Robert Nalepa
Assignment 1
Article Critique

Does HOPSports Promote Youth Physical Activity in Physical Education Classes? The purpose of this study was to compare the physical activity levels of youth that were engaged in HOPS based physical education classes to those who were engaged in regular physical education classes. This was a longitudinal intervention study where children in grades 4th-8th participated in. The sample size of this study was 387. When using the HOPS program the children were significantly more active. This study suggest that HOPS can be the most effective way to promote diverse and dynamic program options that physical education teachers cannot. With the possibility of increasing physical education classes because of budget the use of this technology may be beneficial to increase physical activity and fight rising levels of youth obesity. The specific research problem that has been identified in this study is that physical inactivity of youth due to rising levels of watching television, videogame use, and obesity. The youth today are less engaged in the outside world and are less physically active than when their parents were younger. Youths today increased use of technology can be linked to reduced leisure time physical activity because these activities take up the same time where kids can be engaging in different kinds of physical activities. This is a quantitative study because it measures minutes of moderate and vigorous physical activity achieved with HOPSports compared to sessions without HOPSports. It also measures activities conducted during study fitness sessions and related physical activity intensities (METS). The author has put forth an argument as to why this problem is worthy of investigation because youth physical inactivity can lead to negative health outcomes for both now and in the future of the children’s lives. If we can try and stop the problem when they are young, it may lead to a better and healthier lifestyle for them. The main research question of this study is that children who use HOPSports are more physically active then to children who did not use this technology. The sample population that was used in this study was 387 out of 418 students from grades 4th-8th. The 31 that did not participate because they did not return both parent consent and child assent forms. The authors of this study used 4th-8th grade students because these are the age group of students that show the most decline in physical activity among the youth population. Yes the author has clearly stated a research question and hypothesis. The authors’ hypothesis is that the introduction of HOPSports would help promote a positive change in youth physical activity behavior patterns. This study had two main research questions. The first, were youth more or less physically active when physical education sessions used HOPSports than when the physical education sessions did not use it? The second, which youth were most likely to achieve significant positive improvements in their physical activity levels by using HOPSports during the sessions, (gender, race, grade level).
This article does not clearly state what they key terms are, however the most important key term that was clearly defined including operational definition was HOPSports. HOPSports is a technology based program to help encourage and promote physical activity. HOPSports is a multi-media technology driven, standards-compliant physical education system (www.hopsports.com). The main purpose of this technology is to provide lessons that provide sport specific training in a variety of cardiovascular and strength training programs. Other key terms that I think should have been identified and defined more are physical activity and physical inactivity.
Yes I would say that the literature review is relevant but however, not up to date because all the examples are from 2007 and this study was from early 2014. Seven year difference, I think is a major difference especially when the use of technology has increased since 2007. One example is Hayes and Silberman (2007) to examine the efficacy of a technology intervention in youth group setting. However they failed to look at physical activity outcomes but they did suggest numerous benefits for implementing interactive video games into physical education setting. Another example is Sayre (2007) who also examined the efficacy of a technology intervention in a youth group setting. Sayre stated that if youth develop a preference for aerobic video games played in a youth group setting, physical education classes or after school programs, they may carry these preferences home to their video game systems.
Yes both the methodology and data analysis are appropriate and clearly described. The students used they HOPSports program by the teacher selects a sports module and the students follow on screen cues and instructions. Students in this study participated for four months and the intervention was used 52.2% of the sessions. This study was conducted by using elementary and middle school students in about 30 different schools in North Carolina. The presence or absence of the technology HOPS was the independent variable, and minutes of moderate and vigorous physical activity were the dependent variable. Personal factors for example, gender, race, grade, and BMI were tested as factors that could have influence the efficacy of the intervention.
For the data analysis, first the participants of the study were described by using frequency statistics. Second, a summary of the activity sessions and physical activity intensities was presented. Third, a repeated measure analysis of variance with covariates to compare minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity levels achieved with or without the HOPS program. Last, physical activity data was investigated according to activity type.
Yes I would say that the author included validity and reliability of the instrument used to collect data. According to the article it states that actigraph accelerometers have been identified as the gold standard for physical activity monitoring and have been found reliable in school age through adult populations. Also that extensive reliability and validity data have presented elsewhere and demonstrated that the actigraph have been validated in children to estimate physical activity.
The major findings of this study are that HOPSports appears to be effective in promoting moderate to vigorous physical activity in physical education classes. Statistical analyses of moderate to vigorous from all sessions combined to indicate that youth were significantly more active when using HOPS than when not. Youth received an average of 21.5% more moderate to vigorous per session. However, results concluded that it did not provide enough evidence that HOPSports exceeds the performance of non HOPSports sessions.
Yes the authors included limitations in this study, they stated four limitations. The first, the flexibility the instructor had in choosing what activities the children would participate in. Second, the limited number of sessions during the data was collected. Third, lack of information collected that the teacher in the non HOPS session had on planning, implementation, and quality

of that session. Fourth, lack of longitudinal data to indicate how quickly students interests of the HOPS technology might fade.
Finally yes this study can be generalized to other situations. For example use a different sample group, maybe older students in high school or older adult populations in physical activity classes. One has to think if the increase of this technology in physical education classes there may not be a need for physical education teachers. A positive of this may be saving the school money but the children are losing the interaction of the student teacher relationship. Probably the most significant value of this technology is its provision of activity lessons that are easy to facilitate with the use of the onscreen instructors teaching the specific topic that physical education teachers may be not comfortable teaching, for example, any type of dance. Another advantage of this technology is that its ability to engage large groups of students while the physical education teacher can move around the class providing individual feedback. Overall, there needs to be more studies to be researched with using this technology for better results on physical activity.
West, S., & Shores, K. (2014). Does HOPSports Promote Youth Physical Activity in Physical Education Classes? Physical Educator, 71(1).