The classroom teacher is a critical team member of a comprehensive school physical activity program and an activity-friendly school environment. Students spend more time in the classroom than in any other school setting or environment. Classrooms are busy places, and classroom teachers must make decisions about how to make the best use of their…

The American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance recommends that all schools implement a comprehensive school physical activity program. Physical activity is important to the overall health and well-being of everyone, including all school age children. The benefits of physical activity are well documented and include the…

This study examined whether students in an intervention group, who were given choices within physical education (PE), reported greater autonomous motivation, more favorable perceptions of autonomy support, and displayed higher in-class physical activity (PA) levels than those in a control group. It was hypothesized that there would be marked…

This article describes the faculty-sponsored approach to undergraduate research (UGR) at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis. In this approach, individual or small groups of faculty organize or sponsor the research and recruit undergraduate students to get involved. This approach to UGR is opportunistic in that university faculty…

This article chronicles the undergraduate research (UGR) process in the Sport Sciences Department at Wingate University. The main focus is a description of a course-based approach to UGR, followed by a brief summation of the department's experiential component that results in graduating seniors completing an extensive research project to meet…

Teaching youths who affiliate with a gang can be a daunting task. Risk factors for gang membership often compound across life domains and affect pro-social connectedness, cause feelings of marginalization, and hinder life-skill development. Sports and physical activities that are structured within a positive youth-development framework provide an…

Injuries can occur anywhere and anytime in physical education. Physical educators should do all they can to prevent injuries from occurring and must be prepared for such an occurrence. Many physical educators have limited knowledge about how to respond to injury and emergency situations. The purpose of this article is to provide information for…

Nationwide, only 56% of students attended physical education class on one or more days per week, and only 33% of students attended physical education daily in 2009. Physical educators have the responsibility to create positive experiences in physical education, as well as to develop physical skills and feelings of self-efficacy in their students.…

This article presents the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) and its applications in physical education. The PECS is an appropriate communication intervention for students with autism who lack functional communication skills. It is often confused with other visual support strategies, so the authors delineate the six phases of PECS and…

Educators have reported feeling stressed, overwhelmed, or demoralized when undesirable student behaviors are coupled with other instructional and programmatic barriers. Although helpful resources abound, it is not always easy to connect research to practice. Teachers can benefit from evidence-based practice (EBP), which basically involves reading…

This article comments on the judicious use of journal impact factors. It aims to preserve our fields of study within the context of increased scholarly scrutiny and the hierarchical structures inherent in academia. It concludes by recommending actions for "JOPERD," other journals in the field, and the producers and evaluators of…

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) often experience difficulties with motor skill learning and performance. The pool is a unique learning environment that can help children with ASDs learn or improve aquatic skills, fitness, and social skills. A pool-based approach is also aligned with the elements of dynamic systems theory, which…

Task cards are instructional tools that combine a picture of a skill with written instructions about how to perform the skill. This article provides practical guidelines for developing research-based task cards for use in physical education classes. Fitness-related motor skills are used as examples to clarify design principles for task cards. The…

Cheerleading used to be about standing on the sidelines waving pom-poms. Now, cheerleaders are thrown 10 feet in the air and perform high-level gymnastics skills. For this reason, cheerleading has become the leading cause of catastrophic sport injuries in the United States. Football, which is one of the most dangerous sports, has abundant access…

International students have become an important and growing group in U.S. higher education. Although many universities offer various types of support to international students, little attention is given to preventive health services or health promotion efforts, such as the promotion of physical activity. This article outlines a theory-based…