Examines the use of teaching portfolios in preservice teacher education programs, analyzing the various ways in which portfolios have been conceptualized and implemented. The paper proposes a conceptual framework to enable researchers to describe the conditions of portfolio use and discusses key issues that have emerged in the use of teaching…

Compared the teaching efficacy scores and factor structures of early childhood and elementary preservice teachers in Taiwan at the beginning and end of their teacher education programs. Survey results highlighted the influence of cultural and/or social context, program context, and teaching experience on student teachers' efficacy beliefs. There…

Discusses the use of haiku as a stimulus for creative movement experiences, describing how physical education majors at one South Carolina university use haiku in this manner. The haiku activity promotes development in all three domains of learning (cognitive, psychomotor, and affective), and it addresses the skills included in South Carolina's…

Currently, beginning physical educators are expected to teach a wide range of learners. They need information and strategies for including all learners within their classes. This paper focuses on issues related to the inclusion of students with disabilities and to gender equity and cultural sensitivity. It concludes that teachers must treat all…

Suggests simple planning and instructional strategies to improve student learning and understanding for present and long -term application. The first section discusses learner-related issues. The second section focuses on the lesson plan (the introduction, the lesson body, and the lesson closure). The third section examines other strategies for…

Discusses the benefits of and strategies for integrating various disciplines within physical education, suggesting that by communicating with classroom teachers, planning for integration, and organizing using a matrix, the integration process can be easier, less time-consuming, and more consistent. The paper explains how to begin (start small,…

Discusses the role of movement in brain function for academic learning, examining problems related to children's sedentary lifestyle and highlighting related literature, which includes a study that compared the mental performance of students who were involved in regular continuous activity to that of a group of inactive students and found that…

Presents a checklist for monitoring middle school students' behavior during athletics. The checklist highlights: sportsmanship (e.g., playing by the rules, being a good loser, and playing fair); respect (refraining from fighting, avoiding alcohol and other drugs, and shaking hands with opponents); and teamwork (practicing hard, not embarrassing…

During induction, beginning physical education teachers assume new roles and responsibilities and must deal with a number of problems common to their workplace (wash-out, reality shock, isolation, marginalization, workload and role conflict, and deprofessionalization). Proactive professional development strategies for combatting these problems and…

A well-designed physical education program can offer opportunities for students to practice and improve language arts skills. This article presents approaches for collaborating with other teachers; ongoing strategies for use in the physical education classroom; integrated activities that incorporate language arts and physical education; and…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act protects students' rights to equal physical education (PE). Most parents, physicians, educators, and administrators do not realize the importance of PE for disabled children nor students' legal rights. This paper examines the current problem and discusses possible solutions (e.g., become familiar…

Illustrates the use of meta-interviews, a research strategy for enhancing the credibility of claims made from analyses of interview data, drawing on experiences with meta-interviews in two studies conducted in South Africa and Canada. The paper concludes that meta-interviews can enhance the persuasiveness of research documents, bringing…

Reviews major measures that have been used to capture the construct of teacher efficacy, noting problems that have arisen with each. The paper proposes a new measure of teacher efficacy, the Ohio State Teacher Efficacy Scale, offering validity and reliability data from three separate studies. New directions for research made possible by this…

Evaluated the strength of the relationship between teacher and collective efficacy and student achievement in urban schools, analyzing data from 438 teachers in 47 urban schools. Results indicated that collective efficacy predicted variation in teacher efficacy above and beyond the variance explained by a number of school contextual factors,…

Examined the motivational effects of a teacher research initiative within an urban alternative school, studying participating teachers' self-efficacy, empowerment, collaboration, and perceptions of school climate via surveys, interviews, observations, and field notes. Growth occurred in general and personal teaching efficacies from pretest to…