ESL&Physical Education in High School. A Proposal for a Quasi-Experimental Study

In an onlife context (Pasta & Rivoltella, 2022), students are challenged by a dynamic reality in which digital media work as connective tissue since augmented reality appears in everyday actions. It allows for investigating the relationship between motor activities, executive functions and exergames from an operational and meta-reflexive perspective (Garbui & Rivoltella, 2023). In a constantly evolving world, we must consider the role of the body in learning, as indicated by the recent approach to embodiment. An Episode of Situated Learning (ELS) methodology (Rivoltella, 2014) allows for uniting the didactic design with the point of view of the embodied cognition paradigm of the cognitive sciences. On the other hand, physical education is one of the school disciplines where more and better can be learned with the body. Current scientific evidence suggests a strong relationship between pragmatic-motor skills and executive functions (Barenberg et al., 2011). Digital technology can enhance teaching and learning, but how must it be studied? The BlazePod is a digital motor game aimed at stimulating the player’s motor skills, and its psychological effects have been studied in physical education school contexts (Quintas, 2020). In order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of this technology’s effects on executive function variables, further information is necessary. In particular, this research focuses on inhibitory control (Houdé, 2020) and working memory. Inhibitory control allows adaptation to changes and choosing information for a response; working memory keeps information active and manipulates it for short-term goals. Additionally, it is essential to integrate this information into ESL didactics for optimal results effectively. Several studies request studying the psychological effects of didactics more rigorously on education, indicating the limitations of empirical research into education, such as its dominant application to colleges, lack of comparative groups or validity of measures (Dichev & Dicheva, 2017). More experimental empirical research is needed to complement theoretical approaches, especially in formal education contexts (Quintas, 2022). For all these reasons, the objective of this proposal has been to design the scientific method and the educational intervention to cover the research needs, as well as to study the theoretical compatibility with the actual practical interventions. Specifically, we want to share a quasi-experimental research design based didactically on ELS, psychologically on the embodiment, digitally on augmented reality with the BlazePod, and curricularly on school physical education.