Since independence in 1965, education and sport have been instrumental in Singapore's nation building, with a rapid rise in education and economic status. This article examines the roles of physical education and school sport in the local context and makes comparison with global themes ("instrumentality" and "marginality"). It is argued that…

In Scotland, substantial changes in the management of education at national, local authority and school/community levels are afoot. Central to future improvements are how teachers translate curriculum guidelines, with an increased focus on health and wellbeing and holistic learning experiences, into constructivist inclined pedagogical practices.…

School sport partnerships (SSPs) have been at the centre of a national strategy for Physical Education and School Sport (PESS) in England for the last seven years, aiming to improve both the range and quality of opportunities for young people to be physically active. While annual surveys show significantly increased opportunities for young people…

This article presents a systematic review of published literature on the effectiveness of physical education in promoting participation in physical activity, enjoyment of physical activity and movement skill proficiency in children and adolescents. The review utilized a literature search, specifically publications listed in Ovid, A+ Education,…

This article focuses on the challenges arising for primary school teachers who have responsibility for teaching physical education (PE) and who are working in particularly complex and contestable policy contexts. In New Zealand provision of physical education is identified as occurring amidst multiple, and not necessarily compatible, sets of…

Teaching practice is a decisive event in a student teacher's training and shapes the beginnings of their life in the teaching profession. It is widely recognized that student teachers' learning opportunities can be maximized during teaching practice by cooperating teacher contribution (Hardy, 1999; O'Sullivan, 2003; Rikard and Veal, 1996;…

The pedagogical use of journals as a reflective tool has been used in many academic disciplines. Researchers have studied the effectiveness of implementing journal writing as an academic exercise, and results have generally touted journals as a successful means of encouraging learning and reflection. However, little is known about how students…

The role of physical literacy within physical education (PE) has become a widely debated topic in recent years. Its role in educating children about physicality through embodiment, skill acquisition and reading the environment is argued to be of great benefit to children. However, whether children understand the role of PE in the development of…

The purpose of this study was to look at the influence of and interrelationships between concerns and socialization on the development of student physical education (PE) teachers' knowledge for teaching and their development as teachers. Six secondary student PE teachers completed a journal on a monthly basis throughout the course of a one-year…

Through a particular case study, this article seeks to demonstrate the relevance of cultural history to physical activity and physical education. For generations of East Asian people who have lived with the influence of Confucianism, the disposition to engage with sport has commonly been absent. Over a number of centuries, the Chinese constructed…

This study examined high school students' experiences in a Sport Education unit being implemented with smaller teams and fewer roles. The participants included one physical education teacher and her 70 ninth-grade students. Each week, we conducted two to three observations and four to six informal interviews with the participants for over eight…

This purpose of this study was to examine student activity, lesson contexts and teacher interactions during secondary school physical education, using a recently validated systematic observation instrument termed the System for Observing the Teaching of Games in Physical Education (SOTG-PE). Thirty, single-gender high school (11-16 years) physical…

The network of relations between Physical Education (PE) teachers' self-efficacy, goal orientations, attitudes, intentions and behaviours concerning the implementation of a new PE curriculum was examined. Participants were 290 Greek junior high school PE teachers. Two years after the introduction of the new curriculum, participants responded to…

The purpose of this study was to assess mastery of Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) in 6- to 6.5-year-old Flemish pre-school children. The subjects were 236 6-year-old children (138 boys, 98 girls; mean age 6 years 2.4 months, SD 2.4). Children were individually assessed with the Motoriktest fur Vier- bis Sechsjahrige Kinder (MOT 4-6) in four…

This article reviews research on physical education (PE) teachers' professionalization considering their relative position at schools and in the community as well as their control over the lesson formation. The position considers issues of prestige, status and esteem while lesson formation regards constitutional, organizational and physical…