Physical education games and social skills: An investigation with Iranian primary school girls

Tayebeh Sohrabi
Memorial University, Canada

This study investigated the effects of group play on communication skills in upper primary students. A quasi-experimental method for evaluation and comparison of communication development was adopted, and two classes of fifth-grade female students were randomly selected. They were divided into two groups: a control group and an experimental group. The survey Willingness to Communicate (McCroskey & Richmond, 1987) was administered to gather data, and a t-test was conducted to examine the hypothesis. A pre-test was given to participants in the two classes to measure communication skills development. The experimental group played the pre-selected group games for six weeks (two sessions of 60 minutes per week), while the control group continued with the standard curriculum. After this time a middle-test was administrated on the students to eliminate time as a factor. This indicated that additional time was necessary, so the study continued for another six weeks. After the last phase of this study, a post-test was conducted, revealing that group play could be related to increasing social skills in the area of communication with peers (p<.05).
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Author: Tayebeh Sohrabi is currently a Master of Education student at Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada. Previously, she was a vice principal and teacher in Iran where she conducted her first masters thesis on students' social skills development. Her research interests include inclusivity in elementary curriculum and social skills in dual lingual children. Email: tsohrabi@mun.ca Please cite as: Sohrabi, T. (2019). Physical education games and social skills: An investigation with Iranian primary school girls. Issues in Educational Research, 29(4), 1302-1318. http://www.iier.org.au/iier29/sohrabi.pdf