Evidence strongly supports a positive, causal effect of physical activity on bone strength and suggests long-term benefits of childhood physical activity to the prevention of osteoporosis. The contribution of healthy bone development in youth is likely to be as important to fracture prevention as the amount of late adulthood bone loss. Families,…

This article synthesizes the series of manuscripts on teacher effectiveness in physical education recently published by the "Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport" and highlights both the consensus and points of disagreement. Although there is much agreement as to the mission to develop a physically active lifestyle, there is a great…

In "Physical Education Teacher Effectiveness in a Public Health Context," we took a broad view of physical education (PE) teacher effectiveness that included public health need and support for PE. Public health officials have been consistent and fervent in their support of PE, and for more than two decades, they have called on schools to…

In this response to articles on effective teaching in physical education that have been published in "Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport," I thank the authors of these articles for the thoughtfulness of their comments and the respondents for their comments on my own article. I elaborate on my position and discuss a number of…

The process of effective teaching--teaching that directly leads to student learning of standards-based content--is tenuous at best and easily disrupted by contextual and behavioral factors. In this commentary, I discuss the role of student support and mediation in teacher effectiveness and curricular reform. The most vocal students in physical…

In our reflection on Rink's (2013), McKenzie and Lounsbery's (2013), and Ward's (2013) characterizations of effective teaching in physical education (PE), 2 themes emerged that permeate these diverse perspectives: policy and accountability. In our commentary, we focus our initial discussion on the implications that policy and…

With the recent emphasis on evaluating teachers' effectiveness by the performance of their students, it should be no surprise that this subject has reached the physical education (PE) sector. This commentary examines 3 articles by Rink (2013), McKenzie and Lounsbery (2013), and Ward (2013), who each take a different perspective on measuring…

Determining the effectiveness of physical education teachers is a difficult process complicated by the expectations of the building principals, the extensiveness of national and state standards, student ability levels, and the severely limited time that the programs are allotted. The dearth of effective, efficient evaluation tools lends itself to…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of body mass index (BMI) on the agreement between aerobic capacity estimates from different Progressive Aerobic Cardiorespiratory Endurance Run (PACER) equations and the Mile Run Test. Method: The agreement between 2 different tests of aerobic capacity was examined on a large data set…

Regular quality physical education (PE) contributes to the harmonized biopsychosocial development of a young person--to relaxation, neutralization of negative effects of sedentary hours, and other unhealthy habits/behaviors. The evaluation approach to PE effectiveness provides important information to PE teachers and also to students. However,…

Purpose: This article is nested within a longitudinal project examining 6 teachers' journeys along their career cycles (Lynn & Woods, 2010; Woods & Earls, 1995; Woods & Lynn, 2001). Two participants from the initial 6 continue to teach K-12 physical education; 1 of these participants, Everett, is examined in the current study.…

Physical education teachers and the programs that prepare them find themselves in the early part of the 21st century in a public policy environment that differs significantly from that of the 20th century. This policy environment is grounded in an ideology that postulates that schools and teachers, rather than social forces, should be held…

Physical activity is critical to healthy development of children. It is well documented that helping children develop and sustain a physically active lifestyle requires children to become motivated. Many studies have been conducted in the past 2.5 decades on determinants and correlates for children and adolescents' physical activity…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop and cross-validate an equation based on ActiGraph accelerometer GT3X output to predict children and youth's energy expenditure (EE) of physical activity (PA). Method: Participants were 367 Chinese children and youth (179 boys and 188 girls, aged 9 to 17 years old) who wore 1 ActiGraph GT3X…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to objectively assess levels of physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB) of Chinese city children and youth aged 9 to 17 years old using accelerometers and to examine their differences by gender, age, grade, and weight status. Method: The PA and SB of 2,163 students in 4th grade through 11th grade…