Author

Daniel Bell

Date of Award

January 2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Kinesiology & Public Health Education

First Advisor

Jesse Rhoades

Abstract

A gold standard for student pairing strategies in a physical education setting has still yet to be discovered and is a widely debated topic in the field. Inclusion and equitable learning environments are areas of emphasis for practitioners while trying to find new ways to elicit these things to benefit students. Interpersonal coordination (IC), a social phenomenon on which this study focused, has direct applications for pairing strategies in physical education. In essence, IC is a state in which two individuals non-consciously mimic each other’s motor patterns. IC was measured between 182 student pairings performing stationary basketball dribbling. Participants included elementary aged students from area elementary schools and were randomly assigned partners. It was found that dribbling competence was not a significant factor for IC. However, gender was found to be a significant factor. Specifically, female pairings were found to have significantly higher rates of IC than male pairings.

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