Scientific Approach in Physical Education

Can it Improve Concentration and Spatial Intelligence of Senior High School

Students in the Mountainous Area?

Beltasar Tarigan, Herman Subarjah, Kurnia E. Wijaya and Iqbal Gentar Alam

Faculty of Sport and Health Education, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia,

Jl. Dr. Setiabudhi No. 229, Bandung, Indonesia

beltasartarigan@upi.edu

Keywords: Scientific Approach, Concentration, Spatial Intelligence, Mountainous Area.

Abstract: The purpose of this research is to analyze the influence of scientific approach in physical education towards

the concentration and spatial intelligence of senior high school students in the mountainous area. The methods

of the experiment used were Pre-test and Post-test designs. The population was the students of Senior High

School 1 Lembang, with 2 groups, 36 students were taken as samples through simple random sampling

technique. The instruments used were concentration test and spatial intelligence test. The data was processed

by independent t-test with the level of trust 0,05. The result of independent t-test in the component of

concentration shows that t = 2.879, Sig 0,005, so H5 accepted. The spatial Intelligence components show that

t = 3.894, Sig 0,000, so H6 accepted. Conclusion: A scientific approach in physical education done 3 times a

week can increase the concentration and spatial intelligence of senior high school students living in the

mountainous areas. Meanwhile, if it is done only once a week, it will be lower.

1 INTRODUCTION

Physical education and sports are essentially parts of

the efforts in supporting the achievement of the

national education goals. Physical education in the

20th century emphasized more on the aspects of

physical fitness, moving skill, knowledge, and social

(Abduljabar, B. 2011); Gu, X., Solmon, M.A., and

Zhang, T. 2014). The fact is that on the field, the

students feel that the physical education learning is

not that attractive and it feels like kind of

monotonous, so that it feels boring. One of the

reasons of why it feels boring is that because the

teachers are still implementing the conventional

learning approach, with one of its characteristics are

the teachers seem authoritative and all the learning

process is designed by the teachers, without involving

the students. This fact is supported by an argument

that says that in its implementation, the old

curriculum (conventional) is kind of static and strict

because of those people who implement it on field.

(Beyer, L. E. and Apple, M. W. (eds). 1998); Cook-

Sather, A. 2009b); Grumet, M. R. 1990). In

overcoming the condition of physical education

learning at school these days, a new way of learning

is needed, especially those related to the right model

application and learning approach, so that it can

increase the students’ creativity, concentration, and

intelligence. Related to it, the government had made

a policy to implement the 2013 curriculum in the new

semester of 2014, for all education units, starting

from the elementary schools, junior high schools, and

senior high schools. One of the things that are

emphasized in the curriculum is that the approach

model, known as Scientific and consists of Problem

Base Learning approach, Base Learning Project and

Discovery Learning. Through these three approaches,

the students are expected to develop the aspects of

creativity, concentration, and intelligence. This is

supported by the experts who have confirmed that

intelligence can be affected by the enviromental

factors (Diamond, M., and Hopson, J. 1998); Lucas,

A., Morley, R., Cole, T. 1998); Neisser, U., Boodoo,

G., Bouchard, T., Boykin, A. W., Brody, N., Ceci, S.

J., Halpern, D., Loehlin, J., Perloff, R., Sternberg, R.

and Urbina, S. 1996); Nisbett, R. E. 2009), as a nature

carried from birth (Eysenck, H. 1994); Herrnstein R.J.

and Murray C. 1994); Jensen, A. R. 1980); Jensen, A.

R. 1998). On the contrary, Multiple Intelligence

theory as the combination of intelligence of an

inherited potential and skills that can be developed in

several ways through the relevant experiences

Tarigan, B., Subarjah, H., Wijaya, K. and Alam, I.

Scientiﬁc Approach in Physical Education - Can it Improve Concentration and Spatial Intelligence of Senior High School Students in the Mountainous Area?.

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sports Science, Health and Physical Education (ICSSHPE 2017) - Volume 1, pages 429-434

ISBN: 978-989-758-317-9

429

(Gardner, H. 1983). Meanwhile, the factors of sense

and intelligence are affected by the independent

system, in which the type and quality of the

information received by the sensory system (sense)

determine someone’s intelligence (Gardner, H.

1993). Related to the increase of the body endurance,

the serum calcium level is related positively to the

lower leg muscles, but the decrease of the serum

calcium level is not necessarily followed by the

weakening of the leg muscles on football athletes

(Yusni, Amiruddin, A Purba, and B Tarigan. 2017).

So, aside from exercising often, in maintaining and

improving the body’s ability, supply of healthy and

adequate food is also needed.

In the physical education using the scientific

approach, students are trained to analyze and to make

decisions to do some moves in accordance with the

condition that’s happening during the game. The

experts have predicted that the approach with the

scientific ethics is the best way to be implemented

today and in the future (Zeigler. E F. 1980); Bacanak,

A and Gökdere, M. 2009); Hurd, P.D. 1998). The

combination of movement done can help improve the

memory, instruction, and sequential skills. Creating

the movement can also improve the students’

confidence, which is a very important thing in the

learning process (Gilbert , A.G. 1992). An interesting,

fun, and challenging physical education activity and

sports can help improve the students’ creativity,

concentration, and intelligence. Through a regular

and measured physical education activity and sports,

a kid will be able to maintain their physical endurance

and concentration level longer than those who do not

exercise regularly (Niels Egelund.

www.health.detik.com). Physical education

programs should help cultivate awareness, affect the

attitude, and identify the alternatives, so that

individuals can make a choice about information

selection and the change of behaviour to achieve the

best physical and mental health level (Misner, J. E.

1984). Other researchers have also highlighted and

identified the role of physical activity and endurance,

also the mental health of the school-age children, that

has the implication towards the public health which is

an important factors in the kids’ life (Blair, S.N.,

Cheng, Y., and Holder, J.S. 2001); Fogelholm, M.

2010). Meanwhile, principally in every endurance

program, there is an idea that we educate teenagers to

be fit and stay fit and active for their whole life

(Corbin, Charles B, Welk, G. J. 2014). Therefore,

students who exercise regularly with the scientific

approach at school or through their own awareness

off-school can help improving their brains’

performance.

2 METHOD

The method used in this research is experiment, a

research that involves experiment/giving treatment to

several students to obtain data as the effect of the

treatment given, and those are concentration and

intelligence. The data was obtained through

concentration test and spatial intelligence test, and

then compared them with the control group. In

accordance to the variables that were about to be

researched, then the research design that used would

be the Randomized Control-Group Pre-test – Post-

test Design, because there were two groups in this

design: control group and experimental group. The

experimental group got the physical education

learning treatment that used scientific approach and

the control group with the conventional approach.

The main purpose of this research is to reveal the

effect of physical education and sports on the

improvement of students’ concentration and spatial

intelligence and to test which approach is the most

effective one in improving the two components that

become the dependent variables.

The instruments used in obtaining the data in this

research are: first, to get information about the

students concentration level by spreading the

concentration test and then verifying the data; second,

to get the information about the students’ spatial

intelligence by spreading questionnaires about spatial

intelligence and then verifying the data.

2.1 Population and Sample

The population was junior high school students from

6 different classes, consisted of 180 students. The

samples were some of those consisted in the

population that were considered as being able to

represent the whole research population, therefore th

technique of sample selection had to be in accordance

with the general natures of the research’s purpose.

The samples used were 10 % of the population of

those junior high school students. The sample

determination technique used was the Simple

Random Sampling technique. 40 students were

chosen randomly, 20 students got the scientific

treatment and the other 20 got the conventional

approach.

2.2 Analysis

We analyzed the data within these steps:

 The normality used was Kolmogorov-Smirnov

on p-value > 0.05. The homogeneity test used

was Levene Test on p-value > 0.05.

ICSSHPE 2017 - 2nd International Conference on Sports Science, Health and Physical Education

430

 The analysis of hypothesis number 1 to 2 used

Paired Sample T-Test and number 3 used

Independent T-Test on p-value > 0.05.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Figure 1: The difference between scientific and

conventional towards the concentration of the students in

the mountainous area of lembang.

Based on the data presented on Graphic 1, it shows

that the experimental group with the scientific

approach in the area of Lembang generated the

concentration pre-test result of 5459 with the average

of 151.39, whereas the post-test result was 5905 with

the average of 164.03. The control group with the

conventional approach in the area of Lembang

generated the concentration pre-test result of 5411

with the average of 150.31, whereas the post-test

result was 5425 with the average of 150.69.

Figure 2: The difference between the scientific and

conventional approach towards the spatial intelligence of

students in the mountainous area of lembang.

The data presented on Graphic 2 shows that on the

experimental group with the scientific approach in the

area of Lembang, the result of the spatial intelligence

pre-test was 862, with the average of 23.94, whereas

the post-test result was 949 with the average of 29.36.

The control group with the conventional approach in

the area of Lembang got the spatial intelligence pre-

test result of 857 with the average of 24.31, whereas

the post-test result was 888 with the average of 24.67.

Table 1: Paired tests of concentration and spatial

intelligence in the mountainous area of lembang.

Concentration

Group T Sig. (2-tailed)

Scientific -3.011 .005

Conventional -0.555 .582

Spatial Intelligence

Group T Sig. (2-tailed)

Scientific -9.005 .000

Conventional -0.794 .432

The data processing and analysis on table 1 show

that physical education done on the mountainous area

with the scientific approach has influence towards the

students’ improvement of concentration and spatial

intelligence. Through the scientific approach, the

students were asked to be able to improve their skills

and abilities, thinking, curiosity and the ability to

think or understanding quickly. Learning, thinking,

having creativity and intelligence do not only involve

140,0

145,0

150,0

155,0

160,0

165,0

170,0

Concentration

22,5

23,0

23,5

24,0

24,5

25,0

25,5

26,0

26,5

27,0

Spatial Intelligence

Spatial

Intelligence

Scientiﬁc Approach in Physical Education - Can it Improve Concentration and Spatial Intelligence of Senior High School Students in the

Mountainous Area?

431

the brain, but also physical process as a whole.

Sensation, movement, and brain function can unite in

physics as a whole (Hannaford,C 2005). In line with

it, the experts argue that some theories about

intelligence, compared to the traditional learning

method, creates positive effects on the students’

success and attitude on science as a school subject

(Özdemir, P., Güneysu, P. and Tekkaya, C. 2006).

The learning process in scientific approach

encourages the students to study actively through

their active participation in the physical education,

alone with the concepts and principles, and the

teachers encourage the students to have experience

and do some experiments that make it possible for

them to discover some principles for themselves

(Suprihatiningrum, J. 2013). Students who learn with

the learning strategy based on Multiple Intelligence

Theory got better score than those who learn through

the traditional learning (Abdi, A., Laei, S., and

Ahmadyan, H. 2013).

Meanwhile, the physical education done in the

mountainous area using the conventional approach

didn’t affect the students’ concentration and

intelligence improvement. The learning process

emphasizes more about the mastery of technique first

through repetition before stepping into the real

games. In the process of mastering the skills, the

students are never given chances to think critically

like how to do a right and great technique. It happens

because all process and steps are all managed by the

teachers. The result is, the students will only do what

their teacher ask them to and there is no tolerance to

do the alternative steps in solving problems. It causes

the students to be easily bored and tired, and so that it

cause them to lose creativity. Other experts advise to

diagnose and promote intelligence sistematically to

supply the students with knowledge and experience

from double intelligence and to use it in the teaching

practice in the future (Elena, R., Carlín, T., and

Castillo, C. (n.d.). This is because the students who

learn by the Multiple Intelligence learning approach

experience significant improvements on the terms of

achievements and attitude towards science compared

to the traditional approach (Kaya, O. N. 2007).

Table 2: Independent sample t-test on concentration and

spatial intelligence on the mountainous area of lembang.

Paired Sample t Test T Sig. (2-tailed)

Concentration 2.879 .005

Spatial Intelligence 3.894 .000

Based on the data managing and analysis in Table

2, it shows that physical education on the

mountainous area that uses the scientific approach has

better effects on the students concentration and spatial

intelligence compared to the conventional approach.

Therefore, the teachers have to master the scientific

approach in physical education. To improve the

students’ interest, motivation, and creativity, the

physical education learning model and process should

make the students to be more active and creative, as

well as getting challenges in the physical education

activities (Gu, X and Chang, M and Solmon, A M.

2016). About spatial intelligence, it is discovered that

physical education that is done with playing approach

has a better effect on the students’ spatial intelligence

compared to the conventional approach (Tarigan,

Beltasar. 2014); Tarigan B, Habibudin T and Ikbal

Gentar Alam IG. 2016). Furthermore, the experts

state that scientific approach has a significant effect

on the students’ concentration (Tarigan, Beltasar.

2015). It is supported by the experts’ arguments that

state, “...children with good spatial thinking abilities

have better performance in geography, and this

spatial intelligence is correlated with all kinds of

intelligence, aside from musical intelligence...”

(Klonari, A., and Likouri, A. A. (n.d.). In order to

achieve the physical education learning quality that is

useful for the students’ concentration and spatial

intelligence, these principles in the learning activity

are needed: (1) centered on the students, (2)

developing the students’ creativity, (3) creating a fun

and challenging condition, (4) consisting of value,

ethics, estethics, logic, and kinesthetics, and (5)

offering various learning experience through the

application of several strategies and methods through

fun, contextual, effective, efficient, and meaningful

learning (Hosnan, M. 2014).

4 CONCLUSIONS

Physical education that was done three times a week

in the mountainous area using the scientific approach,

affected the improvements of students concentration

and spatial intelligence, whereas the physical

education using the conventional approach that was

done once a week didn’t have any effects on the

improvements of students’ concentration and

intelligence. Physical education that was done on the

mountainous area with the scientific approach had a

better effect on students’ concentration and spatial

intelligence, compared to the conventional approach.

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