LSHSS

The Effects of a Sound-Field

Amplification System on Managerial
Time in Middle School Physical
Education Settings
Stu Ryan
University of West Florida, Pensacola

P hysical educators are very familiar with the chal-

lenges presented by their teaching settings relating to
sound and acoustics. Poorly designed gymnasiums
and sometimes loud outside teaching environments can frustrate
even the most veteran teacher. Physical education teachers often
environments in schools that face changing and complex needs
(Beighle & Pangrazi, 2002). Research evidence accumulated in the
last 20 years suggests that successful classroom management in-
volves not merely responding effectively when problems occur, but
also preventing problems from occurring by focusing on teacher
rely on shouting instructions over noise, hoping that their students effectiveness strategies and creating environments that encourage
hear and understand. Regardless, physical education teachers, just learning and appropriate behavior (Beighle & Pangrazi, 2002;
like any other subject area teacher, need to teach with the goal of Schultz, 2006).
student learning. Classroom research has shown that an acceptable In an attempt to simplify teacher effectiveness, Goldberger
strategy for maximizing the learning environment is use of a sound- and Gerney (1990) suggested that for students to learn more, they
field amplification system (Bennetts & Flynn, 2002; Flexer, 2002; have to be engaged at a high level and successful at an appropriate
Mendel, Roberts, & Walton, 2003; Ross & Levitt, 2002). Unfortu- task for a sufficient amount of time to produce learning. A major
nately, physical education teachers may be missing a helpful teaching thrust of teacher effectiveness research has been the relationship
strategy due to the lack of sound-field amplification research in their between instructional practice ( process) and student achievement
discipline (Ryan, Ormond, Imwold, & Rotunda, 2002). (product). Physical education processproduct research suggests
Vast amounts of educational research have been conducted to that engaged skill learning time (student time-on-task or practice
create and add more effective teaching strategies to solve classroom time) is the single most important criterion in the determination
management issues. Recent research in classroom management of effective teachers (Banville & Rikard, 2001; McLeish, 1981;
shows that there is a departure from the concept of trying to con- Phillips & Carlisle, 1983). The results of McLeishs investigation
trol behavior. Instead, the focus is on creating supportive learning indicated that the teachers who were categorized as most effective

ABSTRACT: Purpose: The focus of this research effort was to Results: The findings showed that the amount of managerial time
examine the effect of a sound-field amplification system on at the beginning of class clearly decreased when the teacher used
managerial time in the beginning of class in a physical education sound-field amplification feedback to physical education students.
setting. Conclusion: Findings indicate an immediate need for administrators
Method: A multiple baseline design across participants was used to determine the most appropriate, cost-effective procedure to
to measure change in the managerial time of 2 middle school support sound-field amplification systems in existing physical
female physical education teachers using a portable sound-field education settings.
amplification system. Managerial time is defined as the cumulative
amount of time that students spend on organizational, transitional, KEY WORDS: physical education, sound-field amplification
and nonsubject matter tasks in a lesson. system, managerial time

LANGUAGE, SPEECH, AND HEARING SERVICES IN SCHOOLS Vol. 40 131137 April 2009 * American Speech-Language-Hearing Association 131
0161-1461/09/4002-0131
provided more practice time than did their less effective counter- beginning of physical education classes (Randell, 1992), investi-
parts. McLeish also concluded that time-on-task, academic learn- gating methods for reducing this time would help increase ALT in
ing time, and opportunities to learn, are the vital components of physical education (ALT-PE) and teacher effectiveness. Therefore,
effective teaching in general (p. 49). Silverman, Tyson, and Morford the focus of this research effort was to examine the effect of a sound-
(1988) found that time spent in practice with feedback, which is field amplification system on managerial time in the beginning
defined as information about a response that is used to modify the of class in a physical education setting.
next response, was positively related to student achievement.
Academic learning time (ALT), which is defined as the amount
of time that students spend appropriately engaged with subject
matter, is a powerful variable related to student achievement (Fisher METHOD
et al., 1981). Managerial time has been defined as the cumulative
amount of time that students spend on organizational, transitional, Participants and Settings
and nonsubject matter tasks in a lesson (Siedentop & Tannehill,
2000), and less effective teachers spend too much time accomplish- The participants were 2 female European American middle
ing these managerial tasks. Taking roll, getting equipment out, and school physical education teachers located at two different schools
organizing teams all contribute to managerial time. Research has and their students. One school was located in an inner city and the
shown that opportunities for students to be engaged in academic other was in an area that was considered rural. Before data collec-
activities can be increased by reducing managerial time (Evertson & tion, human participant consent was obtained from all participants.
Harris, 1992; Siedentop, 2002). Each teacher taught three classes of sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-
Although educators know extensively about how reduced man- grade students, and the classes contained between 25 and 37 co-
agerial time can create a higher quality and quantity of practice time educational physical education students. Both teachers were observed
(Siedentop & Tannehill, 2000; Silverman et al., 1988), the problem during a 2-month period in which the activities of volleyball, soccer,
of getting increased levels of practice time in physical education and tennis were held outside on the activity areas of both schools.
settings can be difficult due to high noise levels both inside and For both schools, the volleyball courts had a total dimension of
outside of a gymnasium and greater teacherstudent distance as 80 80 ft, soccer 300 150 ft, and tennis courts 160 120 ft.
compared to typical classroom teachers. The effects of noise and Measurements were also taken in the locker rooms of both schools.
distance have shown a deleterious outcome on learning behaviors in The inner-city schools locker room was 70 40 ft; the rural schools
typical classroom environments (Crandell, 1991; Finitzo-Hieber & locker room was 35 95 ft. Both locker rooms had metal lockers
Tillman, 1978; Pekkarinen & Viljanen, 1991). The complexity of on the outside and in the middle of the rooms. The classes met daily
the physical education environment, classroom management prob- for 50 min.
lems, and the findings from sound-field amplification research in
classrooms strongly suggest the need to identify new management Environment
techniques for physical education teachers. Among the possible
solutions available for improving classroom management and en- The racial makeup of the inner-city school was approximately
hancing teacher effectiveness is to use a sound-field amplification 98% African American. The remaining students were of European
device. American, Asian, and Hispanic descent, and the socioeconomic
Berg (1993) suggested that possibly the most cost-effective, ap- status was primarily lower income families. The racial makeup
propriate, and acceptable strategy for maximizing the learning en- of the rural school was approximately 65% European American.
vironment is through the use of sound-field amplification systems. The remaining students were of African American, Asian, and
Research has shown that sound-field amplification systems allow Hispanic descent. The socioeconomic status was primarily middle
teachers to control, stabilize, and equalize the acoustic environment (or lower) income families.
so their voices can be heard above the background noise at all
locations in the learning environment (Flexer, 2002; Mainstream Research Design and Intervention
Amplification, 2005; Ross & Levitt, 2002). Sound-field amplifica-
tion systems have also been found to have a positive effect on The experimental design used in this investigation was a multi-
students word and sentence recognition, speech intelligibility, and ple baseline design across participants (Barlow & Hersen, 1984).
attending behaviors (Bennetts & Flynn, 2002; Flexer, Millin, & In this design, the start of the intervention with each participant is
Brown, 1990; Massie, Theodoros, McPherson, & Smaldino, 2004; staggered over time. Experimental control is demonstrated when the
Mendel, Roberts, & Walton, 2003; Ryan et al., 2002). There is also changes in each participants behavior pattern occur only after an
a growing body of research relating to improved levels of academic intervention has been introduced. The dependent variable, man-
achievement when using sound-field amplification in the classroom agerial time measured in minutes, was measured repeatedly through-
(Long & Flexer, 2001; Loven, Fisk, & Johnson, 2003; McCarty out the phases of experimentation. The treatment intervention was
& Gertel, 2003). This type of equipment is already in use in many changed when the dependent measure reached stability (Tawney &
schools in the United States (Crandell, 1993) and has been shown Gast, 1984).
to be cost effective (Rosenberg, 1998; Rosenberg et al., 1999). During baseline conditions, teachers were instructed to conduct
Despite evidence supporting the effectiveness of using a sound- class activities as per their typical methods (e.g., set induction, skill
field amplification system in a classroom environment, little re- development, teacher movement, teacher feedback) without the
search to date has attempted to focus on physical education behaviors use of sound-field amplification. The distance from teacher to
associated with use of a sound-field amplification system (Ryan student (s) receiving feedback would vary depending on the activity
et al., 2002). With a large amount of managerial time devoted to the (how much space students needed to perform activity safely) and

132 LANGUAGE, SPEECH, AND HEARING SERVICES IN SCHOOLS Vol. 40 131137 April 2009
the level of teacher movement. At the intervention phases, the criterion of 80% agreement between the coders had been reached
treatment variable of teacher providing feedback using sound-field on identifying the beginning of ALT-PE. Three baseline phase and
amplification was in effect, and changes in managerial time were three intervention phase class periods for each grade were randomly
noted. Teacher feedback is defined as information about a response selected to determine interobserver agreement. The variable of
that is used to modify the next response (Siedentop & Tannehill, identifying ALT-PE was compared by observers using the interval-
2000). To reduce the possibility of the activity influencing the re- by-interval method (van der Mars, 1989) and produced percentages
sults, the teachers never changed the activities during the introduc- ranging from 79% to 92%, with a mean of 86%.
tion of an intervention. Also, at no time before or during the study
were the teachers informed of the dependent measure of mana- Analysis of Data
gerial time.
Visual analysis of the graphically plotted data was used to an-
Procedure alyze the functional relationships between the independent and
dependent variables (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 1987). Both trend
Data were collected from live recording sessions of the 2 teachers. direction of the data and the extent of variability in data point values
To measure managerial time at the beginning of class, an observer were considered in analyzing the data. Confidence in the effec-
started a stopwatch when the school bell rang to start the physical tiveness of the intervention was strengthened when there was repli-
education class. The time the bell rang was consistent for all of the cation of the effect and minimal overlap between data paths. At the
classes and throughout the study. After starting the stopwatch, the completion of the interventions, the data were evaluated via the
observer would follow the teacher until ALT-PE started. ALT-PE multiple baseline design to determine the relative effectiveness of
was defined as the time when more than 50% of the students became the sound-field amplification feedback delivery interventions. With
motor engaged in purposeful movement (Randell, 1992). After the this design, according to Barlow and Hersen (1984), differences
students dressed and received any management feedback from the in the behavior (managerial time) can be attributed to the treatment.
teacher in the locker room, they would go out to the activity area.
When the teacher was finished giving instructions and the students
were engaged in ALT-PE, the observer would stop the stopwatch
and record the time. RESULTS
The intervention consisted of having the teachers wear a headset
microphone placed 1 in. from the mouth that amplified their feed- Data of mean managerial time in minutes for all periods can be
back using a portable sound-field amplification system that was found in Table 1. The amount of managerial time at the beginning
worn around their waist (LightSpeed, Model PA-3) while continu- of class clearly decreased when the physical education teachers
ing their typical teaching methods. The headset was connected to used sound-field amplification feedback to their students.
the portable sound-field system by a wire, and the volume, which Examining the data for each individual class provided a chrono-
was located on the portable waist pack, was adjusted to fit the logical level of managerial time under the replications of unampli-
physical settings and the number of students. Typically, the teacher fied and amplified feedback given by the teachers (see Figures 1
would lower the volume while students were in the locker room and and 2). The trends that emerge are consistent with the group means
increase it once they were outside. While outside, the teacher did and individual class group means. The graphs of each class period
increase the volume if background noise increased (e.g., planes in Figures 1 and 2 show some variability from session to session
overhead, another class, air conditioners). The teachers were given of managerial time but support the overall pattern of reduction in
instructions before each daily observation to use the same mana- managerial time in the beginning of physical education class under
the condition of amplified feedback. The point of activity change
gerial and instructional methods as they typically used, but with
sound-field amplification feedback, and to use it as soon as the bell during all periods is also displayed. The effectiveness of the inter-
rang for class to begin. Typical beginning-of-class managerial jobs ventions can be found in the changes in the level between unam-
included greeting the students, supervising the locker room, an- plified and amplified interventions (see Table 1). Managerial time
swering questions, giving directions, organizing equipment, and decreased in all classes with the intervention of amplified feedback
taking roll. The teachers were instructed to switch off the micro- except for the seventh-grade class by Teacher 1. Two-tailed paired-
phone if they needed to give personal feedback, instruction, or samples t tests were used to compare the mean managerial time
discipline that could cause embarrassment for the student(s) if it
was broadcast for all students to hear.
Table 1. Data for mean managerial time in minutes for Teacher 1 (inner
city) and Teacher 2 (rural) using unamplified and amplified feedback.
Observer Reliability
Two graduate students coded the data collection. Before the ob-
Descriptive statistic Unamplified Amplified
servation assessment, the guidelines for identifying when ALT-PE
started were presented and learned. Practice observations were
conducted during three sessions of a field test. To measure the Teacher 1
number of students who were engaged in ALT-PE, observers used Grade 6 7 8 6 7 8
Mean time 18.2 16.7 18.2 14.0 16.5 12.9
placheck (Dodds, 1989), which is an all-inclusive 15-s scan of
the whole class. Plachecks were done every 20 s with a 5-s period Teacher 2
Grade 6 7 8 6 7 8
for recording scores. The beginning of ALT-PE marked the end of
Mean time 18.9 17.6 18.1 13.0 12.7 12.4
managerial time. The coders were ready to record once a predetermined

Ryan: Effects of a Sound-Field Amplification System 133

 Figure 1. Teacher 1 (inner city) managerial time over sessions.

between unamplified and amplified interventions. There was no

statistically significant difference between conditions for Teacher 1, DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
t(2) = 2.08, p > 0.05, but there was a statistically significant dif-
ference for Teacher 2, t(2) = 18.00, p < 0.05. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of a sound-
The results of the sound-field amplification feedback interven- field amplification system on managerial time in middle school
tion for all grades clearly show a consistent reduction in the mean physical education settings. The results indicated consistency in the
managerial time, with the exception of the seventh-grade class decline of managerial time for all classes when amplified feedback
for Teacher 1. The type of activities appears to have little effect was implemented, with the exception of one class, which suggests
on the results regardless if the activity changed from a noninva- that the treatment was effective. These findings are also supported by
sive game (volleyball and tennis) to a possession/invasion game Ryan and Yerg (2001), who looked at the effects of proximal and
(soccer). distal teacher feedback. Their study suggested that when students

134 LANGUAGE, SPEECH, AND HEARING SERVICES IN SCHOOLS Vol. 40 131137 April 2009
 Figure 2. Teacher 2 (rural) managerial time over sessions.

received feedback from a greater distance from the teacher (distal), the overall mean managerial time with unamplified feedback. The
on-task behavior rates were higher, which may reduce managerial seventh-grade class for Teacher 1 consisted largely of students with
time. Studies have also shown that in amplified conditions, ele- learning disabilities, and the teacher commented that the class was
mentary students were more attentive, less distracted (Allen & a constant challenge. The challenges of that class likely resulted in
Patton, 1990), and more on-task (Loven et al., 2003; Mendel et al., the consistently high managerial time regardless of the implemen-
2003; Ryan et al., 2002), which may also reduce managerial time. tation of a sound-field amplification system. This may also explain
In all but one case, managerial time changed markedly at the why Teacher 1 results were nonsignificant in comparing the means
point when the intervention of sound-field amplification feedback between unamplified and amplified groups.
was introduced. Although the intervention of sound-field ampli- There was variability in managerial time between classes and
fication feedback in the seventh-grade class of Teacher 1 did not teachers. These results may be due to differing sizes of classes, if
markedly change managerial time, the overall mean managerial the class before the physical education class let the students out late,
time using sound-field amplification feedback was still less than and /or if the teachers set induction (directions) took longer. It

Ryan: Effects of a Sound-Field Amplification System 135

should be noted that the sixth-grade students of Teacher 1 arrived to acoustic policy, will seek cross-discipline research that includes
class late on two occasions. The students did make an attempt to physical education teachers. This type of collaboration will hope-
dress quickly, and it appears that this did not influence the results for fully start the process needed to better understand methodologies
Teacher 1. Regardless, the observers consistently started and stopped and philosophies of all groups with the goal of improving acoustics
the stopwatch by the set procedures. Even though the type of feed- and learning in physical education settings.
back was not measured, the type of feedback may have affected Teachers who are frustrated with high managerial time and low
managerial time. The use of distal feedback was shown to reduce ALT will always search for new and better ways to be more ef-
management feedback (Ryan & Yerg, 2001), and reduced mana- fective. Although no single teaching strategy will completely solve
gerial time was also noted by Darst (1975) in a similar study where the issue of high managerial time that still plagues many teaching
elementary student teachers were the participants. settings, sound-field amplification feedback may be one addi-
This research further extends the use of behavioral technologies tional tool to add to teachers repertoire of effective instructional
in a school setting outside the classroom and suggests that the use of strategies.
sound-field amplification provides an effective tool for reducing
managerial time at the beginning of class in a physical education
setting. Teachers may also use sound-field amplification feedback
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Ryan: Effects of a Sound-Field Amplification System 137