Studies on Teaching and Learning Behavior on the Academic Learning Time (ALT-PE) in Physical Education Classes in Japan

Abstract

The ALT-PE, developed as a means of analyzing the instruction of physical education by Siedentop et al., has been defined as being the percentage of class time during which students are effectively and successfully engaged into physical education content activities.
The present study was designed (a) to compare the case of Japanese students with the case of American and Canadian students reported from the preceding investigations (Metzler, Godbout et al.), evaluated by the ALT-PE, and (b) to investigate relationships between three major ALT variables and setting of classes. Subjects were 20 secondary school physical education teachers, and their regular classes were observed according to the ALT-PE observational procedure. In addition, all teachers were requested to draw up the teaching sheets on above lessons. Students were asked to present a composition on their impression of the class activities.
The ALT-PE of Japanese students ranged from 27.7% to 87.2%, with a mean value of 62.4%. These value was significantly higher than those of American and Canadian students.
When the results obtained through the ALT-PE observational procedure were discussed in relation to the analysis of the teaching sheets and the composition of students, most of the high and low ranking classes on the ALT-PE (the high-ranking classes: 82.6-87.2%, the lowranking classes: 27.7-53.6%) taught under a systematic sequence in whole-class learning. However, the activities of instruction in the high-ranking classes were characterized by that teachers persuaded efficiently their students into learning toward their aims. In the lowranking classes, teacher's directions on movement patterns were emphasized, or teacher's behavior became a noninterference. On the other hand, most of the medium-ranking classes (the ALT-PE of 58.6-79.8%) were instructed under a problem-solving method in subgroups. If some categories about “students management” and “talking with fellow students” were set appropriately in the observational recording system, the averages of ALT-PE in the medium-ranking classes would increase.
From these results were concluded that the relationships between the ALT-PE and setting of classes in physical education are more closed, and that the increase in ALT-PE from baseline of 60% might show that students are effectively and successfully engaged into physical education content activities.