Todd Pennington

A Critical Look at Physical Education and What Must Be Done to Address Obesity Issues

JOPERD • Volume 82 No. 4 • April 2011 P hysical education (PE) and physical education teacher education (PETE) are no strangers to change over the past 100 years, growing and morphing in order to meet changing societal interests and demands. From its beginnings in the late 19th century as a vehicle for health promotion (under the direction of physicians), to the immediacy of military preparedness (1917-1945), then for recreation and leisure pursuits (1950s-present), PE has reinvented itself over and over again (Corbin, 1993). Curiously, due to national crises such as obesity and other lifestyle issues, PE finds itself having come full circle—to once again fill a role as a health promotion tool. Park, as early as 1989, labeled PE as the renaissance field of the 21st century, but many others in the field hesitate to make changes that would lead to such a rebirth or even resist such changes. The target has moved, and some find it extremely unsettling. Johnson (2002) described dealing with moving targets in a delightful allegory involving four mice that are forced to deal with change when someone moves their cheese. Well, someone has moved our collective cheese, and we now have to deal with it! This article takes a frank look at the need for educational reform in physical education. It discusses the past and present failings and the implications of those failures. It presents only six PE teachers’ opinions, but it is an informed opinion, based on a combined 123 years in the business both as PE teachers and as PETE and wellness professors. This article is not exhaustive in scope, but a beginning that is intended to promote dialogue and action aimed at making PE not only a player in this national debate but the go-to player. Our examination is guided by Collins’s (2001) “good-to-great” framework, which identifies the characteristics of companies that made a remarkable transformation from being average to becoming great by outperforming comparison companies and the market as a whole. To make the leap from good to great, each company had to develop one essential aspect: an unflinching willingness to face the most brutal facts of one’s situation. We propose that PE must examine, with unflinching honesty, its past failings and current realities in order to move forward—to move from good to great. While we remain optimistic about the value of and future for PE in public schools, the problems that PE faces have convinced us that it must make its own dramatic transformation. This transformation, however, must not be haphazard nor piecemeal. Cautioning against maintaining the status quo or attempting insufficient change, Lawrence A Critical Look at Physical Education and What Must Be Done to Address Obesity Issues

Student Perceptions of Using Skills Software in Physical Education

M ost children like to explore and learn through unstructured play. By the time students are in the middle of their secondary education, however, they have become thoroughly assimilated into our system of formal education, and learning has become a chore for many of them (Lepper & Chabay, 1985). Harter (1981) believes that schools gradually stifle children’s intrinsic interest in learning. Individuals are intrinsically motivated if the performance of the activity is, in itself, the reward, and extrinsically motivated if an activity is performed in order to receive a reward afterwards. Most scholars believe that real learning occurs only when individuals are intrinsically motivated (Higgins & Sorrentino, 1990). This problem of stifled intrinsic interest can be seen in all subjects, including physical education, Quite simply, physical education is no longer fun for many students. Fortunately, tools such as computers can help us enhance and maintain children’s intrinsic interest in learnTODD R. PENNINCTON

Maximal Graded Exercise Test Protocol Preferences of Relatively Fit College Students

This study was designed to compare the standardized Bruce protocol (Bruce, Kusumi, & Hosmer, 1973) with the Arizona State University (ASU; George, 1996) protocol to determine whether or not the ASU protocol is preferred while providing a relatively accurate, valid, and individualized format for maximal exercise testing in college students. Using indirect calorimetry, maximum oxygen consumption (VO2max;) was measured in 32 physically active college students (16 men, 16 women; age 21.1 2.5 years) using the Bruce and ASU protocols in a random order. After completing both protocols in 3 to 6 days, participants were asked to rate their experience or satisfaction with each protocol, and also whether or not the grade and speed of the protocol were tailored to their individual abilities. VO2max; predictions were generated from the Bruce (43.12 7.56 ml kg-1 min-1) and ASU (45.33 7.26 ml kg-1 min-1) regression models, respectively. No significant difference was found between the measured and predicted VO2max; means for both the Bruce and ASU protocols. Cross-validation analyses comparing measured versus predicted VO2max; values yielded similar results (Bruce: r = .91, SEE = 3.61 ml kg-1 min-1, total error = 3.72 ml kg-1 min-1; ASU: r = .91, SEE = 3.13 ml kg-1 min-1, total error = 3.15 ml kg-1 min-1). In terms of overall satisfaction, 93.8% of participants preferred taking the ASU protocol over the Bruce protocol. Our results suggest that the ASU protocol provides a maximal treadmill graded exercise test for college students that is individualized, time efficient, and relatively accurate in estimating VO2max;.

Effects of Music on Physical Activity Rates of Junior High School Physical Education Students.

Music is an everyday occurrence in a person’s life. Music is heard in the workplace, in homes, and in the mall. Music can also be heard as a person exercises. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of music on junior high students (n = 305) step counts and time in activity in junior high school physical education classes. In this study, students wore pedometers, and a 2 (conditions: with and without music) × 2 (activities: basketball and volleyball) crossover design was used. It was found that across all grades (7th, 8th, and 9th) and gender, more steps were taken with music in both activities versus without music. No significant differences were noted in time in activity between activities with music (2,839 steps taken in basketball) than without music (2,494 steps taken in basketball). Music is a tool that can assist junior high school physical educators in meeting the objectives of having students in physical activity for a majority of class time. It made students’ physical activity experience enjoyable.

Using Object Lessons to Teach Health-related Fitness Concepts

JOPERD • Volume 79 No. 9 • November/December 2008 I magine watching a physical education class playing a vigorous game of basketball. As always, the more athletic students are everywhere: running, passing, and shooting. Typically there are three or four obese kids who predictably jog or walk from end to end, playing a marginal role in the game. Now imagine that every student in the class instantly becomes obese and tries to continue the game. Suddenly they are less willing to move, run, and jump. They seem to be very uncomfortable, self-conscious, hesitant, and even fearful. They do not seem to enjoy moving, which is odd because they have always enjoyed basketball. Students who were once nonobese develop a new sense of empathy for the heavy kids in the class, now that they too are fat. Even the teacher sees the heavy kids in a different light. The teacher may even realize that he or she has too often misunderstood, misjudged, and maybe mislabeled the heavy kids as lazy and decides to fi nd a way to reach every child—those who are now overly fat or obese and those who will be if they do not learn to manage their lifestyle. Now imagine how the overweight students would feel if they could instantly lose the excess weight. Likely, they would feel free to engage in activities that they once enjoyed, or had not had the chance to because they were obese. More than ever before, the students will understand why it is important not to become overweight as they grow older. They may even understand that managing their weight and other lifestyle choices will provide a quality of life that allows them to pursue their many interests free from the debilitating effects of obesity. Every lesson on fi tness concepts could evoke this kind of personal meaning by using an “object lesson” format. An object lesson is one in which students fi rst experience the idea, what it “feels” like (Warren, 2004), before the concept is explained. A quality experience followed by debriefi ng provides students with an experiential background on which to process the new ideas. New ideas are then referenced to the experience and, as a result, are more deeply understood. Students make connections between the idea and reality because they “felt” it fi rst. The purpose of this article is to describe (1) health-related fi tness (HRF) lesson content, (2) specifi c instructional strategies in object-lesson format to be used by secondary physical education teachers to increase student understanding and personal construction of meaning, and (3) the implications for both inservice teachers and PETE professionals. To do so, this article includes one object lesson for each of the fi ve HRF components: cardiorespiratory fi tness, body composition, fl exibility, muscle strength, and muscle endurance (see sidebar, p. 20). These lesson plans describe activities that allow students to engage in self-directed learning opportunities. Students will fi nd personal meaning through fi rst experiencing the concepts and then by teacher-guided discovery of concepts (with debriefi ng following the activity) that solidifi es and deepens their understanding. These lessons are not intended to be the Using Object Lessons to Teach Health-related Fitness Concepts

PE Central: A Possible Online Professional Development Tool

Traditional professional development offerings for teachers often overlook the needs of the physical educator. Left to their own devices, PE teachers frequently turn to online resources (e.g., PE Central, PHE America [formerly pelinks4u], PHYSEDagogy, and SHAPE America’s Exchange and Teacher’s Toolbox) for professional growth support. Clearly these online offerings provide valuable resources to teachers, but it is unclear if any meet generally accepted definitions of what con-stitutes sanctioned professional development. The purposes of this study were to (a) describe pre- and in-service teacher usage of one of these websites, PE Central; (b) describe their satisfaction with PE Central; and (c) assess the relationship of these online resources to promote pro-visional teacher change, student engagement, and permanent teacher change. PE teachers (n = 418) responded to an online survey. Both pre- and in-service teachers averaged monthly usage and were more satisfied than not with the PE Central website. PE Central provided teachers some key elements of professional development and was posi-tively related to provisional teacher change but negatively associated with student engagement and permanent teacher change. Suggestions for making the site a resource for sanctioned professional development credit and associated future research possibilities are explored. Subscribe to TPE

Adolescent Physical Activity and Motivational Profiles While Keeping a Physical Activity Record

Purpose: This study examined the relationship between adolescents (N = 124) from physical education classes keeping a daily online leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) record and feelings of competence toward LTPA, motivational profiles toward LTPA, and LTPA behaviors. Method: A repeated measures ANCOVA was used to examine the relationships between recording compliance and perceived competence, motivation, and physical activity. Results: As students kept the LTPA record, boys’ LTPA levels significantly increased and girls’ levels significantly decreased. A significant interaction between recording compliance and introjected regulation was found; the more students recorded the less motivated they were by guilt or obligation to exercise. A significant interaction was found between recording compliance and intrinsic regulation, showing the more students recorded the more intrinsically motivated they were to exercise in their leisure time. Discussion/Conclusion: Implications and suggestions are described for...