Comprobación empírica de los modelos de unidades didácticas intermitentes, alternadas, irregulares y reforzadas. Implicaciones para la planificación de la educación física

Resumen

Abstract Currently, cardiorespiratory fitness is considered as one of the most powerful health markers in schoolchildren. Unfortunately, a large number of schoolchildren worldwide have low levels of cardiorespiratory fitness. The Physical Education subject could play a key role in helping schoolchildren develop and maintain healthy cardiorespiratory fitness levels. Nevertheless, Physical Education teachers have to face several planning-related limitations to achieve this goal. Consequently, it is necessary to know the empirical effects of innovative teaching unit models in Physical Education that support an evidence-based practice in planning a feasible and effective development and maintenance of schoolchildren’s healthy cardiorespiratory fitness levels, as well as the rest of the curricular objectives of the subject. The overall objective of the present Doctoral Thesis was to examine the empirical effect of the intermittent, alternated, irregular, and reinforced teaching units’ models in the PE planning. The main findings from the present Doctoral Thesis suggest that: (1) Aside from improving students’ cardiorespiratory fitness levels, an intermittent physical fitness-based teaching unit leaves enough time during the lessons to simultaneously work on another Physical Education curricular objective. (2) A reinforced teaching unit, through outdoor physical activities and body expression lessons, is not only effective for maintaining students’ cardiorespiratory fitness levels, but also allows for the simultaneous development of objectives related with other Physical Education curricular contents. (3) Alternated teaching units (inside-outside the school center) are effective for improving students’ knowledge of their environment to work physical fitness, as well as their perceived barriers, perceived autonomy, and autonomous motivation towards physical activity. (4) An irregular teaching unit, through individualized programs performed during school recesses and out-of-school time, is effective for maintaining students’ cardiorespiratory fitness levels. (5) The CENAFI test, is a valid and reliable measuring instrument to gather information about the knowledge that schoolchildren have of their immediate environment for physical conditioning. (6) Although a Physical Education-based physical fitness teaching unit seems to have a similar effect on all the students’ cardiorespiratory fitness profiles, students with unhealthy cardiorespiratory fitness profiles benefit considerably more in physical activity levels during the Physical Education lessons; while after an intermittent Physical Education-based physical fitness teaching unit, only students with unhealthy cardiorespiratory fitness profiles improve their cardiorespiratory fitness levels, despite obtaining similar benefits in physical activity levels during the lessons. (7) Although the short-term physical fitness teaching unit increased the students’ cardiorespiratory fitness levels, after a four-week detraining period students’ cardiorespiratory fitness levels reverted back to the baseline. (8) A Physical Education-based physical fitness teaching unit, only improves cardiorespiratory fitness levels of students with a high baseline of self-determined motivation toward Physical Education. (9) The intermittent and traditional physical fitness teaching units seem not to negatively influence students’ motivation toward Physical Education and autotelic experience, nor improve their physical self-concept. (10) An alternated teaching unit of sports with the same constitutive elements improves students’ objective tactical learning thanks to the transference of learning between both sport modalities, compared to a traditional treatment where both sports are taught consecutively and unconnectedly. Nevertheless, students with lower baseline tactical levels in invasion sports obtain higher improvements than those with higher baseline tactical level after such alternated teaching unit of invasion sports. The intermittent, alternated, irregular, and reinforced teaching units models represent an advance in Physical Education planning, because they allow for the achievement of the numerous objectives established in the Physical Education educational curriculum, as well as to maintain the learning previously acquired without increasing the time dedicated to each objective, but distributed in a different and innovative manner. Therefore, these four new structures of teaching units are effective tools at the service of Physical Education teachers allowing them to solve the different limitations related to the subject planning. Additionally, the experience of these innovative teaching units allowed schoolchildren to transfer the acquired learnings during Physical Education lessons to their free time, which represents a great advance in the acquisition of an active and healthy lifestyle.