Judith E. Rink

EFFECTS OF CONTEXTUAL INTERFERENCE ON RETENTION OF THREE VOLLEYBALL SKILLS

Previous research in motor learning has shown that random practice schedules facilitate retention and transfer of motor skills more than repetitive practice schedules. The purpose of this study was to investigate the generalizability of contextual interference effects. High school students (63 boys, 76 girls) from three physical education class periods were randomly assigned to one of three practice conditions, random, random-blocked, or blocked practice within a class period. Three teachers were randomly assigned to a practice group within a class period and taught a different practice condition each class period. There were nine groups with three practice groups per class period. Subjects practiced the volleyball forearm pass, set, or overhead serve for 30 trials every day for nine class periods. All subjects recorded scores for their practice trials each day during acquisition and were posttested after a 2-day retention interval. Analysis of variance indicated significant improvement in all groups but no significant effects of practice condition during acquisition or retention. These findings suggest that practice was long enough to produce change during acquisition. However, factors characteristic of physical education classes may reduce or mask contextual interference effects commonly observed in other settings.

Task Presentation in Pedagogy

This paper addresses task presentation as an instructional event that is part of a larger, more long-term curricular concern. Task presentation is defined. The research from the classroom literature on teacher clarity and presenting information and from the physical education pedagogy research on task presentation is summarized. The paper concludes with a discussion of some of the issues involved in delivering a task presentation within a physical education setting.

Research on Effective Teaching in Elementary School Physical Education

The perspective of this article is that the purpose of the elementary physical education program is the development of a physically active lifestyle. We discuss the relative contribution of the development of motor skills, fitness, content related to encouraging participation, and the affective goals of the program to the development of a physically active lifestyle. Teaching must be effective if children are to acquire the skills to lead a physically active lifestyle. We explore the research base identifying effective teaching in an elementary school physical education setting in terms of academic learning time and management roles and communication and content‐development skills of the teacher. Similarities and differences between teaching in a gymnasium and in a classroom are identified.

Measuring Teacher Effectiveness in Physical Education

This article summarizes the research base on teacher effectiveness in physical education from a historical perspective and explores the implications of the recent emphasis on student performance and teacher observation systems to evaluate teachers for physical education. The problems and the potential positive effects of using student performance scores as well as establishing a comprehensive evaluation program are explored with supportive evidence that some level of accountability is necessary in our field to make significant change.

Teacher Education: A Focus on Action

The educational community has, in recent times, abandoned a quantitative approach to research on teaching, characterized by process-product research, for a focus on naturalistic inquiry and the use of qualitative research methods. Major changes in research directions are accompanied in time by an integration process, that is, attempts to assimilate new knowledge with an already existing knowledge base. Attempts to integrate process-product research on teaching with more recent work have been impeded by major assumptions in research paradigms that have made the two directions seeming antagonists in the pursuit of knowledge. This paper explores the potential of integrating the results of earlier research on teaching with recent work stemming from both naturalistic inquiry and theoretical work in cognitive science. Major directions and issues are examined for their compatibility and ability to contribute to a broader perspective of the teaching/leaming process and teacher education.

High Stakes Assessment: A Journey Into Unknown Territory

The purpose of this article is to explore efforts to reform physical education programs and to describe why they might not have been successful in the past. The general education and physical education reform literature is examined with attention to the current standards, assessment, and accountability reform movement prevalent in most states. General themes facilitating South Carolinas effort to gain support for policy initiatives and implement a high stakes assessment program are developed with attention to the political activities essential to gain support for change.

What Knowledge Is of Most Worth? Perspectives on Kinesiology from Pedagogy

Historically, physical education “birthed” the discipline areas and was the umbrella term for the studies now included in the term kinesiology. In many places, the relationship between pedagogy and the disciplines grew uneasy with the desire of the field to gain academic respectability. This paper explores the status of the relationship between kinesiology and physical education at this point and time, the value of discipline knowledge for the preparation of teachers in physical education, and alternative perspectives on resolving some of the issues presented in the relationship between the two areas of study.

High Stakes Assessment in South Carolina

I n the spring of 2001, one third of high schools in the state of South Carolina submitted student-performance data to the South Carolina Physical Education Assessment Program. A monitoring committee of peers analyzed the data for accuracy during the summer. The results were subsequently submitted to the state Department of Education (SDE) and reported to school administrations in each of the districts. Each school was given a grade based on the percentage of students in that school who had achieved the state standards. Within the next few years, all elementary, middle, and high schools will be required to submit data every three years and inform parents ofthe resulting grades in a school report card. A partnership of physical education professionals working through the South Carolina Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (SCAHPERD) has worked for the past seven years to establish statelevel physical education program accountability by implementing standards, developing assessment materials, and making policy.

Teacher Perceptions of a Physical Education Statewide Assessment Program

Abstract A statewide program assessment was established to make positive change in physical education school programs in South Carolina. Reform efforts depend both on balancing accountability for change and teacher support for change (Odden &Anderson, 1986). The purpose of the study was to determine teacher perceptions of the South Carolina Physical Education Assessment Program and its effects across six related themes including: changes in teaching and learning, changes in curriculum and instruction, teacher awareness of the assessment program, teacher support for the program, work place conditions, and the advocacy role of the program. It was also the purpose of this study to determine if the survey responses were in any way related to teacher and school variables. The overall results of the study indicated positive change and support for the assessment program, supporting the viability of the standards, assessment, and accountability reform effort to positively impact physical education programs.

Differential Effects of Three Teachers Over a Unit of Instruction

The purpose of this study was to describe the effects of three teachers on psychomotor, affective, and cognitive outcomes over a 15-lesson volleyball unit. Three intact middle school physical education classes were used. Pre- and posttests were administered for the overhead set, forearm pass, and serve psychomotor skills. A semantic differential test with four affective dimensions and a written test on the rules, strategies, and mechanics of volleyball were also administered pre- and posttest. Data on instructional characteristics were obtained using academic learning time (ALT-PE); observation system for content development (OSCD-PE), and a content analysis of lessons. The following were key aspects of the results: (a) Teachers differed in their approaches to the content of the unit more than in the characteristics of their instruction as determined through observational data; (b) teachers differed in respect to the psychomotor skills for which they were able to produce statistically significant student ...