The role of physical education in the achievement of international recommendations: A study based on pedagogical models

Abstract

Physical activity (PA) has been associated with numerous benefits. The World Health Organization recommends practicing 60 minutes of Moderate to Vigorous PA (MVPA). However, young people are not achieving these recommendations. Physical education, due to their purely motor character has been highlighted as a change agent. Traditional sport teaching has not attracted young people to the achievement of these objectives. Thus, new models, such as Sport Education, have been proposed to increase the students’ interest. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the PA in two pedagogical models in PE lessons, as well as the differences in the teaching process phases. In addition, there were checked if there existed PA differences in terms of gender and to determine the contribution of each model to the MVPA in primary education students. The results showed that Sport Education helped to the achievement of a greater MVPA percentage than the Direct Instruction in both genders, with a varying contribution of the different phases.