Lawrence F. Locke

Changing Secondary School Physical Education

Evidence suggests that many secondary school physical education programs fail to achieve their objectives. A disturbing number of students report associating required attendance with strong negative feelings about the class, physical activity, and themselves. Teachers report that workplace conditions do not allow any serious effort to provide instruction. The nature of these problems is such that neither improving instruction nor upgrading the present curriculum will suffice. I argue that replacing the dominant program model is the only course of action that can save a place for physical education in secondary schools. Toward that end, a number of conventional ideas about school change must be reconsidered in the light of recent research. Problems are identified that may be particularly troublesome for physical education teachers who undertake program replacement, along with potentially helpful resources in the school change literature.

Toward Collegiality: Competing Viewpoints Among Teacher Educators

A series of recent speeches, articles, and books have outlined a radical perspective on physical education derived from critical theory, feminism, and postmodernism. This radical discourse has been particularly critical of what it describes as positivistic approaches to research and technocratic views of teaching and curriculum. This article outlines our concerns with this literature, including (a) polemical presentations and vitriolic language, (b) zero-sum arguments that polarize, (c) cartooning, (d) a lack of evidence to defend assertions, and (e) assumptions that it alone occupies high moral ground. We acknowledge that the radical literature has not only brought moral issues to the ongoing forum among physical educators but has also had a direct, positive influence on our work. Areas where we might engage in a collegial discourse include the nature of the subject matter called physical education, the basis underlying a moral perspective on professional work, and the nature of teaching skill development.

Role Conflict in Teacher/Coaches.

Abstract The purpose of this study was to assess the extent and intensity of selected role conflicts encountered by teacher/coaches, the degree to which teacher/coaches share conflicts common among classroom teachers, and the degree to which selected variables are associated with the occurrence of conflict. The subjects, 201 men and women employed in the dual roles of teaching and coaching at the college, secondary, and middle/elementary levels, responded to a 10-item inventory designed to record perceived and experienced occupational conflicts in five areas. Conflicts related to Role-Overload were the most commonly perceived and most intensely experienced. Female teacher/coaches perceived more, and often experienced as much, role-related conflict as their male counterparts. Sex, years of experience, noncoaching assignment, undergraduate major, school socioeconomic status, and level of career aspiration were significant determiners of perceived and experienced conflict between the teaching and coaching roles.

The landscape of elementary school physical education

Elementary school physical education has repeatedly been shaped by the forces of history. Presently, concerns about the obesity epidemic and the low levels of physical activity in children are exerting a major influence on curriculum. Whereas building physical fitness has been a dominant influence during wartime, the focus today is on (a) providing students with ample opportunities for vigorous physical activity, (b) teaching basic motor skills, and (c) guiding children toward subsequent adoption of physically active lifestyles as adolescents and adults. The purpose here is to provide readers with information about the social context and present status of physical education in elementary schools. Attention is given to the effect of national recommendations from governmental and scientific health agencies, newly devised standards from professional organizations, recent legislative mandates, experimental trials of sustainable in‐service education, and the role of research in shaping both pedagogy and curriculum.

Why motor learning is ignored: a case of ducks, naughty theories, and unrequited love.

The question, What is, or ought to be, the relationship between motor learning research and the teaching of motor skills in sport and physical education? has been the subject of three decades of inconclusive discussion. After setting aside a number of topics as related, but not immediately relevant, the boundaries for the present effort were drawn at Why is there no evidence that teachers or teacher educators use knowledge based on motor learning research? A series of hypotheses are then entertained and rejected. Inadequacies in the theoretical base, research designs, undergraduate courses, teacher intellect, teacher educator effort, and workplace conditions do not adequately account for the neglect of motor learning. A more likely explanation is that knowledge based on motor learning research is ignored by teachers because it is irrelevant to their work. If motor learning scholars will accept that this conclusion does not diminish the legitimacy of their discipline, they will coexist more comfortably wit...

Research on Teaching Physical Education: New Knowledge and Cautious Optimism Theme

Researchers who study the teaching of physical education have examined teacher and student behavior using sys tematic observation, teacher feedback to students, the application of principles of motor learning and, more recently, task analysis and the qualitative paradigm. Although research has had limited im pact on the teaching of physical educa tion in the schools to date, Placek and Locke suggest that cautious optimism is now in order due to newly acquired knowledge and a new generation of teacher educators.

Elementary School Physical Education: Expectations and Possibilities

Most of the articles in this issue assert that the growing public health problems of obesity and sedentary lifestyle will influence the nature of elementary school physical education and its place in the curriculum. There are, however, substantial reasons to exercise caution in speculating about the ultimate effect of such forces. Among the constraints on achieving significant progress are widespread use of underprepared classroom teachers; insufficient class time provided in the school schedule; the social and psychological complexity of health problems involving obesity, nutrition, and physical activity; and the absence of an adequate knowledge base for the design of programs that will influence subsequent lifestyle. The work of professional organizations in developing standards for defining sound programs offers a foundation for future progress. Development of reliable and valid measures for teacher performance and student achievement relative to those standards is under way but presently remains incomplete.

An Analysis of Prospects for Changing Faculty Roles and Rewards: Can Scholarship Be Reconsidered?

Ernest Boyers book, Scholarship Reconsidered (1990) is examined through use of Sarasons (1982) construct of regularities, and Lewins (1976) force field analysis model for understanding behavior. It is concluded that prospects for implementing Boyers proposals for renewal of the American university through restructuring faculty roles and rewards will depend less on simply urging the case for reform, and more on devising strategies that respond to forces shaping the present regularities of academic life. In particular, it is asserted that successful change in the definition of scholarship will be possible only through reduction of the resistance produced by legitimate concerns about altering the present system.

Thought Sampling: A Study of Student Attention through Self-Report

Abstract Eighty-two volunteer subjects in 4 college physical education classes responded to an auditory signal given during class periods by recalling and making an immediate written record of their thoughts just before the signal. Recording procedures were designed to maximize accuracy, clarity, and truthfulness of responses. Randomly distributed thought samples were obtained from each class over a period of 15 wk. A total of 639 responses were categorized by expressed focus of attention. A scale reflecting the implied level of student commitment to cognitive processing of instructional events was used to assign a numerical score to each category. Level of attention scores then were computed for each subject, class, and type of instructional operation. Analysis revealed substantial differences between the levels of attention characteristic of individual students, whole classes, and specific pedagogical tactics.

Beyond Arrogance and Ad Hominem: A Reply to Hal Lawson

The authors find Lawsons article to be both incorrect as to facts concerning the preparation of physical education teachers and misleading in the attempted analysis of problems in professional preparation. As such, the arguments set forth in the article will confuse and mislead rather than edify readers. Problematic areas in teacher preparation and the typical disciplinary agenda for reform are reviewed. Lawsons complex arguments are reduced to simple statements and critical errors of logic and fact are identified.