Bevan Deasy 22721122

Interventions research proposal

TITLE:

Improving object control skills of Year 8 students through planned intervention and repetition
as a means of enhancing self-efficacy and participation in Physical Education.

STATEMENT OF ISSUE:

The decline in fitness standards of young people is a major concern worldwide, with an
increasing number of children and adolescents struggling with obesity and other related
health issues. This is often attributed to a sedentary lifestyle and increased screen time, which
limit opportunities for physical activity.

Physical Education can play a crucial role in addressing these issues by providing students
lifelong learning experiences that can help prepare them for physical activity for life and can
give them the skills and knowledge necessary to be able to take up these activities which will
result in a more active and healthier lifestyle. This decline in fitness and overall health of
young people highlight the urgent need for change in to ensure the health of these people
moving forward.

Participation in Physical Education classes, particularly in low SES schools has been in a
steady decline for a number of years. While there may be many factors that influence this
such as students age, lack of interest in activities or teaching style however, one potential
reason is that students’ ability levels are also in decline which can result in a lower self-
efficacy which has been linked to lower participation rates.

The planned intervention seeks to address these issues by improving the object control skills
of Year 8 students as a means of increasing students’ self-efficacy which may contribute to a
more positive attitude towards physical activity and result in higher participation levels in
Physical Education.

1
Bevan Deasy 22721122

LITERATURE REVIEW:

Object Control Skills and their importance

Object control skills (OCS) are defined by SCSA as “movement skills that require an ability
to handle an object or piece of equipment with control. They include skills such as kicking,
striking, dribbling, or catching a ball. Also referred to as manipulative skills”.

This intervention will specifically be focussing on upper body object control skills including
throwing and catching. The emphasis will be mostly placed on these skills due to the lack of
time to implement large scale changes, ease of assessment and the transferability of these
skills to many other sports. Students between the ages of 6-12 are regarded as the most
malleable in terms of improving OCS according to Gallahue (2006).

A study by (Barnett et al., 2009) suggested that children with proficient object control skills
became adolescents with a 10-20% higher chance of engaging in vigorous physical activity.
This highlights the need for students to be proficient and improve these skills in order to
participate in PE.

Participation in Physical Education in decline

Classes vary greatly throughout the lesson in their participation and in the level of
engagement. In order to maximise student learning in PE we should try to maximise the
amount of Active learning time (ALT) in each lesson. ALT refers to the time when the
students are successfully engaging in activities related to the lesson topic which can result in
greater learning and achievement. Waiting Time, Management Time, Informative Time, and
Motor Engagement Time (ALT) are the four sub-categories that PE lessons can be broken
down into according to (Siedentop & Tannehill, 2000).

According to McKenzie et al. (2006), the greatest decline in student participation rates in
Physical Education is around adolescence, specifically 14-18 years of age. According to the
Australian sports commission, “Students have varied levels of skills and abilities and the less
skilled are more likely to lose their confidence and be less engaged in secondary school

2
Bevan Deasy 22721122

sport.” This means that we need to increase students self-efficacy in order to improve their
participation rates in PE.

The aim of this intervention is to improve the object control skills of Year 8 students in
Physical Education classes and see if there is a positive correlation between improved object
control skills, student self-efficacy and participation in Physical Education. The research aims
to investigate the effectiveness of a planned intervention program, which involves repetition
as a means of enhancing these skills by performing the intervention for roughly 15 minutes at
the start of 10 different Physical Education classes.

The issue at hand is the potential gap in self-efficacy and participation levels among Year 8
students due to differences in their object control skills. By implementing a targeted
intervention program, the research seeks to improve the skills and confidence of students,
leading to increased participation and engagement in Physical Education classes.

METHODOLOGY:

Action Research

This intervention uses action research as its method which was defined by Sagor (2000) as,
“A disciplined process of inquiry conducted by and for those taking the action. The primary
reason for engaging in action research is to assist the actor in improving or refining his or her
actions.” Traditionally, action research is conducted by a professional in their own
organisational setting and focuses on a particular problem that has been identified within
one’s practice. From here, action research can be used to generate and implement an ‘action
plan’ that addresses the problem (Osterman et al., 2014). Action research is particularly well
suited to this type of intervention as it allows the research of a particular issue (decreased
adolescent health and participation in Physical Education), and provides some the
professional with ways to improve these participation rates through a planned intervention
(improving object control skills) as well as show other factors that could be addressing the
problem.

3
Bevan Deasy 22721122

Research question

Does an increase in object control skills through planned intervention result in enhanced
student self-efficacy and participation of year 8 students in Physical Education?

Possible participants and site

The participants for the intervention would be roughly 80 Year 8 (12-13) students across
three mixed-gender classes from a low socio-economic status (SES) secondary government
school located in metropolitan Perth, Western Australia. The school is a co-educational
institution with an ICSEA value of 1000 and a whole school program that espouses particular
values related to physical activity and an active lifestyle. The intervention will take place in
the school’s gymnasium to ensure a closed environment and to make use of the lines and
walls.

The teachers chosen will be experienced Physical Education teachers with a good rapport
with both students and parents. The students have average academic results and an average
ability level across the class and there are no specific required criteria, such as EAL/D
learners, for participation in the intervention.

Intervention

The proposed intervention will occur over a combined 10 sessions at the start of Physical
Education classes and will run for approximately 15 minutes per session.

The first session will require the observation of the class for the full hour. It will start with a
pre-test (approximately 15mins) followed by an observation of participation levels
(throughout the hour) and finally a pre-survey of student self-efficacy levels (roughly 5mins).

Each following intervention session (8) will be roughly 15mins long at the start of a PE
lesson and will just include skill improvement. The final session will include the post-test at
the start of the lesson (approximately 15 minutes), an observation of the class’s participation
levels throughout the full hour and finally the post-survey of student self-efficacy levels
(roughly 5mins).

4
Bevan Deasy 22721122

Ethical approval will be sort out prior to the study. I will conduct my own ethical research,
then I will seek ethical approval from my HOLA, Principle, School Board/stake holders
initially. Following their approval and guidance I will look to gain the ethical approval of
parents and students by sending a permission letter home outlining the study and how it will
benefit the students. From here parents who consent for their children to, will participate in
the study. I will also have an information session afterschool one day that parents and
students can attend if they have any further quires.

A Pre-tests will be completed on the first day of the intervention (attached below). This will
allow me to analyse their data and the overall effectiveness of the intervention strategy.

The Post tests will be completed in the last session of the intervention and will allow me to
assess the validity of my hypothesis.

During the intervention there will be no data collected as it will solely focus on improving the
students object control skills, self-efficacy and increase ALT in PE, all data will be collected
prior to and after the intervention.

The aim of each session is to increase the object control skills, specifically throwing and
catching accuracy and consistency of each student in the study. This will be done by doing
activities requiring repetition. The aim of increasing their object control skills is to try to
increase their self-efficacy and confidence in the PE environment which will hopefully result
on higher participation rates within PE.

There will be equipment required which will include, 50 tennis balls, 100 markers and a 20m
measuring tape. Each session will also have to occur in the school’s gymnasium to ensure that
there is a controlled environment and that there are fewer external factors that may influence
results.

One possible improvement to this intervention could be to use the The Test of Gross Motor
Development (TGMD-3). This is an updated version of the TGMD-2 test and is a more recent
and widely used standardized test and therefore would be useful for data comparisons

5
Bevan Deasy 22721122

between other schools and students. This test does have a cost associated and would need to
be purchased by the school for roughly $450 AUD.

Data collection

Data will be collected in several ways however it will all result in quantitative data. This data
will be in the form of the Likert survey, Pre/post-tests and the Observations that take place.
This data will then result in descriptive statistics that will be tabulated, graphed to show
changes, and then analysed foe statistical analysis.

Data will be collected through the modified TGMD-2 test that specifically focuses on upper
body object control (tables attached) which will result in quantitative data. This will be given
to the students at the beginning of the first session where together with the teacher I will
assess students as they complete the tasks. In the last session the students will undergo the
same modified TGMD-2 test which will allow us to compare the data before and after the
intervention.

Observation notes will be taken in the first and last sessions regarding student participation.
This will include participation numbers as well as the rough percentage of Active Learning
Time (ALT), Active time (AT), Information/instruction time, Management Time, and Wasted
Time resulting in quantitative data. On the final session observations will then be taken again
regarding the same parameters in order for further comparison of participation levels.

The student’s self-efficacy will be measured through the use of a modified version of the
General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE) (attached below) after the first session. This will give
quantitative data on the self-efficacy levels of students. Students will complete the SSE again
after the intervention which will allow for data comparisons to be drawn.

Data analysis

Data will be all be tabulated in quantitative from. The data will then be analysed and graphed
respectively within each category between the pre and post-tests. This data will allow us to
see how effective the intervention was and what areas could be improved in future.

6
Bevan Deasy 22721122

The data will then be cross examined through a secondary analysis looking at how Object
control skills can be used as a predictor for student self-efficacy and if there is a correlation
between the two. On top of this we will analyze in the same way to find out if Object control
skills are a predictor for ALT and if there is a correlation between these two data sets. This
cross examination of data will allow us to see what effects have the greatest impacts on
participation levels and may suggest other reasons that may have influenced the results.

Ethical considerations

Ethical approval will be sort out prior to the study. I will conduct my own ethical research,
then I will seek ethical approval from my HOLA, Principle, School Board/stake holders
initially. Following their approval and guidance I will look to gain the ethical approval of
parents and students by sending a permission letter home outlining the study and how it will
benefit the students. From here parents who consent for their children to, will participate in
the study. I will also have an information session afterschool one day that parents and
students can attend if they have any further quires.

REFERENCES:

Barnett, L. M., van Beurden, E., Morgan, P. J., Brooks, L. O., & Beard, J. R. (2009).
Childhood Motor Skill Proficiency as a Predictor of Adolescent Physical Activity.
Journal of Adolescent Health, 44(3), 252–259.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2008.07.004
Osterman, K., Furman, G., & Sernak, K. (2014). Action Research in EdD Programs in
Educational Leadership. Journal of Research on Leadership Education, 9(1), 85–105.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1942775113498378

Yıldırım, İrfan. (2012). Developing a scale for self-efficacy of physical education

teachers. Energy Education Science and Technology Part B: Social and Educational
Studies. 4. 1491-1500.