Comprehensibility of oral explanations by physical education teachers:Impact of coherence-building aids on students’ understanding of game rule , Verständlichkeit mündlicher Erklärungen von Sportlehrkräften:Zum Einfluss von Kohärenzbildungshilfen auf das Regelverständnis von Schüler*innen

Good oral explanations by physical education teachers are assumed to be crucial for students’ understanding in physical education; however, it is unclear which features of an oral explanation contribute to the comprehensibility in such a way that they particularly promote students’ understanding. The present experimental study with N = 356 students in grades 7–9 varied the two coherence-building aids of segmentation (high vs. low) and quality of summary situation examples (rule-compliant vs. rule-breaking) in the context of a videotaped oral explanation of the sports game Kin-Ball and in a 2 × 2 design. The findings suggest that the degree of segmentation has no effect on either remembering and reproducing central rules of the game (rule knowledge) or analyzing and evaluating game situations (rule application). Rule knowledge, however, is supported when the explanation is summarized with rule-breaking rather than rule-compliant game situations. Rule application, on the other hand, benefits from a combination of high segmentation and rule-compliant situation examples. All effects of the coherence-building aids are independent of the students’ self-assessed language ability. Overall, the study can contribute to a better understanding of meaningful coherence features in oral explanations in physical education.