Are We Doing the Right Thing?

Abstract

In the Croatian high school system, students can attend the same school, but, based on their cognitive abilities, they may be assigned to a regular or an adapted study program. The basic assumption is that students differ predominantly based on their cognitive rather than motor abilities. Therefore, their motor abilities are evaluated through the same battery of motor tests. The aim of this study is to evaluate the metric characteristics of the tests used to evaluate motor abilities of high school students enrolled in an adapted study program, and to compare their results with the results of students engaged in the standard curriculum. The sample consisted of 28 high school students, 14 students in the adapted teaching program (experimental group P) and 14 students in the regular teaching program (control group R). The motor tests were used to assess their muscular endurance, explosive strength, coordination, and flexibility. Normality of distribution was checked by using the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test (KS), while the data processing also included factor analysis, the intraclass correlation coefficient and the t-test for independent samples. The level of statistical significance was set at p<0.05. The obtained data confirmed the homogeneity, sensitivity, and factorial validity of the tests. The results of the t-test for independent samples clearly showed a difference between the arithmetic means of the groups. The students of the R group had better results in all tests than those of the P group. The results suggest the possibility of a significantly different level of motor abilities between high school students attending regular schools according to an adapted or standard study program. All together this points to the need of an individual interpretation of a student’s results rather than a comparison with the set standards. Also, the validation of customized motor tests for a specific population should be considered.