Examination of Students Engagement in a Block-Schedule Innovation Program

Abstract

Innovations in education occur in an attempt to bring about improvement in the educational process. But not all innovations tum out to have positive effect on the educational process. Kirk (1988) noted that it is possible to present an innovation that embodies some new idea without it ever bringing about any genuine change in what people think or do. Block-scheduling developed about five ago is one innovation that has attracted attention in recent years and is gaining ground with an increasing number of schools block-scheduling. The schedule has as its aim, a reduced number of periods per day, (usually four), but with extended time blocks. Students in this schedule therefore meet once or twice for a particular subject depending on the rotation of the block. The purpose of the study was to examine students' academic learning time in physical education (ALT- PE) within the new time frame of a block-scheduled program. The study also compared the pre-test and post-test scores of four health-related physical fitness items. These are, one-mile run, curl-ups, pushups (for girls), pull-ups (for boys), and sit and reach. Data were collected on ALT- PE and pre and post-test fitness scores. Analysis consisted of determining percentages of time spent in various components of the lesson and a t-test was used to determine significant difference between pre and post fitness scores. Results indicated that the block-schedule produced an ALT- PE of approximately 37% of class time. The research also found that, it was possible to improve the level of fitness in one-mile run, curl-ups, push-ups, pull-ups and sit and reach during fitness unit. This represents a higher percentage rate of ALT- PE compared to what has previously been reported in traditionally scheduled physical education classes.