Participants and research settings
Participants in this study were 314 fourth-grade students (boys = 182; girls = 132; Mean age = 9.7 years old) at two elementary schools during a school year of 2018–2019. A two-arm quasi-experimental designed was used in this study. For one elementary school, we assigned two fourth-grade classes to the BCM group and other two fourth-grade classes to the control group. For another elementary school, we allocated one fourth-grade class to the BCM group and another fourth-grade class to the control group. Each participating fourth-grade class regardless of conditions at each of the two elementary schools had three 40-min of PE lessons per week. The PE class size ranged from 48–55 students. The PE Teachers’ ages varied from 27–47 years old with a range of 7–30 years of teaching experience. Each school’s principal granted the permission for their school to participate in this study. The university Institutional Review Board (HUM00149529) approved the study protocols. The students’ parent/guardian signed the consent form to allow their children to participate in this study. All four PE teachers signed the consent form to indicate their voluntary participation in this study.
Treatment
BCM group. The students in the BCM group received the 8-week, 16 40-minute BCM lessons in soccer and the 8-week, 16 40-minute BCM lessons in basketball during fall semester of 2018 and spring semester of 2019. To ensure each intervention PE teacher implement the key intervention content in each BCM lesson, we designed the structured 16 BCM soccer lesson plans for an 8-week unit and 16 BCM basketball lesson plans for an 8-week unit based on the school-scheduled length of PE lesson. Each structured BCM lesson plan consists of three key content components: (1) 5–8 minutes of bilateral-coordinated aerobic movements as warm-ups; (2) 15–20 minutes of sequential skill building tasks focusing on bilateral-coordinated motor skills including manipulative skills (i.e., dribbling, catching, passing, shooting) in combination with locomotor skills (i.e., running, jumping, skipping). The manipulative skills along with locomotor skills used in playing sports and aerobic activities are core PE contents aligned with the national PE content standards for grades 3–5 [10]. The students use bilateral, eye-hand and multi-limb coordination to engage the sequential skill building tasks; and (3) 8–10 minutes of skill-applying coordinated aerobic sport games tasks in which students apply skills in cognitively-challenging, dynamic, and changing environments (e.g., play a dribble tag game with groups of 4 within the designated playing area). At the end of each lesson, there are 3–5 min of lesson debriefing in which students will self-reflect on their skill and game performances. While the intervention PE teachers are required to teach the same curriculum content within the same lesson structure, they have flexibility to modify and adjust some of specific learning tasks and the organization of them as well as the pace of the task progression based on the class size, available facilities and equipment, and students’ learning responses.
During the second to the last week of July, 2018, the corresponding investigator who designed the 16 BCM soccer lessons plans and the 16 BCM basketball lessons trained the PE teachers in learning and teaching sample BCM lessons in soccer and basketball during a 5-day BCM training (6 hours per day). Details in training were described elsewhere. During the fall semester, each trained PE teacher used the 16 BCM soccer lesson plans to teach 16 BCM soccer lessons (two 40-min lessons per week) to their students in the intervention classes for eight consecutive weeks. Similarly, during the spring semester, each trained PE teacher used 16 BCM basketball lesson plans to teach 16 BCM basketball lessons (two 40-min lessons per week) to their students in the intervention classes for eight consecutive weeks.
Control group. The students in the control group followed their school curricular schedules. During the fall semester of 2018, each control PE teacher used their lesson plans and usual teaching methods to teach 16 soccer lessons (two 40-min soccer lessons per week) to their students in the control classes for eight consecutive weeks. During the spring semester of 2019, each control PE teachers used their lesson plans and usual teaching methods to teach 16 basketball lessons (two 40-min basketball lessons per week) to their students in the control classes for eight consecutive weeks.
Motor Skill Assessments
Soccer dribbling, passing, and receiving skills. For the soccer skills assessment, the students’ performances levels were assessed on the three essential dimensions: Dribbling, Passing, and Receiving with a 0–4 rating scale. One trial was allowed for the test. Criteria for Competence (level 3) for Dribbling is: “dribble with control while moving at a slow, consistent jog,” for Passing is: “sends a receivable lead pass to a partner so it can be received outside the passing lane without a break in the receiver’s stride on at least 3 passes,” and for Receiving is: “moves forward and outside the passing lane to meet the ball while receiving at least 3 receivable passes”. ([24], p. 120). A total score of 9 indicated an Overall Competent Level. The maximum score is 12.
Basketball dribbling, passing, and receiving skills. For the basketball skills assessment, the students’ performances levels were assessed on the three essential dimensions: Dribbling, Passing, and Receiving with a 0–4 rating scale. One trial was allowed for the test. Criteria for Competence (level 3) for Dribbling is: “dribbles with control while moving at a slow, consistent jog,” for Passing is: “sends a catchable lead pass to a partner so it can be caught outside the passing lane without a break in the receiver’s stride on at least 3 passes,” and for Receiving is: “moves forward and outside the passing lane to meet the ball while receiving at least 3 receivable passes”. ([24], p. 98). A total score of 9 indicated an Overall Competent Level. The maximum score is 12.
Prior to the fall semester began, both intervention and control PE teachers were trained in learning the two PE Metrics assessment rubrics, assessment criteria, assessment tasks, and testing protocols for soccer and basketball skills, how to organize students to perform soccer skill and basketball skill assessment tasks. During the fall semester, at pre-test, the PE teachers organized the participating students to perform soccer dribbling, passing, and receiving skills in regular PE lessons during the last two weeks of September. At the post-test, the PE teachers organized the students to perform the same skills in regular PE lessons during the second and third weeks of December. During the spring semester, the students were pre-tested in basketball dribbling, passing, and receiving skills during the first two weeks of March organized by the PE teachers. Again, the students were post-tested the same basketball skills as above during the last two weeks of May organized by the PE teachers. During the testing lessons, first, the PE teacher demonstrated and explained how to take the test based on the PE Metrics testing directions. Next, the PE teacher organized the students into each pair and gave each pair two practicing trials to ensure all students understand the testing procedures. Last, the PE teacher organized each pair to take the test which was video-recorded using the digital camera.
In this study, the Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients of soccer skills, basketball skills assessments were 0.90, 0.82, respectively. The results showed that the two manipulative skill assessments had satisfactory internal consistency reliability [25].
Evaluation Of Students’ Performance In Soccer And Basketball Skills
Prior to evaluating the students’ performance in both soccer and basketball skills, four evaluators were trained in use of the PE Metrics assessment rubrics to assess each students’ performance in soccer and basketball skills by the corresponding authors. Then, the four evaluators who were paired-up began to practice coding six 4th -grade students’ performance in soccer and basketball skills, respectively which were video-recorded for the other study. Each pair practiced coding for about three hours while discussing questions with the correspondingly spontaneously and finalized the coding protocols. Next, each student in each pair independently coded the four students’ performance in the soccer and basketball skills with the PE Metrics assessment sheet to check the inter-rater reliability (IR). The IR of the coded soccer or basketball skills assessments was examined by checking each evaluator’s coding results using the formula: % IR = (number of agreement \(÷\) (numbers of agreement + numbers of disagreement))\(\times\) 100 [26]. Finally, when the IR of the three coded soccer or basketball skills was above 80%, four evaluators began to officially code all video-recorded students’ performance in both soccer and basketball skills with the PE Metric assessment sheet using the coding protocols. The two evaluators in each pair watched the recorded video together, but each evaluator independently coded each video-recorded students’ performance in both soccer and basketball skills. Each evaluator was required to strictly use the PE Metrics Assessment rubrics [24] to conduct the two manipulative skill assessments with all participating students.
Data analysis
SPSS statistics software (Version 26.0; IBM Cooperation, Armonk, NY, USA) was used to conduct all statistical analysis of the data. To determine levels and proportions of boys’ and girls’ demonstration of competency in two manipulative skill assessments, descriptive statistics and percentages were computed. To examine the pre-test mean score differences in each skill assessment between the BCM and control groups, the independent sample t test was conducted. Independent t-test showed the pre-test significant difference in the mean score of overall competent level in soccer skills between the two groups (t=-7.013, p = .000). To examine the intervention effects on the overall soccer skill competency, a 2 × 2 mixed-design analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) with repeated measures was conducted. In the ANCOVA repeated measure analysis, time (pre-test vs. post-test) was treated as a within-subject factor and treatment condition (BCM group vs. control group) was treated as a between-subject factor, the pre-test in soccer was a covariate to control for baseline differences.
Due to no pre-test significant difference in the overall competent level in basketball skills between the two groups (t=-1.021, p = .308), ANOVA repeated measure was conducted with the time (pre-test vs. post-test) as a within subject factor and group (BCM group vs. control group) as a between-subject factor to examine if there was a significant intervention effect on basketball skill competency between the two groups. An alpha level of .05 was set for all statistical analysis.