Investigating Service Learning Pedagogy to Facilitate Early Childhood Physical Activity

Purpose

The emergence of a growing initiative to educate preschool age chidlren and the importance of it is supported through position statements, policy guidelines and research (NASPE, 2008). From improving public health (Garcia, Garcia, Floyd & Lawson, 2002) to movement skills competency (NASPE, 2008) early childhood physical actvity is gaining advocacy and has begun to impact the expansion of teacher education programs from K-12 to PreK-12. That said,a service learning pedagogy, grounded in experiential learning theory, began with a pilot study in 2007 and was studied a second year during the spring 2008 semester involving teacher candidates (N=29) from physical education, special education, elementary education and early childhood education enrolled in a movement education course incorporating an inclusive physical activity program called Moving Concepts. The purpose of the second year study was to confirm results from the pilot regarding the appropriateness of service learning as a pedagogy, and to further examine the teacher candidates' perceptions of Moving Concepts meeting the needs of a quality physical activity program.

Methods

Teacher candidates taught inclusive pairs of preschool-age children, including English Language Learners for 45 minutes one day weekly for a series of nine activity sessions. Data collection involved weekly structured journal logs and a post-program survey (alpha .736) consisting of 30 likert-scale questions designed upon the Seven Elements of High Quality Service Learning (Service Learning 2000, 1998) and four open-ended questions.

Analysis/Results

Analysis of resutls using SPSS 15.0 yielded frequencies, percentages and summary means for each element. Survey results favorably support pilot outcomes across all Seven Elements verifying the appropriateness of service learning as a pedagogy. Questions pinpointing service need and high quality indicated 96% either agreed or strongly agreed that Moving Concepts was meaningful, interdisciplinary, well organized, developmentally appropriate and served a need to the early childhood community (M=4.79). Furthermore, 100% agreed or strongly agreed that the program was a significant way to recognize civic responsibility (M=4.65). Diversity was supported by 83% believing this to be important to all children. Responses from open-ended questions addressing what children learn from each other include themes of social interaction, modeling, sharing, turn taking and communication.

Conclusions

Despite the study's limits, findings support the appropriateness of service learning as a pedagogy to facilitate quality early childhood physical activity for their active start.