Developments in the biomedical sciences affect how people think about health and fitness, as do social and cultural factors. This paper examines two topics of interest to educators, physicians, and researchers in the physiological sciences from 1867-1950 (the phenomenon referred to as the athlete's heart and anthropometrical/growth and development…

Presents two specific approaches to understanding multiculturalism--valuing diversity and taking proactive stances in regard to educating about diversity in society and in physical education and sport settings in particular. An adaptation of Chesler and Crowfoot's organizational stages of multiculturalism and Bennett's model of ethnocentric and…

Provides an overview of efforts to change and revitalize physical education programs, needed to counter widespread childhood obesity and teach attitudes and skills for lifetime health and fitness. Lists objectives, recommended program characteristics, and current practices in five northwestern states. Profiles three high school programs that offer…

This article reviews the literature on the state of physical fitness among students with deafness, which indicates that students with deafness have poorer balance skills and cardiorespiratory fitness than their hearing peers, and describes an exemplary physical education program that was implemented at a school for students with deafness.…

This paper examines the growth in research on teaching, curriculum, and teacher education in Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, describing how this body of work has evolved over the past 75 years. The research stream progressed from "expert" discourses about what physical education should be to scientific approaches that have generated a…

Two questions arise in examining the implications of physical education: Is physical education an education of the physical? and Is physical education an education through the physical? In these two questions there are two distinct points of view, two different ways of understanding the meaning, scope, and aim of education, two conceptions of man,…

The number of people who are living past age 65 is increasing dramatically. Although few stereotypes or generalizations apply to this population, older citizens still suffer from a societal attitude of agism. Studies on aging have demonstrated that chronological age does not predict physical condition or behavior. In fact, the current generation…

The concept of attention in sport is important because the inability to process the right kind and amount of information may lead to a mismatch in perception and consequent motor output. Research has shown that the ability to choose between relevant and irrelevant information increases dramatically at about 12 years of age. By giving up the…

The article reports on LaPlante's research (1973) on evaluation of the purpose dimension of the Purpose Process Curriculum Framework, which established a set of criteria for evaluating the framework and demonstrated that the Delphi technique is appropriate for study of physical education curriculum. (CB)

A review is presented of studies pertaining to the development of the Movement Process Category System (MCPS), a dimension of the Purpose Process Curriculum Framework. It is concluded that the studies all contributed to the expansion of the function of the MCPS beyond a classification system of defining and analyzing educational objectives. (CB)

A discussion of the research examining the presence of purpose concepts in middle school physical education uses different curriculum domain perspectives to identify properties of these purpose concepts in the Purpose Process Curriculum Framework. (CB)

The sensory-motor bases of motor rehabilitation and current instructional theory about how handicapped children learn motor skills are explained. Strategies for organizing learning sessions, techniques of skill instruction, and the use of reinforcing feedback to maximize educational opportunities for handicapped children are discussed. (PP)

A study was undertaken in Iowa to ascertain differences in attitudes about mainstreaming between elementary school physical education teachers who had handicapped children in their classrooms and colleagues who did not. Teachers with handicapped students tended to view mainstreaming more positively, but nearly all teachers felt inadequately…

A coach's role is to develop and sustain the athlete's self-efficacy by ensuring performance success, communicating effectively, using role-modeling techniques, reducing anxiety-producing factors, and using positive reinforcement. (JN)

This article summarizes the final report of a work group on physical fitness and exercise, which identified national trends in these areas for the 1980 report "Promoting Health/Preventing Disease: Objectives for the Nation," published by the Department of Health and Human Services. (JN)