The Effectiveness of a Formal Physical Education Curriculum on the Physical Ability of Children in a Preschool Context

Abstract

Studies have pointed to the benefits of physical activity (PA), yet the level of PA participation among preschoolers is
low. This in turn could have resulted in the limited research literature on the PA level or physical education
curriculum (PEC) of preschool children. Those reviewed here are mostly from countries in the West, as those from
Asia are unavailable. To fill this gap, the present study was carried out to investigate the effectiveness of a formal
PEC on the physical ability of a sample of five-year old children from several preschools in Singapore. Using a
Physical Ability Assessment (PAA) tool with five variables, a pre-test/post-test quasi-experimental design was used
to measure the effectiveness of the PEC with control and experimental groups for the comparative analysis. The
results of the PAA are presented and the implications from the findings and analysis are discussed.