Developing Fundamental Movement Skills of Elementary School

Students through Traditional Games

Gina Provitasari Aristha, Yudha M. Saputra, Agus Mahendra and Salman Salman

School of Postgraduate studies, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Jln. Dr. Setiabudhi No. 229 Bandung, Indonesia

ginaprovitasariaristha@student.upi.edu

Keywords: Galah asin traditional game, bébénténgan traditional game, boy-boyan traditional game, fundamental

movement skills, physical education games, test gross motor development-2.

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to find out the effect of galah asin, bébénténgan, and boy-boyan traditional

games on elementary school students’ fundamental movement skills. To achieve this purpose, a true

experiment with pretest-posttest control group design with more than one experimental group was carried out.

The samples were 40 students; each group consisted of 10 students. The instrument used in this study was the

Test Gross Motor Development-2 (Ulrich, 2000). The data analysis was conducted by means of SPSS 16

using the significance level of 0.05. Based on the results of a paired sample t-Test, it was concluded that: (1)

the galah asin traditional game significantly influenced the development of students’ fundamental movement

skills, (2) the bébénténgan traditional game significantly influenced the development of students’ fundamental

movement skills, (3) The boy-boyan traditional game significantly influenced the development of students’

fundamental movement skills, and (4) physical education games significantly influenced the development of

students’ fundamental movement skills.

1 INTRODUCTION

Motor development takes place in an exact sequence,

and age norms are often used to measure the

development progress (Bayle, 2012). This shows that

along with the age, the motor development that one

possesses will be more complex and different than the

previous one. However, the previous motor skills are

the foundation of the following motor skills (JD,

Crowe, and Ward, 2003). In other words, the motor

of kindergarten, elementary and junior high school

students are different from each other, and the motor

in the kindergarten age is the foundation for the motor

development in Elementary School age, and the same

thing goes for the motor in Elementary School age is

the foundation for the motor development in Junior

High School age. For Elementary School aged kids,

the ability to move in sequence faces an improvement

from simple moves to more complex and coordinated

moves (Wang, 2004). Therefore, basically, the series

of motor development up to coordinated moves really

rely on the maturity and integration of nerves as well

as muscular skeletal system factors. This motor skill

is the one that will be the foundation to the following

skill (Goodway and Branta, 2003). This is really

needed to provide a strong support for the formation

of movement quality that is proportional to their age

(Fisher et al., 2005). To perform a good movement

task, a good fundamental movement skill is certainly

required. The basik movement skill is a motion

pattern that becomes the basic for a more complex

movement agility (Goodway and Branta, 2003). By

mastering that particular skill, it is expected that the

children will participate in physical activities, such as

sports so an active lifestyle can be achieved in order

to improve the kids’ quality of life (Bakhtiari,

Shafinia, and Ziaee, 2011) (Williams et al., 2008).

The fundamental movement skills are generally

divided into three movements, the locomotor

movements, the non locomotor movements and the

manipulative movements (Stodden et al., 2012). This

fundamental movement skill is the one needed by the

kids, particularly those who are in Elementary School

to support the kids’ next movement skills (Fisher et

al., 2005). If the basic motor skills are not as good,

then he will be less able to compete in his adult age

(Božanić, Ana (Faculty of Kinesiology, University of

Split and Bešlija, Tea (Karate Club “OBI”, Split,

2010). The movement skills are formed not only from

the result of practice, but also because of the heredity

Aristha, G., Saputra, Y., Mahendra, A. and Salman, S.

Developing Fundamental Movement Skills of Elementary School Students through Traditional Games.

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sports Science, Health and Physical Education (ICSSHPE 2017) - Volume 2, pages 70-75

ISBN: 978-989-758-317-9

factor (genetic). Although this biological aspect

affects the ability in the movement skills, but to be

able to further develop to a more perfect direction

depends on the environment. As stated (Venetsanou

and Kambas, 2009) that “Environment Factors such

as (Mother, siblings, parents social and economic

status), school, socio-cultural and movement program

provision become the factors that affect the kids’

movement skills. “In the socio-cultural factor or the

parenting patterns (Victora, Victora, and Barros,

1990) stated that “The emphasis of Brazilians

parenting pattern is more spontaneous, informal, fun,

and physically active in activities such as running and

jumping.” Further, (Iivonen and Sääkslahti, 2014)

stated that “Kids playground is also a factor that

affects the kids’ motor skills.”

In Indonesia, the parents’ knowledge on the

movement skills are is still lacking so it is possible

that kids in Elementary School age have poor

movement skills. Not to mention the learning

programs that the students get fail to facilitate the kids

to move with a good intensity (Gao, Zhang, and

Podlog, 2014). Realizing the above-mentioned

condition, the curriculum of physical education in

Indonesia proposed an inclusion of local contents that

contains subject extension that can be used as

teaching materials for the students, including

traditional games. There are at least two goals from

the inclusion of the local contents into the curriculum,

the first one is to introduce the local culture heritage

to the next generation (Piech and Linski, 2007). The

second one is to revive both the interest and the

development of the traditional games in protecting the

local cultural traditions to the nation’s next generation

that if we dig deeper, will improve the students’

fundamental movement skills (Akbari et al., 2009).

The suggestion is triggered by the fact that lots of

Elementary and Junior High Schools students who are

not familiar with and interested in the traditional sport

games.

Traditional game is one of the folklore types in the

form of game that spreads orally amidst a certain

culture, in traditional forms, has rules that contains

noble values, performed through interactions and

inherited from generation to generation (Misbach,

2010). The folk games played in the ancient times are

a part of the local culture identity (Chepyator-

Thomson, 1990). The traditional games are also folk

games where the games are a part of an image or

character of the society (Society, Journal, and

Folklore, 2011). The traditional games are played by

the kids at a certain area that have been inherited from

one generation to the next ones. The kids in the past,

in their spare times, tend to spend their time to explore

the activities outside the house that make use of the

surrounding nature (Sutton-Smith, 1953). Today, it is

really possible that those games are no longer played

by the kids. In this globalization era where the

identity of a nation or a local culture are very

important, the traditional games can be one of the

most interesting and important factors that can help

protect and express the identity of an area (Agh,

2014). Games that are human’s creation in the past

have actually triggered the kids to have fun and had a

very meaningful impact on the kids’ individual

development.

Other than containing high cultural value,

traditional games are beneficial in improving the

psychomotor, cognitive and social skills (Ajila and

Olowu, 1992) (Gundani, Makaza, Amusa and Banda,

2011). In the psychomotor aspect, traditional games

can train the sensorimotor, flexibility, endurance,

gross motor, and fine motor skills. Besides,

traditional games are also more effective than daily

activities in improving kids’ fundamental movement

skills (Akbari et al., 2009). Furthermore, the cognitive

benefits are that traditional games can develop the

imagination, creativity, problem solving, strategy,

anticipation, and contextual understanding

(Chepyator-Thomson, 1990). While the social

benefits of traditional games can improve teamwork,

relation building and social maturity training with the

peers (Norgaard, 2009).

Traditional games have the characters that are

able to raise happiness as well as the participation of

the kids and to improve fundamental movement skills

since it has an element of play. Playing is the kids’

world (Mahendra, 2015). They play while they learn.

Playing is a spontaneous activity without any burden

and binding rules. While playing, the kids explore and

find the things that makes them proud. This becomes

a good facility for the kids to develop themselves,

whether in their emotional, social, physical or their

intellectual development. For the kids, playing is the

main target where they play about their body and

motor skills (Gallahue, 1996). Besides, playing can

also be beneficial for the kids’ cognition, body and

emotion (Stork, Sanders, Stork, and Sanders, 2015).

In applying a playing activity or game in a

learning context, a teacher shall make a learning plan

formulation so that the goal in the learning process

can be achieved. The learning program are

particularly based on the types of game, the

traditional games, for example. To perform a native

tradition such as the traditional games is a good

opportunity to make sport learning program more

modern and interesting (Cieśliń

ski and Chaliburda,

2016). One thing that needs to be highlighted that

Developing Fundamental Movement Skills of Elementary School Students through Traditional Games

when the traditional game is included in the teaching

materials of physical education, the said traditional

games shall have the same characteristics with the

DAP principles, because one of the high quality

physical education program characteristics is marked

with the Development Appropriate Practice (DAP),

namely a physical activity program given based on

the students movement skill and can accommodate

each movement quality characteristic differences of

the students (Carta, Schwartz, Atwater, and

McConnell, 1991).

2 METHODS

2.1 Participants

The population in this research is the 3

grade

students of Taruna Bakti Elementary School Bandung

with 130 students in total. The sampling technique

that the writer used is simple random sampling. The

researcher took samples by shuffling them and took

each 10 students from four classes. Thus, the total

samples in this research is 40 people for four groups.

After the samples are obtained then the preliminary

test is performed to divide the control groups and the

experiment groups, the researcher classified the

experiment and control groups by “ordinal pairing”

technique or sorting the level from the highest to the

lowest.

2.2 Design

This research is conducted at Taruna Bakti

Elementary School Bandung. The method used in this

research is the True Experimental Design research

method. The design used in this research is Pretest-

Posttest Control Group Design with More Than One

Experimental Group, the description of the design is

as follows:

Table 1: Pretest-posttest control group with more than one

experimental group Johnson dan Christensen.

Pretest Treatment Posttest

Control

group

O1 XC O2

Experimental

group 1

O1 XT1 O2

Experimental

group 2

O1 XT2 O2

Experimental

group 3

O1 XT3 O2

Note:

O1 : Pretest test TGMD 2nd (Test Gross Motor

Development)

O2 : Posttest test TGMD 2nd (Test Gross Motor

Development)

XC : Treatment of sports learning (football,

atletik, basketball)

XT1 : Treatment of galah asin game

X T2 : Treatment of boy-boyan game

X T3 : Treatment bebentengan game

2.3 Instruments

The instruments used for collecting the research data

is the Test Gross Motor Development – Second

Edition (Wong and Ying Cheung, 2010). The test

covers 12 motor tests categorized into two sub

variables, the locomotor (run, gallop, hop, leap,

horizontal jump, slide) and object control (striking a

stationary ball, stationary dribble, catch, kick,

overhand throw and underhand roll).

3 RESULTS

The result data of this research is analyzed by paired

sample t-test with the help of SPSS 16. The following

on Table 2 is the research result:

Table 2: Count result of paired sample t test.

No Group t

count

table

Sig. (2-

tailed)

Posttest – Pretest

Galah Asin

2,982 2,262 .002

Posttest – Pretest

Boy-

oyan

2,740 2,262

.002

Posttest – Pretest

Bebenten

2,868 2,262

.002

Posttest – Pretest

Learning Games in

Penjas

2,662 2,262 .001

Table 2 above shows that:

 Galah asin traditional game affects kids’

fundamental movement development

significantly. Based on the above table, it is

found out that the t count (2,982) > t table

(2,262) then H0 is rejected or there is a

significant influence from galah asin traditional

game toward the kids’ fundamental movement

development.

 Bebentengan traditional game affects kids’

fundamental movement development

significantly.

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

Based on the table above, it is found out that t

count (2,740) > t table (2,262) then H0 is

rejected or there is a significant influence from

bebentengan traditional game toward the kids’

fundamental movement development.

 Boy-boyan traditional game affects kids’ basic

movement development. Based on the table

above, it is found out that t count (2,868) > t

table (2,262) then H0 is rejected or there is a

significant influence from boy-boyan traditional

game toward the kids’ fundamental movement

development.

 Physical education game affects the kids’

fundamental movement development

significantly. Based on the table above, it is

found out that t count (2,662) > t table (2,262)

then H0 is rejected and there is a significant

influence from physical education traditional

game toward the kids’ fundamental movement

development.

4 DISCUSSION

In galah asin game, the writer found out that galah

asin traditional game affects the kids’ fundamental

movement development significantly. As explained

by Dian (2012) that the benefits that can be taken

from galah asin other than teaches togetherness,

discipline and hard work, it also has important

benefits for the development of fundamental

movement, social and cognitive skills. (1)

fundamental movement skills: this game can develop

run and reaction fundamental movements. This game

emphasizes on the kids’ necessity to run (locomotor

movement skill) and react (locomotor movement

skill). The result of the research in the field is also

strengthen by the theory stated by Misbach (2010,

page 7) that the traditional games in this nation can

stimulate and increase many aspects of kids

development, namely: (1) motor aspect: trains

endurance, flexibility, sensorimotor, gross motor,

fine motor; (2) cognitive aspect: develop imagination,

creativity, problem solving, strategy, anticipative,

contextual understanding; (3) social aspect: builds

relationships, cooperation, trains social maturity with

the peers and create a foundation to train socialization

skills and role training with older people/society.

Further, in bebentengan game, the writer found

out that the bebentengan traditional game affects the

kids’ fundamental movement development

significantly. As explained in the research of Nanda

and Sugito (2015) that bebentengan traditional game

is one of original games of people of Indonesia that

needs to be nurtured and preserved, considering the

game contains positive elements in the form of

fundamental movement such as run (locomotor),

walk (locomotor), twisting motion (non locomotor).

Other physical elements also can train speed and

agility in running as well as strength endurance since

in this game, the players are required to keep running.

Then in boy-boyan game, the writer found out that

the boy-boyan traditional game affects the kids’

fundamental movement development significantly.

As explained by Nana (2017) that boy-boyan

traditional game can give positive benefits to train

movements since there are four fundamental

movements included in boy-boyan game, namely run

(locomotor), ball rolling (manipulative), catch

(manipulative) and shoot at targets (manipulative).

Boy-boyan game emphasizes on throwing skill and

this can be the medium to train the kids’ fundamental

movement. Through this game, the training of

fundamental movements is easier to be absorbed by

the kids. The form of game activity that has contents

of running, throwing and jumping movements is

deemed more effective to increase kids’ fundamental

movement skills (Raudsepp and Päll, 2006). The

findings in the field are strengthened by the result of

class act research from Setiawan (2016) which

revealed that there is an increase on gross motor

skills, namely the running skills, the criteria of

competent is 80%, the criteria of quite competent is

15%, the criteria of less competent is 5% and the

criteria of not competent is 0%. On the throwing skill

in the gross motor skill, the criteria of competent is

85%, the criteria of quite competent is 10%, the

criteria of less competent is 5% and the criteria of not

competent is 0%. While on the catching skill in the

gross motor skill, the criteria of competent is 80%, the

criteria of quite competent is 15%, the criteria of less

competent is 5%, and the criteria of not competent is

0%. Other than the gross motor movement elements,

this game can also train the cognitive and affective

aspects.

Some of the discussion above shows that this

research has certain relevance with the theories that

strengthen that the integrated traditional games

program inclusion through sport learning affects kids’

fundamental movement development. Kids’

fundamental movement skills is important since this

skill is a foundation for kids to master other skills that

are more complex. By mastering this skill, it is

expected that the kids will involve in the physical

activities such as sports for the realization of an active

lifestyle in order to increase the kids’ life quality and

further increase the life quality of the nation in the

Developing Fundamental Movement Skills of Elementary School Students through Traditional Games

future (Lubans, Morgan, Cliff, Barnett, and Okely,

2010) (Bakhtiari et al., 2011).

5 CONCLUSIONS

From the results of the data analysis and findings

discussion that have been explained in the previous

part, it can be concluded that:

 The teachers need to enrich the contents or that

the materials to be given to the students cannot

depend on the curriculum only. But the

development of the games such as galah asin,

bebentengan and boy-boyan also needs to be

applied more often or included in the physical

education.

 The teachers need to add or combine the

traditional game elements such as galah asin,

boy-boyan and bebentengan traditional games

to be the content of the physical education.

Since the curriculum states that there is a

formulation of local contents, not only to nurture

and preserve the local culture to the next

generation and be known well by the people

through school but also because these traditional

games have good effects.

 The teaching of the sport based aspects that the

teachers often give to the students can imitate

the traditional games characteristics where the

learning gives many chances to repeat or

perform the movement skills taught.

 Adding insights on the optimization of the

traditional games in the physical education at

Elementary School.

 Applying traditional games can improve

teaching material collection for physical

education teachers in Elementary School in

order to develop the kids’ fundamental

movement skills.

 The traditional games are only

supplementary/additional to expand the material

collection or add the kids’ movement

experience, not solely to replace the physical

education.

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