The effects of practicing physical activity cards on elementery students? physical activity leveles, lesson context and teacher behavior i̇n physical education classes

The aims of this study were to investigate the effects of usage of''the physical activity cards'' on physical activity levels, lesson contexts, andteacher behaviors of first, second and third grades elementary school students anddifferences in physical activity levels of girls and boys students. Total 384students and 24 teachers from 7 elementary schools from Mugla center wereobserved by SOFIT (System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time) is a directsystematic observation method.It was found that physical activity card has no effect to make''active'' students in a physical education lesson. Although there was an increasein 'standing'' levels, there were decrease in 'walking'' and 'running'' levels ofstudents during a lesson. Moreover, there was decline in moderate to vigorous(MVPA) physical activity levels. There was a decline post-observation MVPAlevel of both experiment and control groups while the MVPA levels of preobservationwere almost 50%. This decline is more prominent in experimentgroup students.When the physical activity cards was used, lesson context wasobserved mostly as 'skill'' while there were decrease in 'game' and 'free game'.Teachers motivated students to exercise in their class and they gavemuch lesser free time and they engaged much lesser other things during lessontime.77There was no statistical difference in physical activity levelbetween genders while the boys` physical activity levels were observed muchmore than girls. In post-observation of control group, there was an increase in"running" score of boys when compared with girls' score.As a result, the physical activity cards are useful materials fordevelopment of skill in physical education lessons. There will be positiveimprovements in physical activity levels, lesson context and teacher behavior ifsome factors like appropriate group size, enough materials and efficient classmanagement of teachers would be make better.