Siedentop and Locke (1997) proposed three critical elements that must exist in our profession to make a difference and achieve systemic success in physical education (SSPE): (a) quality PE in the schools, (b) effective physical education teacher education (PETE)programs, and (c) a working relationship between the two. Using Cuban's (1992)…

Despite the benefits associated with teacher development through participation in communities of practice, many questions about these groups remain unanswered. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine a group of elementary physical education teachers as a community of practice whose objective was to develop and disseminate…

Drawing on feminist, poststructural, and critical theories, the purpose of this research was to understand 5th-grade girls' self-identified barriers to physical activity and work with them to find ways of negotiating those barriers in order to increase their physical activity opportunities. We worked with 11 girls in two elementary schools in…

Following the devastation of hurricane Katrina, a university located in the southeastern United States created a service-learning program. This program was established so that physical education teacher education (PETE) students could provide physical activities to children living in a temporary, government-funded housing community. The purpose of…

This study used an emotional geographies theoretical framework to analyze the emotional dimensions of urban teacher change. Fifteen urban physical education teachers involved in a comprehensive curriculum reform project were interviewed and observed multiple times across one school year. Data were analyzed using inductive analysis, and…

A well-designed professional development (PD) program serves to deepen and extend teachers' subject matter knowledge and extend and refine their teaching practices. However, professional development programs often fail to achieve sustained change in teacher practices and improvement in student learning. In this study the authors attempt to find…

The knowledge, skills, and attitudes manifested in health and physical education school curricula are an arbitrary selection of that which is known and valued at a particular place and time. Bernstein's (2000) theories of the social construction of knowledge offer a way to better understand the relationship among the production, selection, and…

This article discusses the social fabrication of risk and ill health in the United Kingdom and how it affect the physical education curriculum and physical education teachers. It is now well over 60 years since the publication in Britain of the Board of Education?s (1933) "Syllabus For Physical Training For Schools." It was a remarkable document,…

Although teachers' knowledge of student emotion is not typically integrated into studies of teachers' pedagogical content knowledge, this study uses the philosophy of emotion, recent teacher knowledge research, and a case study of one middle-school physical education teacher to illustrate the point that how teachers understand student emotion is…

Drawing on poststructuralism and related theoretical perspectives, we worked in girls' physical education classes to examine the development and implementation of a curriculum strand focusing on girls' bodies. The purpose was to help adolescent girls name the discourses that shape their lives and regulate their bodies. We asked two major…

South Carolina's state-mandated staff development initiative, the Physical Education Institute, emphasized how to teach high school student performance indicators. Researchers investigated factors that facilitated or hindered implementation of the performance indicators. Data from three schools indicated that lead teachers facilitated the extent…

Provides a history of the development of a curriculum and instruction model called Sport Education (which provides authentic, educationally rich sport experiences in the context of school physical education), reviewing theoretical and practical connections of Sport Education to other curricular and instructional models and exploring issues related…

Introduces a theme issue on the Saber-Tooth Project, an ongoing reform effort involving a university and school district that collaborate to improve middle school physical education by improving teaching conditions and engaging teachers in professional development emphasizing curriculum improvement. The monograph explains the nature of…

Used data from interviews, surveys, and document analysis to describe the methods and reform processes of the Saber Tooth Project, examining selection of sites; demographics (school sites, teachers, data sources, and project assumptions); and project phases (development, planning, implementation, and support). The project's method of reform was…

Examined how middle schools with different curricula differed in teaching the same lacrosse activity, describing a unit of the enacted curriculum in the Saber-Tooth school, comparing it to a similar unit in a school using a multi-activity curriculum, and examining effects on student variables. Schools were similar managerially. Differences between…