Forms and methods of online physical education instruction in slovakia from the perspective of elementary school students

Abstract

Introduction: Physical education (PE) it is the only school subject that focuses on the overall development of students’ psychomotor skills and mental hygiene and has a profound effect on designing daily movement routines and habits. The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent restrictions have caused the largest disruption of education in history and have already had an impact on learners and teachers around the world. It was inevitable that schools had to transfer the way of teaching to online environment. However, the ability to respond to school closures and the extent to which schools have accepted the irreplaceability of this subject was very individual. Methods: This study analyses the current situation of distance learning in the subject of PE in the second stage of primary education in Slovakia from the student’s perspective. Objective: The participating students have been educated online since November 2020. The authors designed a simple questionnaire for this age group to determine the most common forms of online PE instruction and examine the students’ thoughts on such teaching. The survey sample comprised 1155 students from 5th to 9th grade who were 10–15 years old. The data were collected in February 2021. Results: The survey data analysis revealed that individual primary schools employed various teaching forms and methods. Many schools did not provide any PE classes (53.4%), and some students did not participate in any physical activity of their own accord (23.3%). Other schools replaced standard PE classes with theoretical lessons (21.23%). Only a small number of schools provided two PE classes per week in line with the framework curriculum. Practical PE classes were often limited to sending prepared videos (67.8%) without any follow-up reports from the students. Only 11.2% of the teachers actively participated in their classes and exercised in front of the camera, and 11% of them requested their students to do the same. Students reported that their parents or PE teachers were the primary motivators for their engagement in physical activity during the pandemic. Conclusions: Schools in Slovakia have not been able to fully transfer PE classes to the online environment. © JPES.