Linda L. Griffin

Sport Education, Tactical Games, and Cooperative Learning: Theoretical and Pedagogical Considerations

The purpose of this article is to present Sport Education, Tactical Games, and Cooperative Learning as valuable instructional models in physical education. Situated learning is used as a theoretical framework and connection between Sport Education, Tactical Games, and Cooperative Learning. The structures of Sport Education, Tactical Games, and Cooperative Learning allow for participation to occur in a student-centered learning curriculum as opposed to a teacher-centered teaching curriculum. The teacher facilitates learning activities that have the potential to provide students with a holistic education that promotes social, physical, and cognitive learning outcomes. The emphasis is on active learning that involves the processes of decision making, social interaction, and cognitive understanding for students.

Assessment Benefits and Barriers: What Are You Committed to?.

ne of the greatest challenges that physical educators face in their work is the assessment of student learning. To learn more about the “real” issues pertain-ing to student assessment in physical education, the authors asked a group of teachers to identify the barriers to, and benefi ts of, using assessments. The purpose of this article is to discuss these teachers’ perceptions regarding assessment and to examine why physical educators are reluctant to use assessments even though they know that assessing their students is benefi cial.As you read this article, please take a moment to consider how each question or statement might relate to your personal beliefs regarding assessment. The authors ask that you keep an open mind as you read the views of our colleagues, experts in the fi eld of assessment, and think about the notion of commitment as it relates to assessment and teaching.

Making Intentional Choices in Physical Education

ular practice in many physical education programs across the country. The ideal rationale for its use is that it can foster social responsibility and promote individual decision-making by giving students a sense of ownership in the curriculum (Hellison, 1985; Hellison & Templin, 1991). In an effort to better understand how choice day is implemented, the first author observed three teachers who used this activity in their classes. In addition to 18 hours of observations of the teachers and their students, two formal (50-minute) z interviews and six informal interviews ~ with each teacher were conducted as :; ~ part of a larger study. These observaen >. tions suggest that the students were .s::; ~ not engaged in activities that fostered ~ self-responsibility or other meaning-&. ful learning objectives; instead, their Q)

Three physical education programs’ adaptive approaches to change: ‘how can I spin that so it works for me?’

This study examined five of 12 physical education teachers participating in the Assessment Initiative for Middle School Physical Education (AIMS-PE), a reform-based teacher development project designed to help teachers examine and reframe their assessment practices and to design and implement curricular programs that encourage active teaching and learning. The purpose of this study was to examine teachers’ experiences with change to understand how they used the espoused curriculum and assessments, and how they addressed project goals. Data included interviews with teachers, students, principals, assigned project researchers and mentors from three schools, school artefacts, and descriptive field notes from observations. Interview transcripts and field notes were analysed using open, axial and selective coding (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Results indicated that teachers from each of the three participating schools demonstrated, in varying abilities, adaptive approaches to implementation. First, teachers were provided opportunities to adapt project curricula and assessments to their particular situations and required a certain amount of negotiation and flexibility on the part of both teachers and facilitators. During implementation, teachers’ abilities to adapt project materials proved to have a direct and powerful effect on the adoption of project goals and curricula. Second, factors which influenced teachers’ efforts to adapt project materials included professional discourse of new instructional and assessment ideas and practices, time, power of student reaction and the role of the principal. Finally, results indicate an importance for teacher development projects to assist teachers in becoming knowledgeable about change and empowered in their own ability to adapt to problems which may arise within the change process. Adaptive approaches to change, such as the one described in this study assumes that variability among teacher and schools is inevitable and that specificity of project methods and goals should evolve over time, paying particular attention to local conditions and individual needs.

Doctoral Programs: How to Choose, Apply, Survive, and Thrive

Abstract Three college friends—an elementary physical educator, a fitness club manager, and a district physical education director—meet for coffee ten years after graduation. They are well-established professionals with masters degrees, but they yearn for something more. Conversation about the possibility of doctoral studies and different career pathways within the same broad profession leads to brainstorming about the time, energy, and monetary investments needed for doctoral work.