Physical activity levels in coed and same-sex physical education using the tactical games model

It is recommended that physical education (PE) students spend 50% of class time in physical activity (PA). Instructional setting and instructional models are a few factors that can affect student PA levels. The purpose of this study was to compare PA levels of junior high school PE students participating in coed and same-sex PE classes that followed the tactical games instructional model during four sport units.;Participants were 446 PE students enrolled in the seventh, eight, and ninth grade. Two experienced PE teachers, one female and one male, conducted all classes. Participants completed eight lesson units in basketball, volleyball, flag football, and soccer. Classes were randomly assigned as coed or same-sex. ActiGraph GT1M accelerometers were worn by all students to monitor PA levels and cut-points were used to characterize PA as light or moderate-to-vigorous (MV).;A three-way between-subjects analysis of variance was conducted to evaluate the effect of gender, class setting, and grade level on PE students' PA levels for each activity unit. Males were more active than females in every activity. For the most part there was no difference in PA for males between the same-sex and coed setting for all units. Females spent a higher percentage of time in MVPA in the same-sex setting for most activities. There were small grade effects but in general the percent of time being active decreased with increasing grade levels. Each sport activity showed a unique effect on PA levels due to gender, setting, and grade level when using the tactical games approach. The flag football unit revealed a statistically significant three-way interaction between gender, setting, and grade whereas volleyball and soccer both had statistical significant two-way interactions between setting and grade. Basketball and volleyball had statistically significant two-way interaction between gender and setting.;It was concluded that setting does affect PA levels of males and females depending upon the sport unit. Males were more active than females in all activities. Also student activity levels were affected by setting and grade depending on sport unit. The tactical games approach showed promise as most sport activities showed the total physical activity levels (light and MV) near or above 50% of the total class time. It is recommended that further research examine several instructional models in a coed and same-sex setting and compare student PA levels.