What Children Think, Feel, and Know About the Overhand Throw

The purpose of this study was to gather insights about the thoughts, feelings, and knowledge children had about the skill of throwing. Interviews, conducted with 54 children enrolled in two different schools, served as the primary data collection source. Information concerning their knowledge of the biomechanical throwing cues was gathered using a written test. The children were involved in two different physical education programs. One physical education program was taught using the skills theme approach and the other used a traditional approach. Questions guiding the study included asking the children how they felt about how they were learning to throw, what they liked and disliked about their throwing experiences in their physical education classes, and how important they thought it was to learn to throw. Children were also asked to describe and demonstrate the correct way to throw a ball. Assertions were formed using interpretive research. These assertions framed and organized the results section of the study. Results indicated that the children taught using the skills themes approach were more knowledgeable about the skill of throwing and they attributed their throwing knowledge to their physical education teacher. The children taught using a traditional approach showed little knowledge about throwing and they relied on others, not their physical education teacher, to teach them about throwing. Additional results revealed that all of the children said throwing was an important skill to learn and the way to improve throwing performance was to practice. Implications for teaching throwing are offered.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Health and Physical Education

Department dc:contributor.department

Health and Physical Education

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

1994

Author dc:creator

• Manross, Mark A.

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Graham, George M.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Sawyers, Janet K.
• Stratton, Richard K.

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

etd-1250212199612941

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/36502