Background/Purpose Conceptual change research has demonstrated that learning relies on incremental conceptual change manifested in daily lessons. The purpose of this study was to document the association between daily learning and knowledge acquisition in a muscular fitness (strength and endurance) unit in elementary school physical education.
Method Fourth grade students (N =1220) from 15 randomly sampled elementary schools were taught in a 10 lesson physically active muscular fitness unit designed using constructivist theory. In each lesson, students explored an essential question associated with muscular fitness, engaged in intensive muscular exercises, and answered three to four written questions associated with each exercise using a workbook. Standardized tests were given before and after the unit to measure knowledge growth.
Analysis/Results Criterion-referenced rubrics were used to evaluate students' answers to workbook questions. Criterion-references validity for the rubrics was based on the consensus and agreement of four researcher's assessments. Correlation analyses of coded scores revealed a consistent correlation across daily learning performance in the 10 lessons (r= .17 to .59). Students' daily performance in each lesson correlated highly with their workbook total score (r= .49 to .73). ANOVA showed that students who scored in the highest quartile (n=127) performed better than those at the lowest quartile (n=123) in lesson workbook assignments (p<.01, h²=.24). Results from a step-wise multiple regression indicated that successful performance on workbook assignments positively predicted achievement on post knowledge test (R²=.27, p<.01).
Conclusions The findings indicate that incremental daily study on muscular concepts contributes to the students' mastery of important concepts of muscular fitness.