Mircea Dragu¹, Corina Dobrota 2 , Constantin Ploeşteanu 3

1. The Place, Role and Importance of Motor Games in the Physical Education Lesson for Secondary School Pupils Mircea Dragu¹, Corina Dobrota2 , Constantin Ploeşteanu3 Dunarea de Jos University of Galati, Romania

2. Introductory remarks Social insight may be influenced by the following game characteristics: • It presumes assigning roles as well as knowing and observing certain rules; thus, the game participants learn that their relationship with the others presupposes a general consensus; • It operates as a means of creating new interpersonal relations and modifying former relations, as well as choosing social partners; • It is a means of verifying the relations with others and their attitude towards us, as seen in the moment of choosing teams/ sides by assigning roles within the members of the same team; • It shows that success and action efficiency also depend on others; at a certain point of interpersonal interaction, someone’s own actions are also compared to the partners’ actions; • It serves as a means of post-analysis and anticipation of interpersonal relations, and possible behaviours in a future situation; • It is a means of appropriating the negotiation behavior; choosing the game elements (place, leader, teammates, etc.) constitutes learning the manner of presenting and complying with demands in relation to others; • It is a means of natural experimenting of certain interactional presuppositions and behavior strategies in case of success or failure.

3. Introductory remarks • Movement games have certain advantages, through content, form and effects, over other types of exercise. Thus, they provide the optimum circumstances of simultaneous development of the basic and specific motor skills, as well as the mental qualities and personality features. • “Through games, children spend their energy” [Acsinte, (2007), 28] , getting involved in “serious” work similar to the circumstances in real life. Due to the multiple favourable influences over children, “movement games have become an important method in physical education, […] included in the lesson content and at all levels” [Antohe & Hutupas, (2002), 57]. • It is well known that sports teachers make intense use of movement games, clearly expressing the role of movement, and the “quality of the teaching technique is the one improving the game character to higher standards” [Hansa & Calin, (2004), 191]. • […] “in physical education the motor game is one of the main means” [Dragu, (2006), 76]. • Since each game has precise rules, the child learns “to correctly assess the concrete game situations, take individual decisions, or decisions correlated with the teammates’ , in an intellectually challenging manner” [Ploesteanu, (2004), 7]. That is why games should be pleasant, stimulating, to produce enthusiasm and emulation, but also able to form knowledge, skills and abilities, training the child for life and work. During play, the child is taught how to observe, think, search for solutions to various punctual problems, stimulating his initiative, creativity, etc. in cooperation with his teammates and even the opponents.

4. Introductory remarks Movement games favour: • The balanced development of the child’s nervous system; • Better stimulation of the metabolic processes; • Improvement of the functions of the respiratory and circulatory systems, contributing to strengthening the entire body; • Development of the basic and applicative motor skills; • Development of physical attributes; • Harmonious physical development “in close connection to all the other educational components: intellectual, moral , aesthetic” [Dragu, (2004) , 48].

5. Introductory remarks Motor games have a clear finality, evincing the following objectives: • they educate the general motor ability; • they favour a harmonious physical development; • they contribute to forming moral and social conscience; • they contribute to improving the intellect; • they support social integration.

6. Research hypotheses • Taking into account the pupils movement needs, it was deemed necessary to integrate movement games in the fifth graders’ physical education lessons, in order to obtain better results in accumulating motor skills; • By practising applicative routines in movement games, pupils acquire the ability to act not only during physical education lessons, but also independently in similar situations, by motor skill associations created spontaneously.

7. Subjects • five 5th grade classes were selected: • 69 subjects enrolled in 3 parallel classes making up a sample of 37 girls and a sample of 32 boys (for the experiment proper). • 53 subjects enrolled in 2 classes making up a sample of 27 girls and a sample of 26 boys (control). • None of the subjects belongs to sports clubs or associations or has ever trained in a sporting discipline.

8. Research organisation • The experiment took place at the School no.17 in the county of Galaţi, Romania in the 2009 – 2010 school year. • The school’ s gym allows the optimal performance of movement games comprising a wide range of motor skills and abilities. The movement games used were of average level, specific to the subjects age group and training level.

9. Events and tests • The results of the events tested were measured in the experimental and the control group in the following periods: • Initial test (T1): 15 September – 1 October 2009; • Final test (T2): 1 June – 15 June 2010; • The events used to determine certain parameters of the functional capacity were as follows: vital capacity, maximal anaerobic strength, the Mazur test and the Ruffier test. • The events used to determine the motor skill were divided as follows: • General motor tests: leap over the gym horse 30", tractions on the gym horse, the Matorin test and relay 5 x 10 m. • The specific motor tests were: separate performance of 4 modules consisting of combinations of 2 applicative-utilitarian motor skills and covering a school application distance set-up to this purpose. • The psychological tests used in this research were: the Bourdon and the Prague test. 

10. Data analysis and interpretation • The statistic parameters characterising the tendency of the phenomenon under investigation were: the arithmetic average, the standard deviation, minimum value, amplitude of data spread, the variability coefficient. As a result of the calculations the results were gathered in tables for each test separately and the differences between tests were considered in order to determine the progress achieved in each group. • The differences were calculated between the average values achieved by the experiment group samples and the control group samples. The Student test was applied in order to see if there are significant differences between the groups in the final test. The progress was calculated in absolute value and as a percentage, for each subject separately, in all the events performed. The progress was also calculated in absolute value and as a percentage for each sample, as well as the differences between samples.

11. Table 1. Functional capacity– boys (D= T2 - T1)

12. Table 2. Functional capacity– girls (D= T2 - T1)

13. Interpretation • In the samples of the experimental group the arithmetic averages are higher than in the control group, both for girls and for boys; the differences are considerable for all parameters, save the maximum anaerobic strength in the girls group. This parameter is not extremely important in the female subjects, as it is caused by a lower body mass included in the calculation formula.

14. Table 3. General motor tests– boys (D= T2 - T1)

15. Interpretation • The sample in theexperimental group are superior to the control group in point of all the motor parameters, the differences between the arithmetic averages in the final tests being obvious for the threshold of 1% or 5%. School-level movement games applied in the instructional process to the sample of the experimental group increased the level of motor skills to a greater extent than in the samples of the control group.

16. Table 4.General motor tests – girls (D= T2 - T1)

17. Table 5. Specific motor tests- boys (D= T2 - T1)

18. Interpretation • For all motor parameters the null hypothesis is disproved, confirming the working hypothesis. As a result of calculating the correlation coefficient, it was found that there is a strong connection between the degrees obtained in the 4 modules and the degree obtained in the applicative routine (r > 0.75). The coefficient was calculated for the data collected in the final test.

19. Table 6. Specific motor tests - girls (D= T2 - T1)

20. Table 7. Psychological tests – boys (D = T2 - T1)

21. Table 8. Psychological tests - girls (D= T2 - T1)

22. Interpretation • The subjects in the experimental group have a better distributive attention than the subjects in the control group, in the boys and the girls case. The differences between the arithmetic averages in the final test are considerable, in favour of the experimental group. Thus, the null hypothesis is proved inconsistent, confirming the working hypothesis. Similarly, the concentration ability is higher in the experimental group, both for girls and for boys, than in the control group. • The differences between the average values are considerable, thus the null hypothesis is proved void, and the working hypothesis is confirmed.

23. Conclusions • This research contributes to improving the action modalities in the instructive and educational process in school. School movement games are the expression of needs emerging from the development and importance of physical education in school and the practical applicability of the motor skill acquired. • Movement games played in school aid to a great extent the instructional process to develop the motor skills of 5th graders. Thus, their motor experience is put to use and the motor skills may associate in forming motor abilities. • In the 5th grade pupils are compatible to their organisms’ possibilities of adaptation and response to the demands specific to physical education at school level. They are apt to psychomotor activities of the type included in the school curricula, being able to exceed their previous performance. • Movement games played in school encourage motor experience so that the pupils may gradually discover this psychomotor potential and autonomously decide on the circumstances of its use. • In order to stabilise the acquired motor skills, school movement games should take place systematically, in continuous lesson series.

24. Bibliography • Acsinte Alexandru – Free times games and activities, Performantica, Iaşi, 2007. • Alecu Simona – Methodology of Educational Research, ”Dunărea de Jos” University Foundation, Galaţi, 2005 • Antohe G., Huţupaş I., - Game Psychopedagogy, NITNELEV, Galaţi, 2002. • Chiriţă Georgeta – Education through Motion Games, Sport-Turism Publishing House, Bucharest, 1983. • Dragu Mircea – Motion Games, Academica Publishing House, Galaţi, 2006. • Dragu Mircea – The lesson—new approaches, Valinex S.A., Chişinău, 2009. • Hânsa Ctin., Călin Lucica – Basketball—techniques and tactics, ”Dunărea de Jos” University Foundation, Galaţi, 2004. • Huizinga J., - Homo Ludens (Romanian translation), Humanitas, Bucharest, 2003. • Fediuc L., – Don’t Let Die the Child Inside, Săptămâna, no.4, 2002 • Iacob I., Păcuraru Al., – Volleyball (course), ”Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University Publishing House, Iaşi, 2004. • Păcuraru A., Călin L., Prisecaru G., The Methodology of School Basketball and Volleyball,”Dunărea de Jos” University Foundation, Galaţi, 2004. • Ploeşteanu Ctin., The Theory of Sports and Physical Education – concepts and means of improvement, Galati University Press, Galaţi, 2009.