This article discusses dis/ability and physical education teacher education (PETE). The aim is twofold. First, I explore how dis/ability is problematised in PETE syllabi from nine Swedish universities. Bacchi's "What's the problem represented to be?" approach for analysing policy texts is used. The centre of attention thus shifts from a…

The study reviewed in this paper examined the effect of the "Middle School Physical Activity and Nutrition" ("M-SPAN)" intervention on the physical activity level of middle school students. For this 2-year study, 24 middle schools from six districts in southern California were stratified by school district and then randomly…

This article examines the experiences of the researched and the researcher using ethnographic data from interviews with students (13-14-year-olds) and teachers and from participant observation in physical education classes at a Finnish secondary school. Erving Goffman's dramaturgical perspective is used as a frame of reference. In this…

Background: The purpose of the study was to assess adolescents' perceptions of controllability and its relation to weight stereotypes as a function of gender. Methods: Two hundred and thirty-one seventh and eighth graders from physical education classes completed a perception of controllability questionnaire and weight stereotype explicit scale…

Limited research has investigated the problems encountered by physical education teachers who have disabilities and instruct able-bodied pupils. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of a physical education teacher's disability on middle school pupils' perceptions of the teacher's competence and their learning. Participants were…

This paper analyses the construction of masculinities in Turkish physical education through Carrie Paechter's conceptualisation of gendered communities of practice. According to Paechter, educational communities of practice operate as sites of gendered activity. Membership within these communities contributes to the construction of a gendered…

Physical activity is not only beneficial to physical health but also to cognitive functions. In particular, executive functions that are closely related to learning achievement can be improved by acute and recurring physical activity. We examined the effects of a single 30-min physical education program in contrast to a 5-min movement break on…

With the belief that theoretical integration in motivation may help us better understand motivational behavior, we designed this study to explore adolescents' motivational profiles and their associations with knowledge acquisition, leisure-time exercise behaviors, and cardiorespiratory fitness. Middle school students from a large urban inner-city…

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effectiveness of a life skills training program taught as part of physical education lessons. Seventy three, seventh grade students were assigned either in an experimental or in a wait-list control replication group and received an abbreviated version of GOAL, a school-based intervention designed…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the physical activity (PA) patterns of children. Forty-four 7th-grade students (19 boys, 25 girls) recorded pedometer data for 2 consecutive weeks. Separate 2 x 3 repeated measures analyses of variance were used to examine differences in total steps/day between boys and girls and between after-school…

In this paper we examine the discursive resources that year 4 and year 8 students draw on to construct meanings for health. Drawing on students' responses to tasks in the New Zealand National Monitoring Project (Crooks & Flockton, "Health & Physical Education", University of Otago Educational Assessment Research Unit, 1999) we…