Physical education curriculum challenges students to experience a series of physical movements, degrees of flexibility, increased stamina, and components of strength that provide multiple opportunities to achieve a high level of individual fitness. Curricula that are used to achieve these areas of physical education vary from Health-Related…

This study investigated the effect of a skating unit on cardiovascular fitness, eyes-closed static balance, explosive power, and agility in fifth graders. During a 6-week skating unit (12 lessons), 71 students (M[subscript age] = 10.34 years, range: 10-12 years) participated during regularly scheduled physical education classes. Three classes were…

The purpose of this article is to highlight how a community partnership between a Northeastern U.S. university and a racially/socioeconomically diverse local elementary school (58.3% students on free/reduced lunch) impacted learners in both physical education programs. Based on the Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program model, community…

The purpose of this article is to provide information on how to teach a Sport Education fitness season with the intent to improve students' physical activity, fitness development, and health-related fitness knowledge as to work towards achieving SHAPE America's goal of 50 Million strong. Readers are provided with a daily lesson schedule, detailed…

Sport involvement may offer physical and psychological benefits to early adolescents beyond those accrued through physical activity (PA). Those benefits, though, may be moderated by gender. The purpose of this study was to examine these potential benefits in a middle school population. The sample consisted of 629 sixth graders enrolled in a…

This study summarized protocols in the "Lisbon Study for the Development and Evaluation of Musculoskeletal Fitness Standards in Youth" and assessed associations between fitness assessments and health outcomes. The sample was 529 children and adolescents (10 to 18 yr). The fitness assessments included handgrip, vertical jump, long jump,…

Purpose: Physical education (PE) is an important context for promoting health-related cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) in youth. Within PE, the lesson context and teacher behavior may be relevant for the promotion CRF; however, evidence is scarce. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess whether students' CRF improvement in a school year…

This study investigated the experience of and effect created by a team sport and coaching intervention upon the self-concept of male school students (age: 12-16; n = 129) from diverse backgrounds. A convergent parallel mixed-method design was used to compare and relate a questionnaire study and an interview study in a quasi-experimental design,…

The goal of this article is to explore relations between adolescent values, interests in activities, and their bonding to school. This article presents survey research findings that examine 1,928 sixth- and seventh-grade students' responses to survey prompts about 15 terminal values adapted from Rokeach's (1973) theory of values, prompts about 11…

Previous studies have reported that generalist primary teachers lack the confidence and competence to teach Physical Education (PE). In response, schools have outsourced PE to external providers. This paper examines data from an online survey of 175 pre-service teachers (PSTs) in England and their perceived confidence to teach primary PE. Findings…

Competition is a ubiquitous component of American culture and in many US physical education programs. In this article, five myths associated with competition are dispelled: (1) Everyone likes competition, (2) Competition is motivational, (3) Competition is fun, (4) Competition promotes physical activity, and (5) Competition prepares children for…

The purpose of this research was to contribute to the childhood obesity mitigation literature by determining the PA preferences of obese/overweight (o/o) elementary students who participated in Club Fit!, a school-based PA program designed to engage the students in developmentally appropriate, moderate-vigorous PA and enhance their regard for PA…

Drawing on longitudinal, qualitative research into girls' participation in physical activity and sport in the UK, this article will explore girls' embodied constructions of 'healthy' identities. My research with girls (aged 10-13) found that over the transition to secondary school, classed and gendered healthism discourses had come to powerfully…

For some time the Association for Science Education (ASE) has been aware that it would be useful to have some resources available to get children talking and thinking about issues related to health, sport and fitness. Some of the questions about pulse, breathing rate and so on are pretty obvious to everyone, and there is a risk of these being…

Terms such as recreation, leisure, functions of spare time, physical hygiene, mental hygiene or forms of spare time are among the issues discussed in the branch of educational science. The majority of educationalists are convinced that the issue of active leisure should form part of the core curriculum and should be an objective of education in…