Effectiveness of School-Based Physical Education Programs on Long Jump Performance in Middle School Students

Abstract

School curricula and physical education (PE) programs serve as fundamental tools for promoting motor skill development and sport-specific performance in adolescents. Despite its inclusion in the official PE curriculum, empirical evidence on school-based long jump programs in Algeria remains limited.
This study evaluated the effectiveness of a structured long jump instructional program on performance outcomes in fourth-year middle school students in Biskra, Algeria.
A descriptive pre-post design was implemented with 164 students (74 boys, 90 girls; age range 14-17 years) enrolled in three public middle schools. Long jump performance was assessed before and after a 9-session instructional program specifically oriented toward technical and physical components of the long jump, integrated into regular PE classes. Each session lasted approximately 60 minutes and was delivered once per week. The intervention focused on four phases: approach, take-off, flight, and landing. Paired-sample t-tests were used to assess pre-post changes, with significance set at p < 0.01.
For boys, mean performance increased from 3.27 m (SD = 0.67) to 3.43 m (SD = 0.66), with a very strong correlation between pre- and post-test scores (r = 0.87) and a statistically significant paired t-test (t = -4.071, p < 0.01). For girls, mean performance improved from 2.30 m (SD = 0.53) to 2.43 m (SD = 0.49), with a strong correlation (r = 0.785) and a significant t-value (t = -3.638, p < 0.01).
A structured, curriculum-based long jump program can significantly enhance performance in both sexes at the middle school level. The results support the integration of technically focused and anthropometrically informed content into school physical education curricula.