The effectiveness of using Command and Guided Discovery Teaching Styles with mobile phone in teaching forearm pass skill and enjoyment among primary school students

Abstract

Finding ways to reach each student begins with selecting the right teaching style which remains a challenge. In 
physical education, practice style is the most common teaching strategy used to teach skills among students.  
However, this style was found to limit  creativity among students as the teacher is the primary decision maker in a 
lesson as compared to different students-centred teaching style such as guided discovery that promotes peer 
feedback and more engagements with friends. Furthurmore, adding mobile phone as medium in learning 
psychomotor skill among primery school chidren is a new experience and worth to be explored.  Hence, this study 
aims to evaluate the effectiveness of command and guided discovery teaching styles with mobile phone on primary 
school students‟ forearm pass skill and enjoyment. The present study was carried out on 28 subjects (7 males, 21 
females) between the ages of 9-12 years old. Random assignment was used to divide the sample into two groups: 
Command teaching style (n=14) and guided discovery teaching style with mobile phone (n=14). The effectiveness 
of both teaching styles was tested using the psychomotor test established by Brady Wall Volley Test, while the 
students‟ enjoyment was measured by using the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale (PACES). To this end, the 
students' ability in forearm pass and their enjoyment scale were recorded. All the students participated in one 
volleyball lesson for 30 minutes, with forearm passing included in the curriculum units.  No significant differences 
were found between both teaching styles either in the psychomotor test or enjoyment test. However, the students' 
mean scores of forearms passing volleyball skill and Physical Education enjoyment improved more through the 
Guided Discovery Style with mobile phone, as compared to Command Style. The learning process through 
connecting the dots in Guided Discovery Teaching Style by students when seeking the answers using mobile phone 
as the medium to observe, learn and produce the forearms passing movements improves both the cognitive and 
social domain among students. This style of teaching should progressively take over Command Teaching Style 
which only focuses on following instruction from the teacher. Considering the fact that this is the first time the 
students were exposed to this teaching style and the results showed a positive improvement in term of skills and 
enjoyment especially when learning using mobile phone as the medium.  Further research should be conducted to 
investigate the effects of both teaching styles for a longer duration and on a larger population.