Adventure-based Learning (ABL) is the purposeful use of activities in sequence to improve personal and social development of participants (Cosgriff, 2000). ABL goes beyond instant activities (i.e. ice-breakers, cooperative games) to create an environment in which students enjoy the challenge while developing emotional and social competencies…

This study examined the relationship between energy expenditure and wrist accelerometer output during walking in persons with and without Down syndrome (DS). Energy expenditure in metabolic equivalent units (METs) and activity-count rate were respectively measured with portable spirometry and a uniaxial wrist accelerometer in 17 persons with DS…

The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of the Smarthealth watch (Salutron, Inc., Fremont, California, USA), a heart rate monitor that includes a wristwatch without an accompanying chest strap. Twenty-five individuals participated in 3-min periods of standing, 2.0 mph walking, 3.5 mph walking, 4.5 mph jogging, and 6.0 mph running.…

This study examined age-group corresponding relationships of the controlled force exertion based on sinusoidal and quasi-random waveforms in 175 right-handed male adults aged 20 to 86 years. The subjects were divided into 3 groups based on age-level: 53 young (mean age 24.6, SD = 3.3 years), 71 middle aged (mean age 44.3, SD = 8.7 years), and 51…

In January 2005, AAPAR was born from the American Association for Active Lifestyles and Fitness (AAALF) and the American Association for Leisure and Recreation (AALR), thus providing a home for special-interest subjects that do not fit neatly into the other units of the Alliance. This article includes a brief history of AAPAR with a focus on its…

Communication skills are central to teacher effectiveness and instructional expertise. A teacher's communication behaviors can also serve motivational purposes that facilitate a number of important instructional outcomes. This article highlights six skills that every physical education teacher should master. Three of the skills are rhetorical in…

Background: Millions of American children are participating in fitness testing in school-based physical education (PE) programs. However, practitioners and researchers in the field of PE have questioned the need for regular or mandatory youth fitness testing. This was partly because a significant improvement in youth fitness and physical activity…

Background: Research on primary physical education (PE) in England and other countries has shown that it is an aspect of the curriculum that has suffered from sparse initial teacher training (ITT). As a consequence of "insufficient" time spent on PE in ITT (PE-ITT), primary teachers often have low levels of confidence and competence with…

Quality physical education promotes small-sided activities that can provide a high rate of participation opportunities and skill practice. Because rundowns involve game skills, a small number of participants, and require decision-making, they can be a valuable learning activity in physical education. But what approach should be used to teach this…

The purpose of this study was to determine adapted physical educators' perceptions and practices about teaching social skills to students with disabilities. A questionnaire based on Bandura's social learning theory concept of modeling was developed and mailed to an entire frame of 426 adapted physical education teachers in the state of Ohio. Face…

Fitness and skill are embedded constructs that have been the primary foci of the field of physical education. The emphasis of one of these constructs over the other is a matter of context that cannot, given their embedding, lead to the exclusivity of one in the education "of" and "through" the physical (Williams, 1930), particularly as we seek to…

Research has shown that exercise improves cognitive function and psychological traits that influence behavior (e.g., mood, level of motivation). The evidence in the literature also shows that physical education may enhance learning or that academic performance is at least maintained despite a reduction in classroom time in order to increase time…

Globally, Physical Education (PE) carries the stamp of neoliberalism and as a field we are keen, it seems, to accrue more of the vestiges of this ideology. While neoliberal positions and practices are not necessarily harmful to the long-term interests of the field or the students we teach, indeed it may be strategic to take them up, the field…

Physical education teacher education (PETE) faculty and physical education specialists have oversimplified and, consequently, made false some of the collective beliefs in their field. This article compares the "many faces of PETE" that are becoming more apparent in today's PETE programs and considers whether physical education teacher education…

The American Association for Health Education (AAHE), a national health education organization with the mission of advancing the profession of health education, launched the 2011 AAHE membership survey between October 13, 2011 and November 1, 2011, under the leadership of the AAHE Board of Directors and AAHE Staff. The primary objective of the…