Experiences of 5th Grade Students Participating in Active Gaming-Assisted Physical Education Lessons

Abstract

The aim of present study is to explore the experiences of 5^th grade students, who participated in physical education courses structured based on the active gaming program. The qualitative case study model was employed in this study. Twelve 5^th grade students attending the physical education lessons were involved in present study. The physical education lessons were taught by using “SMART Trainer” system having 3 wall units for 12 weeks. The data were collected using semi-structured focus group discussions, observation notes, rubric, and video records. The content analysis method was used in analyzing the data. The findings were gathered under two categories, two main themes, and four sub-themes. In first category, the previous experiences of students regarding the physical education lessons are to play same games, to watch movies or to take other lessons when they were in the classroom, and to play traditional games or to be left free when they were outside. The fun, the skill-difficulty level, the decrease in awareness of time, the visual-auditory stimulants and the teacher support, which are reflected to the physical education lessons under the motivation theme, are among the important experiences playing role in motivation of students. In physical competence and confidence dimension, the fundamental movement skills assessments made by practitioners as their main function indicate that the majority of students are at adequate levels, whereas it was determined that the self-confidence from the physical aspect developed in parallel with the development of fundamental movement abilities that teachers perceive from their students.