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…

The purpose of this study was to understand the perceptions of in-service Physical Education (PE) teachers when using Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) in teaching sports. Data were gathered from interviews, work group meetings, and participants' diaries. The results show the difficulties PE teachers had in the planning and implementation of…

This study was conducted to identify student characteristics and instructional factors that impact student engagement in physical education (PE). Data were derived from the systematic observation of 124 sessions taught by 31 physical educators and the administration of health and PE engagement questionnaires to 2,018 students in grades 5-8.…

Guided by Green-Demers, Leagult, Pelletier, and Pelletier's (2008) assumption that amotivation (absence of motivation) is a multidimensional construct, we designed this study to investigate the influence of inadequate teacher-to-student social support on amotivation of high-school physical education students. Five hundred and sixty-six ninth…

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of the Sport Education Model ("SEM") on amotivated students affect and needs satisfaction. 78 amotivated students from an original pool of 1,176 students enrolled in one of 32 physical education classes. Classes were randomly assigned to either the "SEM" (N = 16)or traditional class (N = 16).…

Recommendations for increasing children's daily physical activity (PA) call on classroom teachers to assume an activist role at school. This study examined relationships among preservice classroom teachers' (PCT; n = 247) biographical characteristics, perceptions and attitudes regarding school PA promotion (SPAP). Results indicated participants…

The twofold purpose of this study was to develop and validate an instrument that assessed teachers' intentions, attitudes, subjective norm, and perceived behavior control to administer fitness tests effectively, and to determine how well the instrument could predict teachers' intentions and actual behavior based on Ajzen's (1985, 1991) theory of…

The purpose of this investigation was to examine overweight students' perceptions of and experiences in physical education. Specifically, the applicability of learned helplessness as a framework to understand their experiences was explored. Participants were seven female and five male high school students whose body mass index was at or higher…

A debate over the quality of teacher education programs has been ongoing for nearly 100 years. The most current round in this debate started with "A Nation at Risk" (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983) and has escalated in recent years to involve an increasing number of participant-constituents, each of whom has voiced an opinion…

Relatively little is known about the ways in which children understand and perceive how they learn tasks or skills in physical education classes. The purpose of this study was to use a constructivist framework to explore how children express their experiences, thoughts, and feelings about how they learn in physical education classes. A variety of…

Although substantial inquiry has been made into fitness levels of students, there has been scant examination of knowledge in this domain. This article seeks to review and analyze research on student health-related fitness (HRF) knowledge mastery in K-16 programs by examining studies published in the literature. Two major results emerging from the…

Increasing dropout rates in senior high school physical education, particularly among females, and unhealthy activity and obesity levels in youth have led to recommendations to assess potential contributing factors in physical education participation. Drawing from gender, body image, and social-cognitive theory, this study investigated relations…

This study investigated the relationships and mean-level changes of middle school students' motivation (expectancy-related beliefs, task values, self-efficacy, and outcome expectancy) toward physical education over time, and how gender affected students' motivation. Participants (N = 206) completed questionnaires over a 1-year period: once in the…

The use of fitness testing is a practical means for measuring components of health-related fitness, but there is currently substantial debate over the motivating effects of these tests. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the cross-fertilization of achievement and friendship goal profiles for early adolescents involved in the…

The purpose of this study was to analyze the mediating effects of social goals and perceived competence on students' perceptions of motivational climates and dispositional flow in physical education. At the beginning of the physical education unit, 779 students, 12 to 16 years old, were asked to complete four questionnaires: Perceived Motivational…