher ratings (with a small to moderate effect size) on several questions about physical self-perception than the control group at the end of the 8th grade. This teacher-led school intervention generated a sustainable project with improvements in physical fitness and school grades. The project might act as an inspiration for other schools to increase physical activity to improve physical fitness and possibly school grades.

Background The interest for young people?s movement ability has increased. Literature shows that many factors, apart from movement ability, influence the development of and sustained interest in or taste for physical activity and the learning thereof.Purpose This longitudinal study illustrates, through the lens of Bourdieu, whether and how assessed movement ability at the age of 15, together with cultural capital and sports habitus, is reflected in exercise habits and a taste for participation in sport and physical activity as a young adult.Data collection and analysis A multidisciplinary project called School-Sport-Health (Skola-idrott-hälsa) was established in 2001 in Sweden to investigate the physical and health status of children and youth, as well as attitudes to and participating in school physical education. Schools were randomly selected by the agency Statistics Sweden. In total, 1,975 pupils aged 9, 12 and 15 answered a life style questionnaire, and took part in at least one sub study of the baseline study in 2001. Movement ability was examined using the NyTid test. 560 pupils (283 girls, 277 boys) aged 15 (born in 1985, ±1) completed the test. In the follow-up study, lifestyle questionnaires, were answered nine years apart by the pupils who had participated in the NyTid test at the age of 15. The response rate was 61 per cent (341 young adults: 186 females, 155 males). Group and gender differences between those who had a high level of assessed movement ability (HLG) and those with a low level (LLG) were analysed. Data were analysed through Bourdieu?s analytical concepts habitus and capital.Findings The assumption that an acquired high level of movement ability plays a central role in being physically active later in life is both confirmed and challenged by the results. The HLG view themselves as more physically active and with a higher intensity (71 per cent) than the LLG (44 per cent). A low level of assessed movement ability at the age of 15 did not prevent young adults from acquiring a taste for sport and physical activity later in life. Habitus is a generative principle and can, according to the logic of practice, give action meaning, which may go against earlier habitus and trigger actions. Earlier described gender differences appear to be less evident in young adults.Conclusions Further research is needed to understand how pupils? movement narratives are constructed to support young people?s taste for movement and development of movement competence.

As a part of the discussion about how movement knowledge is valued in physical education teacher education (PETE), issues of assessment have been brought to the fore. Studies have shown that how and when movement knowledge is assessed is strongly culturally dependent and based different epistemological orientations. The aim of this paper is to analyse and discuss how preservice teachers in Sweden perceive assessment in an invasion games course according to the games performance assessment instrument (GPAI). The empirical material presented in this study is based on a web-survey carried out at the end of the invasion games course where the participants were asked to write comments of how the experienced GPAI and its relevance in school physical education. The findings suggest that the preservice teacher experience prediction and measurement of appropriate and non-appropriate behaviours in GPAI as problematic from a didactic perspective. The ideas of "correctness" and "appropriateness", which are fundamental in GPAI, is discussed in the relation to the socially critical constructivist epistemology that underpins Swedish PETE.

This paper focuses on how 'ability' is conceptualised, configured and produced in movement assessment tools. The aim of the study was to critically analyse assessment tools used for healthy and typically developed children. The sample consists of 10 tools from 6 different countries. In the study, we pay special attention to content and evaluation methods. The theoretical analysis explores and discusses what kind of movement ability the tools construct. The theoretical framework is inspired by Bourdieu's concepts of habitus, capital and field which are used as analytical tools to explore how the testing processes and content shape what is regarded as ability. Our findings show both a great variation of concepts and evaluation methods and a narrow view of what is regarded as valuable to assess. The assessed movements are strongly related to traditional sports and construct a specific form of physical capital. None of the tasks assessed take place in natural outdoor environments. Open skills, rhythmical movements to music or tasks including a wider range of flexibility are also absent in the assessment tools. The explored tools and tests assess a limited number of decontextualised movements and produce a narrow view of 'ability'. Hence, the testing process itself often promotes a child who is physically mature and benefits those who have experience of traditional sports. In other words, the assessed 'taste for sport' and the 'embodied physical capital' construct what is considered to be legitimate knowledge in relation to movement and physical culture. Accordingly, the social construction of movement ability through assessment tools is far from a neutral concept and could affect how children see themselves and their 'ability'.

The overall purpose of this thesis is to investigate, discuss and problematise different aspects of movement ability. The four sub-studies of the thesis deal with various issues concerning assessment of movement ability. First, the focus is on how the concept of physical literacy has influenced the steering document of the subject physical education and health (PEH) in Sweden. The question is: What kind of tensions and conflicts arise when different approaches and interpretations of movement ability are used in an educational context? Second, a structural validation is conducted of the NyTid test, an assessment tool developed to assess basic and complex movement skills at the ages of 12-16 years. The question is: Which categories of movement skills are identified through the validation of the NyTid test? Third, the study examines how ‘ability’ is conceptualised, configured and produced in movement tests and movement assessment tools. Finally, an investigation of how or whether an assessed low or high movement ability at the age of 15 matters for developing an interest in, or taste for, sport and physical activities nine years later, in young adulthood.

Movement ability is studied from different perspectives, including a multidisciplinary sport science approach using mixed methods. The theoretical standpoint in the sociocultural analyses is inspired by Bourdieu’s theories and concepts of habitus, capital, field and doxa, which are used as analytical tools. Different theories relating to the evaluation of movement abilities as product- or process oriented assessment are also made use of.

Movement abilities tests and assessment tools are also found to construct a specific and narrow form of physical capital strongly related to traditional sports. Accordingly, the social construction of movement ability through assessment tools is far from neutral and could affect how children see themselves and their sense of ‘ability’. Furthermore, the assumption that an acquired high level of movement ability plays a central role for being physically active is challenged in the thesis. Even though pupils at the age of 15 had a low level of assessed movement ability, it did not prevent them from acquiring a taste for sport and physical activity later in life. However, more studies on movement ability and the underlining mechanisms and factors for engaging in physical activities are necessary.