Experts in public health and education alike have long advocated for the engagement of youth in nature to foster movement, human-nature connectedness, and mental wellbeing. Physical and health education teachers in school-based programs continue to find a variety of ways to help their students be physically active in the natural environment due to…

The attitudes physical education students have about the subject influences their level of engagement in and out of class as well as their overall physical activity, which impacts their health and well-being. This study examined the attitudes of Latino high school students toward physical education, specifically to understand how their attitudes…

The assessment of physical literacy is vital and challenging for researchers and practitioners. Passport for Life is a Canadian global practitioner-based, formative, criterion-referenced assessment of physical literacy that is recorded in an online program. Students complete eight assessments divided across four broad categories of physical…

The new SHAPE America standards and grade level outcomes for high-school physical education focus exclusively on physical activities that are suitable for lifelong participation. Some of the fastest-growing physical activities for adults in the United States are non-traditional multi-sport events and obstacle course races. As "Healthy People…

School physical education (PE) experiences play a critical role in adolescents' physical activity (PA) levels. Teachers are crucial to students' initial experiences in PA; however, limited research has explored teachers' perspectives about PA during PE using in-depth qualitative research techniques. We conducted interviews with 25 current…

Study aim: To determine if pupil physical activity and Body Mass Index classifications maintained or improved after a one-year professional development program involving both classroom and physical education teachers. Guskey's model of teacher change guided this study. Material and methods: Indigenous children from ten schools (N = 320) in grades…

Background: Measuring adolescent perceptions of physical education (PE) activities is necessary in understanding determinants of school PE activity participation. This study assessed reliability and validity of the Physical Education Activities Scale (PEAS), a 41-item visual analog scale measuring high school adolescent perceptions of school PE…

In partnership with three universities, the Cooper Institute, Dallas, completed the Texas Youth Fitness Study from 2008 to 2009. The study explored three key questions: (1) Is physical fitness associated with academic performance?; (2) Can physical education teachers collect high-quality information on student fitness?; and (3) Are school policies…

The authors argue for creating a context within education where teachers can utilize critical pedagogical practices to explicate the hidden curriculum, explore students' sense of self and embodied identities, and engage students to empower themselves to speak up and take action about issues of embodiment and their understanding of social…

Fitness for Life classes, in which a primary goal is for students to acquire health-related fitness knowledge, consist of a lecture session and an activity session. Unfortunately, devoting class time to a lecture reduces the time students are engaged in physical activity (PA). A potential solution to helping students develop cognitive skills…

The purpose of this study was to analyse representations of hegemonic masculinity in physical education (PE) mixed classes, the only curricular discipline having sport as its contents in the Portuguese educational system. The analysed data come from semi-structured interviews with Portuguese secondary school teachers and students and from class…

Engaging youth in traditional physical education exercises or ball sports can be a challenging task, especially when they prefer novelty, entertainment, or excitement in their leisure-time activities. In addition, many youth are unaware of the opportunities that exist to exercise or recreate in nature, often preferring to spend time indoors…

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…

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…

Background: This study examined differences in students' time spent in physical activity (PA) across secondary schools in rural, suburban, and urban environments and identified the environment-level factors associated with these between school differences in students' PA. Methods: Multilevel linear regression analyses were used to examine the…