Feedback and practice in physical education: Interrelationships with task structures and student skill level

This study examined the interrelationships of task structures, student practice variables and feedback directed to individual students for students of differing skill levels. Eight teachers and their middle school-aged students were videotaped for two class periods so that all instruction could subsequently be coded. Teachers ranked their students on perceived skill level. In each class three students at each of the three skill levels (high, medium and low) were selected (N=72). Intricate process data were collected on the tasks teachers implemented, the appropriate and inappropriate practice trials executed by each of the selected students and feedback provided to the students. Analyses occurred at different levels and indicated that appropriate practice and total practice had many relationships with feedback and that there were skill level differences in these relationships. In addition, organization and explicitness variables showed differences in practice-feedback relationships.