Date of Award
5-1936
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
First Advisor
Dr. J Ralph Wells
Keywords
Physical education for children
Abstract
This study involves a comparative evaluation of the results obtained by the formal and the informal methods of teaching physical education to junior high school boys.
The boys used in the study comprised two groups each of the seventh, eighth and ninth grades. One group of each grade was designed as the formal group, and the other, the informal. There were sixty-six boys in the combined formal groups, and seventy-nine in the informal — a total of 145 boys.
The evaluation was made on the basis of a comparison of the percentages of improvements made by the two groups (formal and informal) in each of four tests (physical efficiency, height, weight and lung capacity) administered at the opening of the school year (September) and gain at the close of the period of instruction (May). The scoring cale used was the Detroit Scale modified to conform to the capacities of junior high school boys.
The grouping used in the study made possible comparisons in each of the three grades as well as a study of the combined scores of all the boys taught by the respective methods (formal vc informal).
In order to have two groups of approximately equal abiliities for comparison, thirty-one boys were chosen from each of the combined formal and informal groups and paired on the basis of their September scores, thus giving two groups having apparently equal physical abilities and taught by the respective methods. No additional pairs could be selected because of the wide variations in the scores represented.
The findings are summarized as follows:
1. The results of the physical efficiency test show that the combined seventh, eighth and ninth grade groups taught by the formal method made an average achievment score of 28.8% for the year's work. The combined seventh, eighth, and ninth grade groups taught be the informal method made an average achievement of 22.1 % for the same period.
2.The paired group taught by the formal method showed a higher average achievement in physical efficiency, height increase and lung capacity. The weight increases favored the informal group.
3. The average increase in height for the two groups (formal and informal) were found to be 3.06% increase for the formal, and 2.43% for the informal.
4. The average lung capacity increase for the groups for the formal methods group was 1.47%. The increase for the informal methods group was 1.01%.
5. The average weight increase for the two groups were 3.61% for the formal, and 2.79% for the informal group. The seventh and ninth grade formal groups showed a larger average increase than the seventh and ninth grade informal groups, whereas, the eighth grade foraml group showed a much less average weight increase than did the group taught by the inforaml method. The result of this phase of the study were too inconsistent to be interpreted as indicating any advantage for either of the representative method of teaching physical education.
Recommended Citation
Scott, Glenn R., "A Comparative evaluation of the results obtained by the formal and the informal methods of teaching physical education to junior high school boys" (1936). Electronic Theses & Dissertations. 801.
https://digitalcommons.pittstate.edu/etd/801
