A case study on “physical fitness” within the physical education curriculum for fifth‒graders: a challenge to combine the domains of health and physical exercise

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a combined program for fifth‒grade elementary school students that would combine the domains of health and physical exercise in physical fitness within the physical education curriculum. This study revealed that, utilizing the “New Analysis Support System,” which analyzes the measurements obtained during physical fitness tests, clarified the goals of training for endurance running, and increased the children's attitude and cognition scores pertaining to physical education classes. Moreover, learning with the use of a teaching material called “Communication and Running” significantly improved individuals and groups of children's 5‒minute running records. Furthermore, regardless of the children's fondness for physical education classes, by recognizing the need to improve their own physical fitness and through motivated engagement in the training for endurance running, the children were able to enjoy endurance running and increase their ability of continuous movement. These results confirmed the effectiveness of the program. In addition, conducting physical fitness tests, analyzing the measurements, discovering issues by discussing the results of the analysis in health classes, and resolving the issues through physical education constitute an educational process that can be proposed as an example of “curriculum management.”