JOURNAL OF TEACHING IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION, 1993, 12, 180- 187

O 1993 HUMAN KINETICS PUBLISHERS, INC.

Fitness Load and Exercise Time in Secondary Physical Education Glasses

Xiao Jun Li Paul Dunham, Jr. Adirondack Community College University of Wyoming

State University of New York

This study investigated the effect of secondary school physical education on fitness load. Fitness load was defined as the product of the mean heart rate above threshold (144 bpm) and fitness time (the duration of the heart rate above threshold). The relationship of fitness load and skill level of students was also studied. Teachers of 24 classes classified students as having high, moderate, or low skill ability. Seventy-two students, 1 from each skill level in each class, wore heartwatches to record heart rate at 15-s intervals. Student behavior was videotaped and coded. Twenty-one percent of the classes pro- duced an overload effect, and 79% did not. The highly and moderately skilled students achieved fitness load more frequently than their lower skilled colleagues. The relationship between fitness load and percentage of time exercising was r = .66, indicating 44% common variance.

Physical fitness is almost universally recognized as a major goal of physical education (Jewett & Bain, 1985; Koppentd, 1986). The professional literature clearly indicates that fitness development results from optimal employment of duration, intensity, and frequency of exercise (American College of Sports Medi- cine, 1990; Pollock, Wilmore, & Fox, 1978).

It is well established that physiological change occurs when an organism engages in a higher than normal stressor (American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, 1989; Hoeger, 1989), which is commonly labeled the overload principle. An investigation by Howell, Bursick, Sharkey, and McClure (1978) revealed that during free time at school and during summer vacation chil- dren's heart rates rarely remain above 160 bpm for longer than 15 min a day.

Verabioff (1988) has stated that because voluntary childhood activities are not sufficiently vigorous to create a training effect, educators consider the physical education class to be the most appropriate mode for developing and maintaining cardiorespiratory fitness in children. Unfortunately, there is considerable evidence to indicate that children do not achieve fitness in the typical school physical education program (McGinnis, 1985; Ross & Gilbert, 1985; Updyke, 1989).

Xiao Jun Li is with the Dept. of Physical Education at Adirondack Community College, State University of New York, Queensbuly, NY 12804. Paul Dunham, Jr., is with the School of Health and Physical Education at the University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071.

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Studies reported in the fitness literature indicate that the typical school physical education class consists of activities that lack the intensity necessary to obtain a physiological overload or that are of too short a duration to achieve a trainingef- fect. Taggart's (1985) results indicated that whereas more than 50% of the class time was used for practice and games, the nature of the activity was short, intermittent periods of low-intensity exercise that contributed little toward the attainment of a fitness effect.

An investigation of 20 physical education classes by Costello and Laubach (1978) indicated that only 3.6% of class time was utilized for fitness-related activities. Metzler's (1989) review indicated infrequent fitness activities that accounted for less than 2% of the total class time. If fitness is to be retained as a goal of school physical education, then in this era of accountability teachers must provide activities of the intensity and duration necessary to elicit a training effect.

It would thus seem imperative to determine the exercise intensity and the duration potential of the various activities typically utilized in school physical education classes. Recognizing the important interrelatedness of intensity and duration in achieving a training effect, Li (1990) has proposed combining both measures into what he has termed fitness load, which is the product of fitness heart rate multiplied by fitness time. Fitness heart rate is the mean heart rate of all heart rate values recorded that are above the threshold intensity (144 bpm), and fitness time is the duration that the heart rate is above the threshold.

Accordingly, the primary purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of typical secondary school physical education class activities on the establishment of fitness load. A supplementary purpose was to consider the relationship between the student's skill level and fitness load attainment. Because there is evidence indicating a significant difference in the amount of academic learning time in physical education (ALT-PE) exhibited by students classified as having high, medium, and low skill ability (Cousineau & Luke, 1990; Wuest, Mancini, van der Mars, & Terrillion, 1986), it would be profitable to determine if a similar relationship exists between skill ability and fitness load. Such a relationship could alert teachers to the necessity of monitoring and preparing specific interventions for particular populations.

Method

Subjects

Twenty-four physical education classes (Grades 7-1 1) taught by six physical educators at five junior-senior high schools in two school districts of southeastern Wyoming participated in the study. The physical education specialists (five females and one male) each had more than 3 years of teaching experience. The average class size was 26, and the class duration was either 44 or 50 min depending on the school district. Classes to be video- and audiotaped were selected from the teacher's daily schedule. Class subject content included soccer, tennis, table tennis, tumbling, basketball, volleyball, softball, aerobic dance, weight training, and jump rope. Teachers classified students as having high, moderate, or low skill ability. The investigator then randomly selected 1 student from each ability group in each class as a target subject. This procedure resulted

182 JUN LI AND DUNHAM

in 72 target subjects selected from a total student population of 624. All teachers, students, and parents signed letters of consent permitting the filming of the physical education classes. Approval of the study by the University of Wyoming's Human Subjects Review Board was also obtained.

Instruments

Instruments utilized in this study included heartwatches, a chronograph, remote microphones, character generators, and the Class Structure Analysis In- strument. Heartwatches: Three UNIQ CIC Heartwatches (Model B977) manufac- tured by the Polar Electro Company of Finland were used to record target subject heart rate at 15-s intervals. Chronograph: A chronograph for recording the duration of student process variables was utilized. Character Generators: Two Panasonic Model 1-3 VWCGIP character generators were used for recording elapsed time on the videotapes. Remote Microphones: Two FM remote micro- phone receivers and one emitter were used for audiorecording the teachers' oral comments during class filming. Class Structure Analysis Instrument: The Class Structure Analysis Instrument (CSAI) developed for utilization in this study consisted of a system for coding the target student activity during class. Categories included exercise, transition, rest, organization, knowledge, and off-task behavior. Duration was recorded as the amount of time in seconds that students were engaged in each of these classifications. Percent exercise time was calculated as the proportion of the total class time target students engaged in exercise.

Procedures

Two camcorders set in the comers of the gymnasium videotaped the behav- ior of the 3 target students in each of the 24 classes. The teachers were outfitted with a remote microphone to audiorecord comments during the lesson. Prior to class the heartwatches were programmed for the 15-s interval recording function. To the students in the class, the instructor gave a short explanation of the function of the heartwatch and how it was to be attached. The heart rate transmitter was affixed to each target student's chest, and the heart rate recorder was strapped to the wrist. Target students sat quietly with the instructor for 2 min, and the heart rate obtained was used as the resting heart rate for the lesson. Heart rate was recorded for the duration of the lesson and following the teacher's dismissal of the class while the student sat quietly.

Data Analysis

Following completion of the class, the first author manually entered the heart rate data of each student on the CSAI chart. Each target student's fitness heart rate was calculated as the mean of all heart rates recorded above the threshold value of 144 bpm. For each student, fitness time was computed by determining the duration that the heart rate was over the threshold. Fitness load for each &dent was calculated as the product of the mean fitness heart rate and the fitness time. Class fitness load was determined by computing the mean fitness load for the 3 target subjects. The fitness load category for each class was established by comparing the class fitness load to the overload standard (144 bpm . 20 min) of 2,880 fitness load units. Class fitness loads that exceeded the

FITNESS LOAD 183

standard were labeled overload, and those falling below this standard were classi- fied as underload. The first author and trained assistants viewed the video re- cording of each class and coded student behavior utilizing CSAI. Exercise time was designated as the total duration of student engagement in motor activity. Class exercise time was calculated as the mean of the 3 target students' exercise times.

Reliability

Five undergraduate students (four females and one male) volunteered to assist the investigator as coders for this project. Four students were physical education majors, and the other was majoring in industrial education. All of the coders completed a five-section training program that included (a) reading the coding manual prepared by the investigator, (b) discussing problems with the investigator, (c) attending an introductory lecture, (d) practicing coding proce- dures, and (e) coding a 20-min sample lesson. Time required to complete the training program ranged from 225 to 404 min (M = 303), with the greatest portion of the deviation being the length of time expended on reading the coding manual. The Scott pi coefficient of reliability between the investigator and the five coders for the sample lesson ranged from .86 to .97.

Interobsewer Reliability. Following completion of the training program, each coder independently coded three 30-min lessons randomly selected from the 24 videotaped sample lessons. As suggested by Weick (1968), two different coding procedures were employed. Coders A and B went to the lab at different times to code their lessons, and Coders C, D, and E went to the lab together to code the sample lessons individually. Using the Scott pi coefficient of reliability as suggested by van der Mars (1989), we obtained interobserver reliability values that ranged from .80 to .96 (M = .88) for Lesson 1, .77 to .95 (M = .86) for Lesson 2, and .82 to .98 (M = .91) for Lesson 3.

Intraobserver Reliability. Coder B was randomly selected to participate in the establishment of intraobserver reliability with the investigator. A sample lesson was randomly selected from the three lessons coded for interreliability and 14 days later recoded. The resulting Scott pi coefficients revealed intraobserver reliability values of .92 and .90 for the investigator and Coder B, respectively.

Results

The activities, mean percentage of exercise time fitness load value, and fitness load category of the 24 sample classes are presented in Table 1. Inspection of the data indicated that 5 classes (21%) produced a mean overload effect, whereas 19 classes (79%) were classified in the underload category. Consideration of the performance of individual target students revealed that 19 subjects (26%) from 11 classes (45%) generated exercise intensity in excess of the designated overload standard of 2,880 fitness load units (144 bpm 20 min). Eight target students (33%) classified as highly skilled and 8 (33%) labeled moderately skilled achieved the overload standard, whereas only 3 (12.5%) students judged to have a low skill level exhibited this exercise intensity.

Consideration of the Class x Individual interaction indicated that in only two types of classes (jump rope and aerobic dance) did all 3 target students demonstrate fitness overload. In two additional classes (soccer and tennis), 2 of

JUN LI AND DUNHAM

Table 1

Activities, Percentages, Exercise Time, Fitness Load, and Fitness Category for 24 Sample Physical Education Classes

Class Class % exer. Fitness load Fitness load no. activity time units (FLU) classification

Soccer Soccer Tennis Tennis Table-tennis Table-tennis Weight training Tennis Jump rope Table-tennis Table-tennis Aerobic dance Tennis Aerobic dance Tumbling Tumbling Tumbling Tumbling Softball Basketball Volleyball Softball Basketball Volleyball

Underload Overload Underload Overload Underload Underload Underload Underload Overload Underload Underload Overload Underload Overload Underload Underload Underload Underload Underload Underload Underload Underload Underload Underload

the 3 target students attained fitness overload, and in six other classes 1 subject reached the overload criterion. Mean and standard deviation fitness loads and percent exercise time for target subjects of high, medium, and low skill levels were computed and are presented in Table 2.

One-way analysis of variance employed to determine the effect of skill level on mean fitness load indicated no significant difference, F(2, 69) = 2.24, p . 05 . Inspection of the means for the three skill levels revealed a trend: Highly skilled subjects achieved a slightly higher fitness load than moderately skilled subjects, who in turn attained a somewhat higher load than the subjects classified as low skilled. The percentage of exercise time for target subjects with high, moderate, and low skill levels as investigated employing a one-way analysis of variance revealed no significant difference, F(2, 69) = .965, p . 05 . Inspection of group means disclosed that, although not significant, highly skilled students spent more time exercising (22.3%) than moderately skilled students (20.3%), which was more than was spent by those with low skills (17.9%). The relationship

F'ITNESS LOAD 185

Table 2

Mean and Standard Deviation Fitness Load and % Exercise Time for High, Medium, and Low Skilled Subjects

Skill level

Fitness load Percent exercise time

Mean SD Mean S D

High ( n = 24) 2127.9 1688.6 22.3 10.57 Medium (n = 24) 1708.1 1651.5 20.3 10.98 Low (n = 24) 1 160.8 1405.9 17.9 11.21

between fitness load values and percentage of exercise time was determined; the resulting r = .66 indicates 44% of the variation held in common (9).

Discussion

This study was an initial investigation of exercise intensity as measured by heart rate and duration of exercise in a typical secondary school physical education class. The data revealed that a variety of activities may provide an adequate environment within which students can achieve an exercise overload to the extent that will result in a training effect. These activities include soccer, tennis, jump rope, aerobic dance, and basketball. However, it appears that most physical education classes do not generate the necessary intensity and duration. This is in agreement with findings reported by Telama, Paukku, Varsatala, and Paananen (1982), Costello and Laubach (1978), and Verabioff (1988) that inactiv- ity is a predominant feature of physical education classes. The data revealed that whereas the great majority of target students failed to attain the appropriate fitness load, a number of individuals were successful, indicating considerable interstudent variability.

Results of this nature have previously been reported by Costello and Lau- bach (1978) and Verabioff (1988). Accordingly, curriculum designers and teach- ers of secondary school programs must not assume that a given activity will result in the exercise intensity required for students to achieve the overload necessary to acquire cardiovascular and respiratory fitness. Although the results do not indicate a significant effect for skill level on fitness load, the various group means do reflect a trend, with the more skilled subjects exhibiting greater exercise intensity than their lower skilled colleagues. Because the subject matter content of the target classes was so varied, it is plausible that true differences between the skilled groups went undetected. Possibly an investigation employing more homogeneous subject matter might reveal significance.

The results of this study indicate no significant differences among the three skill levels in the percentage of time spent exercising. This is in agreement with findings reported by Silverman, Dodds, Placek, Shute, and Rife (1984) but in contrast to the findings of Cousineau and Luke (1990), who reported a significant difference in ALT-PE for students of these three skill levels participating in sport

186 JUN LI AND DUNHAM

skill instruction, and those of Wuest et al. (1986), who found that low skilled students were involved in less academic learning time.

Finally, because the relationship between fitness load values and the per- centage of exercise time is moderate at best, fitness load cannot be sufficiently predicted by the alteration of the amount of actual exercise time during physical education classes.

Conclusions Exercise intensity is a critical element in the attainment of an overload

effect and should be systematically measured so as to ensure the realization of the fitness goal in physical education. This study revealed that the nature of a task alone is not sufficient to ensure a desired fitness overload. Teachers should not assume that highly and moderately skilled students will attain an overload effect regardless of the nature of the activity. Nor should teachers assume that students of different skill levels will automatically engage in varying amounts of exercise.

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Author Note

This article is based on a portion of a thesis completed under the direction of Mary Marks and submitted for the Master of Science degree to the Faculty of the School of Physical and Health Education, University of Wyoming, by the first author. Appreciation is expressed to Paul Schempp for his assistance with an earlier draft of this paper.