Abstract:

This paper presents a case study on the introduction of golf sport in Physical Education (PE) courses at Primary Schools in a blended manner. Unlike what happens with other sports, the use of golf in Primary Schools is rare. The working hypothesis is that there is an erroneous impression in a majority of society that does not know this sport, about the difficulty of its occasional practice and a certain social stigma. Also, Blended Learning (BL) is used in the course, which is not common in primary, let alone in PE.

The application of the BL format in PE has also been studied globally (Bayyat, 2020; Marques et al., 2019). Works like (Chen & Li, 2016; Rahayu, 2020) highlight the capability of the BL format to improve the learning process in PE and to make it more efficient. At the same time, it highlights the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and allows them to offer a service to Education. Sports activities are widely accepted in PE programmes in schools (Johnson, 2019; Scarboro & Pritchard, 2015; Alarcón, 2018) due to their educational potential. In addition to sports, any other physical activity that could be considered for PE programmes could benefit from using the BL format.

An introductory course was designed with a hybrid methodology considering Primary School curricula. The Primary Education environment provides a good ecosystem for the study, firstly because of the access to large samples of students with homogeneous ages; and secondly, because of the process of change in the field of Education. The course has been conducted with 109 students and 4 teachers from 2 Primary Schools in Catalonia. It covered learning the game dynamics and the golf swing; the joint movement of the body and the golf club used to hit the ball. In this study, a comparison is made between club guidance and body guidance, as these two types are related to an influential factor in motor learning: the students' focus of attention. For this research process, a mixed methodology is implemented by using semi-structured individual interviews for teachers, online surveys for teachers and students, and pre-test and post-tests of long-game and short-game golf swing performance.

Results show that the BL format is accepted as a learning enhancer by students and teachers. Teachers point out some problems related to logistical and technological aspects, such as the duration of face-to-face sessions or internet access in open spaces. Positive aspects are pointed out, such as the capacity of BL to promote group work during face-to-face sessions and the student's motivation by using electronic devices as a guide. Regarding golf swing performance, students guided by club movement show more transfer of learning in the short-game swing, which is consistent with the laws of motor learning. In the long-game swing, the learning transfers are residual. But here, the students guided by body movement show more transfer of learning.

It can be concluded that the main reason for not considering golf in PE in Primary Education is the lack of knowledge of the sport of golf itself. But as results show, more research is needed to reinforce that the BL format can be a tool to raise awareness of sports unknown to the educational environment, to enhance the student's learning, and to add knowledge about the types of guidance used for learning the golf swing.

Keywords:

Blended Learning, Physical Education, Golf, Primary Education, Primary School.