The Quality of Practical Pedagogical Training During the Epidemic Through the Eyes of the Slovenian Physical Education Student Teachers

In 2020, physical education teacher education (PETE) students of the Faculty of Sport of the University of Ljubljana (N = 46) had to complete a large part of the practical pedagogical training online. Using an online questionnaire, we investigated how they delivered distance learning in physical education (PE) at Primary Schools, the extent to which they achieved their objectives, encouraged students to move, delivered content, and assessed. The delivery mostly depended on whether the school included PE in the timetable. On average, most lessons took the form of independent student activity following written or recorded instructions, and the others took the form of online outdoor or indoor live classes. The latter were often used to give instructions, check tasks and motivate. Some schools organized at least one sports day (26%), active break (21%), or active class break (9%). Most student teachers chose different objectives compared to a traditional form of instruction: they emphasized the development of motor and functional abilities rather than the acquisition of new motor and social skills. All student teachers delivered physical fitness, followed by athletics (59%), dance and aerobics (43%), ball games (except volleyball 33%) were represented in a smaller proportion. 21% of the students taught content continuously. The assessment was done by 71.4% of the students (many of them only assessed the completion of the tasks) and evaluation by only 31.0%. They used a workout diary, videos or photos, or live conference calls. The average response rate was 71% for 1st-6th graders and 59% for 7th-9th graders. 21% did not attempt to reach non-responding students, while 10% indicated that they did not have problems with nonresponding

Analysis of Longitudinal Changes in Physical Activity in Children Between the Ages of 11 and 14

Globalno sprejeta priporočila za telesno dejavnost otrok in mladine priporočajo minimalno 60 minut zmerno do visoko intenzivne telesne dejavnosti nad dan. Po različnih podatkih je v Evropi manj kot 50 % otrok telesno dejavnih v skladu s priporočili, po podatkih Svetovne zdravstvene organizacije pa globalno več kot 80 % otrok naj ne bi dosegalo priporočil. Raziskovalci iz različnih delov sveta ugotavljajo, da raven telesne dejavnosti upada z odraščanjem in da so dekleta telesno manj dejavna kakor fantje. Namen našega raziskovanja je ugotoviti, kako se spreminja telesna dejavnost slovenskih otrok v obdobju 11 – 14 let in ugotoviti, ali obstajajo razlike v telesni dejavnosti fantov in deklet. Spremljali smo telesno dejavnost otrok v starostnem obdobju 11 – 14 let na vzorcu ljubljanskih osnovnošolcev. V prvem letu meritev je sodelovalo 114 preizkušancev, v drugem 90, tretjem 88 in četrtem 50. Devet preizkušancev je sodelovalo v vseh štirih časovnih točkah. Za merjenje telesne dejavnosti smo uporabili večsenzorne merilnike SenseWear Pro3, ki so podatke beležili v minutnih povprečjih. Zmerno intenzivnost telesne dejavnosti smo opredelili s 4 MET, visoko intenzivnost pa s 7 MET. Za statistično obdelavo smo izbrali metodo analize variance za odvisne vzorce. Razlike v celotni telesni dejavnosti so se izkazale za statistično značilne med starostnima skupinama 11 in 14 let (p = 0,006- 2,34 h) in starostnima skupinama 12 ter 14 let (p = 0,016-0,62 h). Razlike v povprečni intenzivnosti (MET) celotne telesne dejavnosti pri različnih starostih so bile statistično neznačilne F(3, 21) = 1,576, p = 0,225. Prav tako razlike v količini zmerno do visoko intenzivne telesne dejavnosti F(3, 21) = 1,232, p = 0,323. Analiza sedečega časa je pokazala, da ni statistično značilnih razlik v tej dejavnosti pri različnih starostih F(3, 21) = 1,207, p = 0,323. Prav tako ni razlik med spoloma v količini sedečih dejavnosti F(1, 7) = 0,318, p = 0,590. Zaradi okrnjenega vzorca ugotovitev ne moremo posploševati. Vendar pa bodo lahko uporabne tako za spodbude telesne dejavnosti v šolskem in domačem okolju kot tudi za primerjavo rezultatov prihodnjih tovrstnih raziskav v Sloveniji.Globally accepted recommendations for physical activity of children and youth state that children should engage in moderate to vigorous physical activity at least for 60 minutes daily. Referring to different reports in Europe less than 50 % of children and youth is sufficiently active. According to World Health Organization less than 80 % of children achieve the recommendations. There are generally accepted ideas among researchers that level of physical activity is decreasing with age and that boys are more active than girls. The aim of our study is to investigate longitudinal changes in physical activity in children between the ages of 11 and 14 and observe gender differences. Total 114 children took part of our research at the age of 11. There were 90, 88 and 50 children at age 12, 13 and 14 respectively. There were nine participants who were measured at all of the ages. We used SenseWear Pro3, multi-sensor accelerometer for measuring physical activity. It collected data at 60 s epoch. We defined moderate activity with 4 MET and vigorous with 7 MET. For statistical analysis, we used two- way mixed ANOVA as a test for repeated measures. We observed significant differences in total physical activity (TPA) between age groups of 11 and 14 (p = 0,006-2,34 h) and between age groups of 12 and 14 (p = 0,016- 0,62 h). There were no significant differences observed in average intensity of TPA between different age groups F(3, 21) = 1,576, p = 0,225. The same goes for differences in moderate to vigorous activity F(3, 21) = 1,232, p = 0,323 and sedentary activity F(3, 21) = 1,207, p = 0,323. Also, there were no significant gender differences in sedentary activity F(1, 7) = 0,318, p = 0,590. Due to considerable drop out of measured children and small final sample avaliable for longitudinal analysis, we can not generalize our findings. Nevertheless findings can be useful for school or home-based physical activity initiatives. Additionally, we see our study as good basis for further research of physical activity in Slovenian children

Secular trends of physical fitness in twenty-five birth cohorts of Slovenian children

In Slovenia, the national SLOfit surveillance system of the somatic and motor development of children and youth has been enabling researchers to observe the developmental trends of the entire population of school-aged children since 1987. The national database currently incorporates over 7.2 million sets of measurements of eight fitness tests and three anthropometric measurements. Since 1991, as in the rest of the world, in Slovenia, there is a common perception that the physical fitness of contemporary children is in decline and below the level of the physical fitness of the previous generation’s childhood fitness. Our paper examines the trends of physical fitness in 26 birth cohorts of 7–10-year-olds. The analysis shows that the secular trends of physical fitness in boys and especially in girls have been positive and that the level of physical fitness of recent birth cohorts exceeds the national average of physical fitness of the 1989–2019 period. At the same time, the analysis reveals that the distribution of physical fitness has been changing from almost normal in the cohorts born in the first half of the 1980s, toward positively skewed in the subsequent cohorts born before the year 2000, and bimodal distribution in the later cohorts, indicating growing inequality and polarization of the motor development of children

Barriers and determinants of active commuting to school in Slovenia

There is a growing body of literature reporting the health benefits of active commuting to school. This study investigated barriers and determinants of active commuting in children in Slovenia living within walking or cycling distance to school, i.e., 3 km. The sample consisted of 339 children (163 girls) aged 11–14 years who reported their mode of commuting, as well as their parents who described the socioeconomic environment of the family. Every third child in this study traveled to school exclusively by car/public transport, while every fifth participant used a passive means of transport when returning home from school. Potential household poverty, education of the mother and parental encouragement for physical activity were not associated with the commuting mode. In addition, conformist family barriers dominated among reasons for not choosing active commuting. A distance to school that was perceived to be too long was the most frequently cited barrier (72% of participants who passively commuted in both directions), followed by concern about being late for school (38% of participants who passively commute in one direction). Parents from all social strata who drive their children to school in either one or both directions while living in a walking or cycling range are a promising target population for active commuting interventions

SLOfit Lifelong

SLOfit Lifelong is a public health initiative which was created to upgrade a well-established, national physical fitness surveillance system for Slovenian schoolchildren that has been collecting annual fitness and health data for over three decades. The ultimate objective of creating SLOfit Lifelong was to build a modern societal infrastructure with the capacity and ability to detect future causal associations between childhood physical fitness trends and future health outcomes based on the lifelong surveillance of one’s own fitness status. By instilling citizens with an ambition to test, understand, and follow-up their own physical fitness and health status (including related health risk factors), this initiative provides the technical support and expert feedback needed to engender greater individual control over understanding (and thus modulating), one’s own physical fitness status as they progress into older adulthood. This perspective paper details the extensive approach taken to devise appropriate fitness test batteries for adults and older adults which can also relate to the student version of the original SLOfit test database, including establishing criterion health risk zones and a public approach to establish this national, citizen-driven health feedback framework. Through its sophisticated online web applications, social media, print media, and outreach workshops, SLOfit Lifelong provides the expert support for public health engagement by fostering positive lifelong physical literacy experiences an individual can enjoy across their aging journey