Jayne M. Jenkins

Sport education in a PETE program.

Abstract Can presetvice students learn to teach alternative curriculum models based on book knowledge alone, or should they experience the models firsthand?

A qualitative analysis of individual interest in middle school physical education: perspectives of early-adolescents

Background: Past research has revealed the positive impact that interest development can have on achievement outcomes with early-adolescents in physical education (PE). Interest is considered a psychological state of engaging and willingness to reengage in specific content that develops over time; however, little work to date has examined interest development over time using methods that obtain in-depth perspectives of students and intimate knowledge of the context. Purpose: To examine the factors early-adolescent students report to have an impact on the development of individual interest in PE and explore how students view the relationship between individual interest and learning in PE. Participants: A total of eight students from one middle school class in the Midwestern United States were purposefully sampled based on their different levels of individual interest toward PE. There was an even split between males (n = 4) and females (n = 4) and students were mostly Caucasian. The setting consisted of a traditional multi-activity curriculum that stressed large-sided team sports and recreational games. Data collection: Formal and informal interviews, field note observations, and survey data were collected over an 18-week period. Data analysis: Data were analyzed from a naturalistic perspective using inductive analysis and constant comparison. Multiple procedures were used to establish trustworthiness of the data including triangulation, peer debriefing, searches for disconfirming evidence, and an extended period of time in the context as a non-participant observer. Findings: Opportunities to practice and perceived competence were the main factors that students deemed as important ingredients to developing individual interest. Students viewed learning as an integral component for developing individual interest, but suggested that meaningful learning did not often take place during the semester. Characteristics of the curriculum and pedagogy were central to the students’ reports and are discussed further in relation to individual interest. Conclusions: Results from this study build on past interest motivation research in many ways. First, while past studies have identified actual skill as an important component for building individual interest, the students of this study reported that perceived competence is also essential. Furthermore, findings revealed how traditional multi-activity curriculum can create barriers to creating individual interest. Finally, students discussed learning as a crucial element in developing individual interest, but did not view their PE class as an environment where meaningful learning occurred. Moving toward longer and more meaningful curricular units of instruction such as Sport Education could enhance the development of individual interest with early adolescents.

Influence of high school physical education on university students' physical activity

The purpose of this study was to use the Lifelong Physical Activity (LLPA) framework to examine the influence of high school physical education (PE) on university students’ level of physical activity (PA). Participants included 365 undergraduate students from the Rocky Mountain West of the USA enrolled in a university physical activity course. Data collection was comprised of a questionnaire and six gender-segregated follow-up focus group interviews consisting of three to six students in each group (n =16 males; n =11 females). Results revealed misalignment between curricular PA opportunities in high school programs and current modalities of PA. For females, lack of learning and discomfort in participating during high school PE lessons were significant pedagogical negative predictors of current levels of PA. For males, the high school PE experience had a minimal influence on current levels and modalities of PA. High school physical educators need to engage in more inclusive curriculum offerings and pedagogical practices that better prepare students for the lifespan stage transition from late adolescence to young adulthood.

Matching Instructional Tasks to Learner Ability: The Inclusion Style of Teaching

I n Mr. Weavers third-grade physical education class, students begin their fitness routine immediately upon entering the gymnasium. All students do the same exercises, in the same way and at the same time. For example, when students perform push-ups, they do so from a prone position, with their hands under their shoulders and their backs straight. Following six minutes of continuous moderate to vigorous physical activity, Mr. Weaver gathers his students to review the major concepts and skills covered in the last class (throwing and catching). He then instructs his 24 girls and boys to choose partners and overhand-throw a small foam ball to their partners while standing 15 feet apart. As his students practice this task, Mr. Weaver observes their performance and gives each of them positive and corrective feedback specific to the critical elements of throwing and catching. After the students have thrown the ball to their partners 20 times, Mr. Weaver stops the class to introduce the new skill of the day: striking with a bat. He begins by highlighting the critical elements of striking, and then demonstrates them by hitting several underhand pitches. The students regroup as partners and practice striking with a bat and a small foam ball, standing ten feet apart and alternating as pitcher and batter. Again, Mr. Weaver observes them perform the task and gives each of them positive and corrective feedback specific to the critical elements of batting. At the

Task Progression in Early Field-Teaching Experiences

JOPERD • Volume 82 No. 1 • January 2011 M ore than two decades ago, Shulman (1986) proffered seven categories of knowledge required for teaching: (1) content; (2) general pedagogy; (3) curriculum; (4) students and their characteristics; (5) educational contexts; (6) educational ends, purposes, and values; and (7) pedagogical content knowledge. The seventh category, pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), is the ability to relate and transform content for students, and it separates the expert teacher from the subject-matter expert. Pedagogical content knowledge is the “amalgam of content and pedagogy that is uniquely the province of teachers, their own special form of professional understanding” (Shulman, 1987, p. 8). The acquisition of PCK requires that teachers have a firm grasp of the subject matter within the curriculum they are teaching to a specific group of students, while incorporating effective pedagogical skills required in the teaching-learning process. Cochran, DeRuiter, and King (1993) proposed a constructivist framework for developing preservice teacher (PT) knowledge, wherein knowledge of pedagogy, environmental contexts, subject matter, and students continually expand and interact to construct PCK. They viewed PCK as a dynamic, “integrated understanding...of pedagogy, subject matter content, student characteristics, and the environmental context of learning” (p. 266). Of the knowledge components, they placed primary importance on understanding students and the environmental context when PTs engaged in early field-teaching experiences. Since Shulman’s (1986) original presentation of the concept of PCK as one component of a teacher’s knowledge base, multiple research studies have revealed how knowledge develops in both novice and expert teachers (Jenkins, Garn, & Jenkins, 2005). This research can inform teacher education programs, including physical education teacher education (PETE) initial certification programs, in the creation of early field-teaching experiences.

The Physical Education Standards Movement in Wyoming an Effort in Partnership

School reform is not new. Over the past 20 years, there has been considerable public concern about the quality of teaching in our nations schools and debate over school reform. Efforts to improve schools have been initiated by various groups at the national level (Holmes Group, 1985; National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983; National Commission on Teaching and Americas Future, 1996; National Education Goals Panel, 1991; U.S. Department of Education, 1991). Early efforts to improve childrens education aimed at fixing schools and those who work in them. More recently, researchers and practitioners have come to understand that improved student learning only results from comprehensive and coordinated school reform (i.e., from the integration of changes in the classroom, school administration, school district offices, state governments, and colleges/universities). The comprehensive and coordinated approach to school reform goes beyond the piecemeal efforts of the past (Lawson, 1993). Following a flurry of comprehensive school reform efforts nationwide, the Wyoming legislature mandated statewide performance and graduation standards in 1995 (Wyoming Statute 21-9-101) and charged the Wyoming Department ofEducation (WDE) with ensuring that all students be given the opportunity to meet the standards. Eight common core subject areas for which standards would be developed were identified: reading/language arts,