Effectiveness indices evaluating time in physical education: Example in Motor Games

Abstract

The time devoted to Physical Education classes is limited, but for many children and young people these classes are the only occasions on which they engage in physical activity and exercise. Since exercise is vital for health, it is important to use indices that provide information about the effectiveness of time invested specifically in the practice of motor activities during PE classes. We have proposed certain effectiveness indices that relate the time planned to the time actually spent in different categories: time for information, time for organisation, time for physical or motor activity and time for physical or motor activity fulfilling an objective. Various sessions of Motor Games have been evaluated, all of them corresponding to the university degree of Physical Activity and Sports Sciences. The results show that the proposed effectiveness indices could be very useful in managing time devoted to motor activity during PE lessons more effectively and in improving time planning in terms of the content of PE lessons.