Since we are forced, by our lifestyles, to sit down most
of the time, it is of extremely important to carry
out physical education (PE) at the highest level possible. PE is, to many children, the only organized,
professionally guided physical activity they will experience. The purpose of our investigation was to
establish the duration of individual elements within
PE lessons and to present elements that would,
through optimization of their work, help teache
rs put more attention on physical activities.
Observations of 65 physical education lessons were performed and statistical data was processed with
SPSS 16.0 for Windows. According to the results, the introductory time of the lessons is usually much
shorter than suggested and not enough attention is put to special warm-up. The main part of the
lessons is, theoretically, of approp
riate length, whereas the last part of the lessons is again too short.
Since teachers do not optimize the time spent on unnecessary activities, PE lessons are, as a rule,
shorter than 45 minutes. As a cons
equence of the above factors, students 19 effective involvement during
physical education lessons is lower than expected. The results also show that time usage during
physical education lesson could easily be improved, merely by applying some minor modifications to
teachers 19 processes and by raising
awareness of the importance of ph
ysical education among teaching
staff. Sufficient physical activity is
crucial for child 19s healthy development.