Likert scale as a tool to assess awareness in children

Abstract

Introduction: In the sports field, the use of proprioceptive training is an effective method in
optimizing athletes' performances. For this reason, we thought also to try this method also in the
field of physical education, namely in the physical education lesson in a public school. Our
intention was to organize an intervention through a physical exercise program that would
stimulate the proprioceptors in order to improve the sensory-motor function of children. We
wanted to observe and highlight whether students can express what they feel when they do
exercise. Before starting to practice, the students were instructed by the physical education
teacher to focus on the signals received from the external and internal environment of the body,
e.g., proprioceptive, or tactile information in the absence of visual information. Purpose: The
purpose of this study was to highlight the level of awareness in children during physical exercise
in order to evaluate and compare it with other children. Methods: bibliographic study;
observation method; the Likert scale tool; the method of comparing the results; data collection;
graphing and data analysis and interpretation. Results: The subjects of this research were a total
of 74 students, of which 48 children from the 4th grade and 26 children from the 7th grade,
enrolled in a public school in Bucharest. We created a chart, which we have distributed to the
students, and measured their level of awareness immediately after they finished their exercise.
Conclusions: There are large differences between the 4th grade and the 7th grade students in
terms of the results obtained. Thus, the 4th grade children aged 10 were much more aware of what
they were feeling than the 7th grade children aged 13.