EFFECT OF SYSTEMATIC MOVEMENT EDUCATION PROGRAMME ON THE PROBLEM SOLVING ABILITY OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN

Mr. Michael Xavier and Dr. Ashish Phulkar

Abstract

Developing problem solving ability is an essential competency for sustaining emotional and mental health among children. The purpose of this experimental study was to investigate how children’s participation in a systematic movement education programme has an effect on their problem solving ability. Non-probability based convenience sampling technique was used to select 50 elementary school children aged between 5yrs to 7yrs who participated in the study. 25 children formed the control group and the 25 children that formed the experimental group underwent a 6 week developmental games programme designed by the researcher on the basis of the movement education framework. The problem solving ability of the participants was assessed using a researcher modified assessment tool. Independent sample ‘t’ test was used for comparing the change in performance of both the groups, and it was seen that the calculated ‘t’ value 5.484 was significant at 0.05 level of significance. Hence it can be concluded that a systematic movement education programme has a significant effect on the problem solving ability of elementary school children.

Keywords: Movement education, Problem solving and Elementary school children.