Participation in homework exercise and its effects on physical fitness in Turkish adolescents

The aim of this study was to evaluate whether or not self-monitored and directed physical fitness homework may improve selected physical fitness indices of Turkish adolescents. The participants of this study were 174 students aged between 11 and 13 years from two secondary school located in Manisa. For the randomized two-group pretest-posttest design, the students (n=174) were randomly grouped as control (females=38 and males=50) and homework (females=40 and males=46)groups. The control group continued as normal with its daily activities and physical education classes, while the homework group was also assigned a homework exercise program. Both groups were measured at the beginning and end of the 14 weeks by using running and physical fitness tests. It was found that the homework group had higher scores in running tests and physical fitness tests than the control group. This study supports that teacher assigned; self-monitored and directed physical activity homework significantly improved the selected physical fitness characteristics of Turkish secondary school adolescents.

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