Exploring cooperative and inquiry-based learning for throwing and catching skills in elementary physical education

Abstract

Background.Throwing and catching are fundamental object-control skills in elementary physical education. This study explored cooperative and inquiry-based learning in developing these skills among elementary school students. Methods.This exploratory two-class pretest–posttest pilot study involved 60 elementary students from two intact classrooms. One intact classroom (n = 30) was assigned to the Inquiry-Based Learning condition, while the other intact classroom (n = 30) was assigned to the Cooperative Learning condition. The intervention comprised 16 sessions: one pretest, 14 instructional sessions, and one posttest. Skills were assessed using the Test of Gross Motor Development–Third Edition (TGMD-3). Paired-samplest-tests examined within-group changes, and ANCOVA examined adjusted posttest differences between the two instructional conditions after controlling for pretest scores.  Results.Both groups significantly improved in throwing and catching (p< 0.001). Throwing increased from 4.08 ± 0.39 to 5.63 ± 0.49 in the Inquiry-Based Learning group and from 4.07 ± 0.47 to 6.88 ± 0.35 in the Cooperative Learning group. Catching increased from 3.13 ± 0.35 to 4.08 ± 0.46 in the Inquiry-Based Learning group and from 3.13 ± 0.31 to 5.07 ± 0.44 in the Cooperative Learning group. ANCOVA showed statistically significant adjusted between-group differences for throwing (F = 36.74,p< 0.001, ηp² = 0.39) and catching (F = 28.41,p< 0.001, ηp² = 0.33). Conclusion.Both instructional conditions were associated with improvements in throwing and catching skills. Larger observed gains were found in the Cooperative Learning class than in the Inquiry-Based Learning class. However, because each instructional condition was represented by a single intact classroom, the observed differences cannot be attributed exclusively to the instructional model and should be interpreted as exploratory between-class differences.