Jean Brunelle

Academic Learning Time in Elementary and Secondary Physical Education Classes

Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine how much academic learning time is experienced by elementary and secondary school students during regular physical education classes (ALT-PE) and to investigate three major ALT variables, that is, time devoted to specific content areas, learner engaged time with relevant material, and students success rate. Subjects were 30 elementary and 31 secondary school physical education teachers; all had two of their regular classes observed according to the ALT-PE observational procedure developed by Siedentop and his colleagues. Group average results were found to be consistent over time, but individual data showed very little stability. The ALT-PE mean results were 31.3% and 36.5% respectively for the elementary and secondary school level and were significantly different. From 19% to 34% of the class period was spent, on the average, in other than P.E. content activities. When class groups, as a whole, were involved in P.E. content activities, students, consid...

Teaching analyses seminar

The question of involvement is critical to human functioning. The degree to which people commit their attention, interest, and labor determines the ultimate success of the venture at hand. Western culture has assumed, through institutions such as the work ethic, that degree of involvement will determine the nature and degree of success: “The harder we work, the more involved we have to be, and the greater our rewards will be.” Stemming from this reasoning, we have expected students to become involved in their studies from the day they enter nursery school to the day of college graduation. Noninvolvement on the other hand, has been interpreted as symptomatic of laziness, weakness of spirit, ineptness of mind, or inferiority of breeding.