The effects of aligned developmental feedback on third-grade students' performance in overhand throw for force

This study examined the influence of aligned developmental feedback (ADFB) on student performance of the overhand throw for force in a naturalistic physical education setting, including possible gender differences. The second objective was to determine whether teacher professional development improved content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge in throwing and the teacher's ability to deliver ADFB. Participants (n=97) were from four 3rd-grade classes, each randomly assigned to a comparison or experimental group. Both groups received 80 min of throwing practice during seven throwing sessions. Mean body component levels for the step, trunk, humerus and forearm and mean ball velocity scores were calculated from the five throwing trials at the pretest, posttest, and retention test. During Phase 1 the teacher delivered seven sessions of throwing to the comparison group (n=49) using his own feedback but standardized throwing lesson plans. During Phase 2, the teacher was trained to deliver ADFB and teacher feedback was recorded during each session using the ADFB observation system. In Phase 3 the teacher delivered the same seven throwing lesson plans as Phase 1 to the experimental group (n=48), but with the provision of ADFB. An ANOVA revealed significant differences in ADFB between the groups with the experimental group receiving significantly greater ADFB than the comparison group demonstrating the impact of the teacher professional development training. A 2 Group X 2 Gender ANOVA with repeated measures revealed a non-significant Group effect in pretest ball velocity scores (p=.374) but a significant Gender effect (p<.001). A 2 Group X 2 Time X 2 Gender ANOVA with repeated measures on ball velocity scores revealed a significant Group X Time interaction (p=.020) from pretest to posttest with the experimental group significantly better than the comparison group in ball velocity across the intervention. A 2 Group X 2 Gender multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) on body component scores revealed a non-significant Group effect (p=.361) revealing no significant differences between the groups in the body components at the pretest. A significant multivariate Group X Time interaction (p=.001) was found indicating groups differed over time. Follow-up univariate analyses revealed a significant Group X Time interaction for only the humerus body component. The posthoc paired-sample t-tests revealed that both the experimental and comparison groups improved significantly from pretest to posttest on the step component ( p=.001) and the humerus component (p=.002). However, the experimental group also improved significantly from pretest to posttest in the forearm component (p=.002). Separate post-hoc 2 Group X 2 Gender ANOVAs on the posttest scores revealed a significant Group effect for the step (p<.001) and humerus components ( p<.001) with the experimental group better than the comparison group. Gender differences were present in the body components at the pretest regardless of group (p<.001), these differences were maintained throughout the posttest and retention test. Effects at the end of the intervention maintained throughout retention for both groups in body components and velocity scores. The findings demonstrate the importance of ADFB in the learning process and how such feedback can enhance a student's performance on the overhand throw.