The Effects Of Integrating Geometry With Physical Education (secondary School)

Introduction and Background: - Addressing academic issues - Making Maths fun and practical - Increasing students motivation and grade results - Are students kinaesthetic learners?

Research objectives: - Integrating geometry with PE increases test scores - Integrating geometry with PE increases students motivation in geometry - Are students kinaesthetic learners?

Method:

Sample: Total of ten year 9 students 5 students in Integrated lesson (PE with Maths) 5 students in Non-integrated lesson

Aims of the lesson: Year 9 Scheme of Work (Shapes, Space and Measures) level 6

Learn the properties of circles

Learn formulae for the circumference and area of a circle

Know and use the formulae for the arc and sectors of circles

Students first filled out the psychometric questionnaire (Address Kinaesthetic objective) Students did a pre-test paper Students had a lesson Students did a post-test paper (Address test scores objective) Semi-structure interview (Address students motivation in Maths)

Questionnaire for students: Students filled out psychometric questions to find out how their preferred learning styles and compare their test results and contribution in interview

Interviewed the students: The participants were interviewed using semi-structured interview. The qualitative data were transcribed to find out their motivation and opinions

Tests: Each group's geometry pretest and posttest scores were compared between the group receiving geometry integration and the group receiving a class-room based geometry lesson

Findings:

Using hypothesis testing the significance level of the PE integrated lesson was 0.025 that is less than the critical level 0.05. Therefore, reject H0 and accept H1. Thus, integrating geometry with PE increases test scores.

Students from both the groups mentioned that they would like Maths to be more practical Also, students said that Maths with movement is interesting 7 out of 10 students mentioned that they learn a lot more working in groups The students prefer to understand the concepts before practising it

The psychometric questions were based on style of learning 8 out of 10 students showed their preferred learning style is kinaesthetic (through practising and movement) The results in test scores, interviews and psychometric questions indicate students were kinaesthetic learners

Conclusion:

Students learn better where they can make connections between subjects (evident with the pre-test and post-test results)

Integrating academic subjects into movement experiences offers students a way to learn by doing as they apply concepts to authentic situations

Students prefer to be practical learners (kinaesthetic learning style)

My results supports the work of Piaget, Dewey and Erikson.

Kaprinis et. al 2009 (research where the maths lessons were integrated with motor skills), the findings showed that the pupils of experimental team showed significantly higher lesson satisfaction, intrinsic motivation and also scored higher in a specific maths test

Significance of the Research

There are current changes in Maths curriculum: emphasis on application of Maths skills (Functional skills)

This project may serve as a stepping stone for further research directed towards integrating Maths with PE to maximize students learning