Effects of a gamification proposal in the physical education class on motor development in 3rd and 4th grade students at a private school in Valparaíso—Chile

Abstract

As a result of the pandemic caused by the coronavirus, the performance of mass physical activities and face-to-face classes have considerably decreased in the spaces for the stimulation of motor development and, consequently, the levels of physical activity in the school population. The objective of this article is to determinate the effect of the implementation of a physical-educational intervention based on gamification in specific and compound motor skills in schoolchildren. The study involved 25 students from a private school of Valparaíso, Chile (12 women and 13 men from third and fourth grade). The test of Gross Motor Development Second Edition (TGMD-2) was applied to measure motor development level on students. As a function of the 12-week intervention, motor development was improved according to the Wilcoxon test with a significance of p = 0.019 in locomotion, p = 0.013 in manipulation and p = 0.006 in total motor development. Based on the results, it was concluded that a 12-week intervention based on the gamification method can improve the motor development of students in this age range.