The effectiveness of the AAU Developmental Physical Fitness Curricular Module in promoting physical fitness, fitness knowledge and attitudes toward physical activity in fifth and seventh-grade children

The problem. The problem of this study was to test the viabilitity of a curricular module that would provide teachers with a unique instructional package for promoting youth fitness and to assess it's effectiveness in the middle school population.;Procedures. Phase I of the study included the development of the AAU Developmental Physical Fitness Curricular Module and it's assessment made by a panel of jurors and teachers who participated in Phase II. In the second phase of the study, the module was incorporated into the regular physical education programs of 13 volunteer elementary and middle schools in the state of Indiana. Schools were assigned to one of two treatment groups (2-hour pre-investigation training session and no pre-training session), or a control group which maintained regular physical education. Pre- and post-test measures were taken on the four required AAU test events (endurance run, situps, sit-and-reach, pullups for boys and flexed arm hang for girls), the Children's Attitudes Toward Physical Activity Inventory, and a fitness knowledge test. A hierarchical research design with schools nested within treatment and subjects nested within schools was utilized in this study. A separate MANOVA test of mean differences was used to test for significant differences in each of the selected measures for fifth and seventh grade subjects.;Findings. Interview and questionnaire data revealed that the Curricular Module was a viable instructional package that could easily be implemented in a pre-existing physical education program. Data analysis did not reveal any statistically significant differences in the tested variables among the treatment and control groups.;Conclusions. The Curricular Module is a unique and viable instructional package that provides teachers with a flexible and easy to implement plan for fitness instruction. While curricular usage did not reveal significant differences, the module was as effective in helping children maintain fitness, knowledge and attitudes as a regular physical education program that contains a fitness component in it's curriculum.