Team Teaching Models in Physical Education and Their Impact on Physical Fitness in Primary School Children

Abstract

Addressing inconsistencies in effective instructional delivery, this quasi-experimental study investigated the effect of various team teaching models in primary school physical education (PE) on the physical fitness of children. A sample of N =266 students (grades 1–4, mean age 7.68 years) from the Bratislava region participated in a five-month PE intervention. Intact classes were assigned to one of five instructional configurations: a single PE teacher (PET-only) and four team teaching models: Generalist Teacher + Sports Coach (GT+C), GT+PET, Assistant Teacher + PET (AT+PET), and GT+AT. Physical fitness was assessed pre- and post-intervention using the Standing Long Jump, Shuttle Run, Sit-and-Reach, and Pull-up Hold tests. To investigate the association between physical fitness and self-perceived physical literacy, PLAYself questionnaire was applied. The Kruskal-Wallis H-test showed significant differences in the magnitude of change across all four physical fitness components (p< .01). Most importantly, no single team teaching model demonstrated superiority across all domains; however, configurations involving PET or assistant support (GT+PET, AT+PET, GT+AT) generally showed more favourable gains in strength and endurance components. Crucially, self-perceived physical literacy showed a weak alignment with objective fitness, with only one of eight correlations (Pull-up Hold: ρ = .177, p = .009) reaching statistical significance at baseline. Conversely, out-of-school organized sport participation, particularly its frequency and competitive involvement, showed moderate to strong positive correlations with better physical fitness outcomes. These findings suggest that the composition of the teaching team and organized out-of-school sport participation influence physical fitness levels. The study supports the potential of certain collaborative instructional structures to enhance physical fitness in primary school children but also highlights the complexity of connecting self-perception of physical literacy with objectively measured performance in this age group.