Relationship between results on motor skills tests and success in acquiring educational knowledge in older school-age students

Physical education teaching, like any other teaching process, represents a scientifically based and systematically organized institutional educational and pedagogical work, intended for students, that is, students of a certain age and differentiated level of education, which is based on pedagogical principles. Students acquire knowledge, skills and habits through the teaching process; they develop their mental and physical abilities and develop comprehensively. In addition to three important methodological factors – student, teacher and teaching material, in physical and health education teaching, another significant factor appears, and that is the extensive material basis for teaching physical education, which is not the case to such an extent in teaching other subjects at school. The aim of the research was to investigate the relationship between the results of motor skills tests and the success of students in general education subjects, i.e., to determine how much success in general education subjects is related to the results achieved in motor skills tests, and therefore the impact of physical activity on the development of students' intellectual abilities and their comprehensive development. The research is of a transversal nature and was carried out in the Primary School "Jovan Jovanović Znaj" in Svilajnac in the first semester of the 2024/2025 school year. The sample of variables included four motor tasks and grades from five general education subjects. The sample of respondents included 113 respondents of older school age, which was divided into two characteristic subsamples in relation to gender: a subsample of 54 boys and 59 girls from fifth to eighth grade. The research lasted ten days. In order to process the obtained data, in addition to descriptive statistics, the Pearson correlation coefficient was applied. The obtained results indicate that there is no statistically significant relationship between the academic success of older school age students and the results of motor skills tests.