Page 14 - Petelin Ana. Ur. 2022. Zdravje otrok in mladostnikov / Health of children and adolescents. Proceedings. Koper: Založba Univerze na Primorskem/University of Primorska Press
P. 14
avje otrok in mladostnikov | health of children and adolescents 14 cognitive concepts more easily and quickly. Starc et al. (2020) note that the de-
cline in student endurance after returning to school is due to various inter-
ventions during an outbreak of coronavirus disease, suggesting a resulting de-
cline in cognitive performance and consequently academic success. Resilience
is thus an important functional skill, and it makes sense to include it in the
general curriculum of educational systems.
A comparison of educational systems (Gracar, 2015) and especially of cur-
ricular starting points between Austria and Slovenia shows that Austrian start-
ing points are more comprehensive, less specific and more general. In particu-
lar, the analysis of lesson plan documents (Kovač et al., 2011; Jahresplanung,
2021) of annual training preparations and preparations for individual lessons
shows that Slovenian annual training preparations for the subject of physical
education are more structured, more weekly hours are devoted to them, and
they have additionally defined sports days and school-based character.
The results of our study show that it makes sense to structure curricu-
la better and give teachers fewer choices. Compared to the Austrian children,
the Slovenian children passed almost 7 more sublevels in the placement test
(Figure 1). Because of the scatter of the data, we used the nonparametric Mann
Whitney U test, which showed that the differences were statistically significant
(Table 1). We adjusted for age and external conditions, selected schools that
were as similar in size as possible, and attempted to limit any factors that would
make it financially or organizationally impossible to conduct the exercise.
Conclusions
We found differences between the groups. We believe that the openness and
less structured nature of the curriculum allows the teacher to work more flex-
ibly for the students and him/herself. On the other hand, we find that greater
structure can mean more reliable and consistent delivery of endurance activ-
ities.
The limitations of the study lie primarily in the number of students se-
lected and, relatedly, teachers, who may be an important factor in the frequen-
cy and intensity of instruction. By determining 24-hour intensity, we would
obtain more detailed data on extracurricular activities than by subjectively as-
sessing the frequency and intensity of instruction. By increasing the sample
size of comparable schools from several countries with different curriculum
structure and openness, with direct measurement of additional physical activ-
ity, and with different mechanisms for evaluating teachers‘ work, our conclu-
sions would be more reliable.
References
BURFORD, E.-M., ELLEGAST, R., WEBER, B., BREHMEN, M., GRONEBERG,
D., SINN-BEHRENDT, A. and BRUDER, R., 2017. The comparative anal-
ysis of postural and biomechanical parameters of preschool teachers pre-
cline in student endurance after returning to school is due to various inter-
ventions during an outbreak of coronavirus disease, suggesting a resulting de-
cline in cognitive performance and consequently academic success. Resilience
is thus an important functional skill, and it makes sense to include it in the
general curriculum of educational systems.
A comparison of educational systems (Gracar, 2015) and especially of cur-
ricular starting points between Austria and Slovenia shows that Austrian start-
ing points are more comprehensive, less specific and more general. In particu-
lar, the analysis of lesson plan documents (Kovač et al., 2011; Jahresplanung,
2021) of annual training preparations and preparations for individual lessons
shows that Slovenian annual training preparations for the subject of physical
education are more structured, more weekly hours are devoted to them, and
they have additionally defined sports days and school-based character.
The results of our study show that it makes sense to structure curricu-
la better and give teachers fewer choices. Compared to the Austrian children,
the Slovenian children passed almost 7 more sublevels in the placement test
(Figure 1). Because of the scatter of the data, we used the nonparametric Mann
Whitney U test, which showed that the differences were statistically significant
(Table 1). We adjusted for age and external conditions, selected schools that
were as similar in size as possible, and attempted to limit any factors that would
make it financially or organizationally impossible to conduct the exercise.
Conclusions
We found differences between the groups. We believe that the openness and
less structured nature of the curriculum allows the teacher to work more flex-
ibly for the students and him/herself. On the other hand, we find that greater
structure can mean more reliable and consistent delivery of endurance activ-
ities.
The limitations of the study lie primarily in the number of students se-
lected and, relatedly, teachers, who may be an important factor in the frequen-
cy and intensity of instruction. By determining 24-hour intensity, we would
obtain more detailed data on extracurricular activities than by subjectively as-
sessing the frequency and intensity of instruction. By increasing the sample
size of comparable schools from several countries with different curriculum
structure and openness, with direct measurement of additional physical activ-
ity, and with different mechanisms for evaluating teachers‘ work, our conclu-
sions would be more reliable.
References
BURFORD, E.-M., ELLEGAST, R., WEBER, B., BREHMEN, M., GRONEBERG,
D., SINN-BEHRENDT, A. and BRUDER, R., 2017. The comparative anal-
ysis of postural and biomechanical parameters of preschool teachers pre-
