Influence of Different Physical Education Pedagogical Approaches on the Health and Development of 5-6 Year Old Children

The Skill Acquisition Methods underpinning Pedagogy for LEarning in Physical Education (SAMPLE-PE) project aims to investigate the influence of different pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning in physical education (PE) on 5-6 year old children's health and development. Schools from deprived areas are invited to take part in the project and will be randomly assigned to either: (1) linear pedagogy PE curriculum programme, (2) nonlinear pedagogy PE curriculum programme or (3) carry on as normal. The linear and nonlinear pedagogy PE programmes will be underpinned by different and contrasting theories of skill acquisition and are delivered by trained coaches over 15 weeks. Children will be measured to assess their physical, psychological, cognitive, and emotional health and development, and their physical activity levels at the start of the study, immediately after the 15 week PE programme, and again after 12 months. It is expected that children taking part in the linear and nonlinear PE programmes will demonstrate greater physical development than children attending schools that carry on as normal. Furthermore, it is also anticipated that children taking part in the nonlinear PE programme will show greater gains in psychological, cognitive and emotional outcomes than the linear and usual practice programmes.