Is there anything more important than the health, well-being and education of a nation's children? This paper takes the position that school is the most important place to educate children about health and to develop lifelong health promoting skills. We believe that health promotion programs and activities are integral to the school's…

Increasing rates of childhood obesity has prompted calls for comprehensive approaches to school-based physical activity (PA). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of comprehensive school physical activity program (CSPAP) development and related contextual issues within a rural Appalachian county using a Systems Approach. A…

The purpose of this study was to gauge preservice physical education teachers' perspectives during one physical activity pedagogy course, teaching outdoor and adventure education. Teacher belief, occupational socialization and experiential learning theories overlaid this work. Over three years 57 students (37 males; 20 females) participated in the…

This study guided by a health ecology conceptual framework evaluated four "bottom-up" Physical Activity (PA) interventions with school personnel planning for their own health ecology with state level support for one year. Students (N = 616) were from four schools in the Southwestern USA in the 3rd-8th grade. Participants had various ethnic…

The purpose of this study was to examine coping against weight-related teasing among adolescents perceived to be overweight or obese in urban physical education. Forty-seven students perceived to be overweight or obese from a large urban school district were interviewed. Trustworthiness of data analysis was established by using a member-checking…

Personal biography influences preservice classroom teachers' (PCT) perceptions and attitudes related to school-based physical activity promotion (SPAP). Using an uncontrolled prepost design, this study investigated associations between biographical variables and changes in PCTs' SPAP attitudes and perceived competence while enrolled in a 16-week…

Examining how preservice teachers (PTs) perceive and implement assessment may provide clues as to how we can refocus the way future teachers use assessment. A conceptual framework addressing PT beliefs and how they change was applied in this study to examine PTs' (N = 17) beliefs and understanding of the role of assessment and evaluation on…

Given the agreement of pedagogy experts about the importance of assessment in teaching and learning, this chapter focuses on the kinds of assessments used by student teachers as they planned lessons using five instructional models (IMs), for their models assessment project. In addition, the planned learning targets are examined by analyzing lesson…

The series of studies in this monograph examined the adoption of model-based instruction (MBI) as an innovative approach to teaching physical education. This innovation must be learned and used by preservice teachers, and then ultimately accepted by pupils in schools where student teachers plan for and implement MBI. Decisions by student teachers…

In previous chapters, student teachers' views and the use of model-based instruction (MBI) were determined to be largely positive. But do these positive attitudes and the actual use of MBI continue after completing a teacher education program? Many novice teachers experience "washout" when the attitudes and instructional practices they acquired…

This article considers another group of educators involved with the adoption of model-based instruction (MBI)--the cooperating teachers, who supervise physical education teacher education (PETE) student teachers in the Georgia State University (GSU) program. The university spends several semesters educating preservice teachers about the skills and…

Previous chapters in this monograph have reported on a series of research studies that examined the adoption of an instructional innovation, model-based instruction (MBI), by teachers in three stages of career development: preservice/student teachers (STs), induction teachers (ITs), and experienced/cooperating teachers (CTs). All the teachers were…

The purpose of this chapter is to advance the concept of pedagogical content knowledge in a manner that would better align it with the integrative type of knowledge needed by teachers at all three stages (preservice teachers, induction teachers, and cooperating teachers), allowing them to use model-based instruction (MBI) most effectively in…

The purpose of this article is to summarize the developing role and the challenges facing the British primary and secondary education sector in the promotion of children's health-enhancing physical activity. This is in the context of a public agenda on physical activity for health that grew steadily in stature throughout the 1990s and has…

Investigated physical education teachers' educational theories of action and theories-in-use. Data from classroom observations, interviews, and journals indicated that teachers held strong, well-articulated views about student learning and what constituted a physically educated student. Results did not substantiate the notion of a level of…