Christina Sinclair

Differences in Children's Recess Physical Activity: Recess Activity of the Week Intervention.

BACKGROUND The increased prevalence in recent childhood obesity rates raises concern about youth health and the role that lack of physical activity plays in this trend. A focus on how children today choose to spend their discretionary time is one approach that may yield ideas for how to reduce childhood obesity. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether 3 separate recess activities of the week (RAWs) would make a difference in childrens discretionary time physical activity levels. METHODS Children (N = 65: 30 boys, 35 girls; 32 first and second graders; 33 third and fourth graders; 45 healthy body mass index [BMI], 20 overweight BMI) at 1 Midwest elementary school wore pedometers for each 15-minute morning recess period for 4 weeks. Following 1 no RAW (#1), a new RAW was introduced each subsequent week: #2, circuit course; #3, obstacle course; and #4, Frisbees. RESULTS Repeated measures factorial analysis of variance results revealed that children were significantly more active during the no RAW and circuit course week than the Frisbee week. Males were significantly more physically active than females during the obstacle course week. Older children were significantly more active during the Frisbee week than younger children. Healthy BMI children were significantly more physically active during the circuit course week than children in the overweight/obese BMI category. CONCLUSIONS Results imply that it is important for schools to consider demographic factors in the creation of recess opportunities to increase physical activity.

Psychological Predictors of Children's Recess Physical Activity Motivation and Behavior

Purpose: This study explored the relationship between childrens basic psychological needs satisfaction at recess, level of recess physical activity motivation (RPAM), and recess physical activity (RPA). Method: Fifth-grade children (N = 203; 50.2% boys; 71.7% healthy-weight) completed measures of age, gender, basic psychological need satisfaction, and level of self-determined motivation for RPA. Children also wore pedometers during six consecutive 30-min mid-school-day recesses. Results: Multiple regression analyses indicated unique significant predictors of RPAM and RPA according to gender and weight status. RPAM was significantly predicted by all three basic psychological needs for boys and only competence need satisfaction for girls and healthy-weight children. RPA was predicted by RPAM for girls, competence need satisfaction for overweight children, and autonomy need satisfaction for boys and healthy-weight children. Conclusions: Findings support self-determination theory and provide important insight into the variations in psychological predictors of motivation for RPA and actual physical activity behavior based on gender and weight status.

Making Teacher Work Samples Work at the University of Northern Colorado.

JOPERD • Volume 81 No. 1 • January 2010 T eacher Work Samples (TWS) can be viewed in terms of a product and a process. As a product, the TWS measures a teacher candidate’s (TC’s) ability to promote student achievement, documents that TCs have met minimum national standards, and validates teacher education programs. It (1) is real in that it replicates actual teaching, (2) is naturalistic as it occurs in classrooms with children, (3) provides meaning by mirroring the important aspects of teaching, and (4) helps teachers to reflect on practice. Teacher candidates engage in observable, job-related behaviors that serve as predictors of criterion performance. As it leads to a product that measures a TC’s ability to promote student achievement, the process of using TWS broadens and deepens the thinking of TCs. This article describes both the process and the product of TWS methodology as used at the University of Northern Colorado (UNC). As required by state and university mandate, we have used TWS methodology for nine years as an assessment item for our K-12 physical education TCs. During that time we have learned as much about the process as TCs did about the product. This article describes the product of a TWS in terms of its components, followed by a discussion of the process of TWS development with TCs, the rubric used to provide feedback, and the pitfalls and highlights of our experience.

Pictorial Playground-based Physical Activity Assessment Instrument: Uses and Applications of the ADL-PP

Comprehensive school physical activity programs (CSPAPs) are designed to support children in getting 60 minutes of daily physical activity, as well as meet SHAPE Americas goal of developing physically literate individuals who have the knowledge, skills and confidence to be physically active for a lifetime. The Activities for Daily Living – Playground Play (ADL-PP) is introduced in this article as a means to help physical education teachers and CSPAP leaders support children in meeting such goals. The ADL-PP is a pictorially based, valid and reliable instrument designed to assess childrens playground-based activity behavior. The benefits, uses and applications of this instrument are introduced and described in this article. Particular attention is given to how the ADL-PP aligns with the National Standards, providing a simple, inexpensive method to help increase and document discretionary-time physical activity, as well as promote learning across the psychomotor, cognitive and affective domains.

Exploring preservice teachers conceptions after ‘living a hybrid curriculum’

Physical education reform efforts support constructivist learning theory (CLT) to re-conceptualize K-12 physical education. Advocates of models-based instruction (MBI) indicate that sport education and a tactical games approach are grounded in CLT. A key implication for physical education teacher education (PETE) programmes is to develop preservice teachers (PSTs) capable of implementing MBI. Often, PSTs enter PETE programmes with the pre-conception that learning can only occur through passive transfer of information. As a result, PETE programmes must help PSTs re-conceptualize physical education. The two purposes of this study were to: (a) explore the use of a ‘living the curriculum’ experience to influence PSTs’ conceptions of learning and teaching in physical education; and (b) examine the usefulness of visual methods to further understand students’ experiences in a PETE course. Participants were undergraduate PSTs (N = 12; five women, seven men) who experienced living a hybrid curriculum. PSTs took five to seven photographs to create a photo-collage that best depicted their experiences in the class. Semi-structured focus group interviews centered on discussion of the PSTs’ photo collages. Data analysis revealed two major themes and sub-themes: (1) Learning in physical education – (a) knowledge is socially constructed and (b) learning is active; and (2) The role of the professor – (a) professor as facilitator and (b) clinging to old conceptions. PSTs experienced cognitive conflict and conceptual addition, suggesting old ideas were not completely extinguished but revised. Overall, the PSTs’ conceptions indicated an openness to and basic understanding of alternate forms of physical education.

Zero to Eighty Degrees: Six Years and What We Have Learned

JOPERD • Volume 83 No. 9 • November/December 2012 S chool-university partnerships are frequently superficial and short-lived, with a significant power differential between the university and the teachers involved. Too often such partnerships reach a short-term goal, but achieve few long-term changes. Consequently, they accomplish little, and teachers and physical education return to old, familiar practices. The purpose of this article is to describe a school-university partnership and the sustained changes recognized by teachers as a result of that partnership. This specific partnership was between elementary physical education teachers and sport pedagogy faculty members working in an intermountain west community with a population of more than 90,000. The physical education teachers taught in a diverse school district comprising 35 schools, 17 of which were elementary schools. When the collaboration began, the school district was on academic watch for not making adequate progress on standardized test performance and the teachers were among the lowest paid in the country. The university faculty members worked at an institution of higher education designated as a doctorate-granting/ research university that served 12,599 students and was recognized for excellence in teacher education. The partnership initially began when university faculty members and elementary physical education teachers came together to try to secure a Carol M. White Physical Education Program Grant (PEP grant). The collaboration was off to a great start as the university took the lead in the grant-writing process with input from the teachers. Although not successful the first time, the group remained positive, learned from the experience, and received funding the next year. Once funded, the partnership began a new phase. The group expanded to include additional university faculty members and school district administrators. If this new phase (year one) of the relationship were a weather forecast, it would have sounded something like this: Arctic cold temperatures producing heavy blowing snow with hurricane force winds causing blizzard conditions. Attempts to collaborate were characterized by values differences that led to all the classic signs of becoming just another superficial short-lived partnership. Several members of the partnership were no longer interested in weathering the constant stormy conditions and dropped out. Karla, Lizzy, Nancy, and Tia, however, were determined to develop a standardsbased curriculum for elementary physical education. They asked the university faculty members to help, and the faculty members agreed. As the second year of the partnership culminated, the four teachers and three university faculty members gathered for a three-day retreat at a mountain cabin to develop a curriculum. This is when warmer temperatures, calm winds, and clear skies could begin to be seen along the distant horizon. Going beyond a superficial partnership to achieve long-term results requires special program qualities. Zero to Eighty Degrees: Six Years and What We Have Learned