Physical education should be taught by ‘squadre’ or ‘classi’ methods? The students opinions

AIM: The aim of this study was to analyse the student feeling about Physical Education (PE) and its teaching with two different methods:‘classi’ or ‘squadre’. Originally, PE in the high school using student gender separation (‘squadre’) was thought. However, since 1997 any single school chooses a different method, introducing the ‘classi’ method, lessons with male and female together. During this age, boys and girls have the most important growth, with physical and psychological changes, which are sometimes lived as problematic. This process ends with the complete maturation in men and women, with the well-known physiological and anthropometrical differences.1 METHODS: 515 students in their 4th and 5th years of three scientific high schools have been enrolled in the study. 169 practiced PE with ‘squadre’ methods (SQ), 168 with ‘classi’ but had a previous experience with ‘squadre’ (SC) and 178 with ‘classi’ (CL). Student’s feeling about PE was collected by questionnaire with open and closed questions that examined positive and negative aspects of PE ‘per se’ and in relation to its teaching method. Aspects related to fatigue have been separately examined because it can be positive and/or negative. Statistical analysis has been performed on percentages using G test. RESULTS: Most of the students consider PE useful, but percentages are statistically different in the groups (96%SQ, 81%SC, 70%CL, p <0.001), the positive feeling are more frequent than negative (68%SQ, 81%SC, 70%CL), whereas CL presents the highest number of negative (24% p< 0.001). The fatigue sensation has been reported more in SQ than in CL (22%SQ, 7%SC, 6%CL p <0.001). PE returned an increase in wellness (68%SQ, 52%SC, 39%cl p< 0.001), motor skills (79%SQ, 54%SC, 63%CL p< 0.001) and friendships (75%SQ, 72%SC, 77%CL). Motivation, indeed, is more increased in SQ 62% than 46%SC and 40%CL (p< 0.001). The positive aspects reported by students regarding their PE methods were 80%SQ, 51%SC, 62%CL, whereas the negative were 20%SQ, 49%SC, 38%CL (p <0.001) respectively. CONCLUSION: Students considered PE useful and with many positive aspects, but ‘classi’ students reported minor gain in motor skills and motivation than SQ, this last aspect could cause a negative approach to sport activity out of the school. SQ and CL students thinking to PE wrote more positive aspects than negative, even if qualitatively different. Instead, SC student reported the same percentage, where the negative were the positive considering the previous ‘squadre’ experience. Fatigue was more present in SQ answers, probably because given tasks and workouts can be harder when working with the same gender. In light of these results PE taught by ‘squadre’ seems to be more appropriate for students learning and satisfaction.