Reviews the relationship of health education and physical education, which during the past three decades have increasingly become independent disciplines. Presents current issues related to mergers of the disciplines, highlighting Montana's health enhancement curriculum, and provides recommendations for professional preparation programs. (SM)

State standards for certification in the area of Health Enhancement reflect a merger of the standards which traditionally have fallen into the separate disciplines of physical education and health education, thus requiring teachers to develop skills and knowledge in both disciplines. This study, a partnership between faculty at the University of…

Montana high school coaches were surveyed regarding coaching, playing and teaching experience, education, current knowledge, and situation. Only half had physical education degrees, few had current coursework, most had more playing than coaching experience, only 31 percent taught physical education, and most coached because they loved it. (SM)

A University of Montana graduate program used an interdisciplinary approach to train rural special physical educators. Program elements included a basis in the notion of universal excellence, interdisciplinary student recruitment, metacognition training, rural transfer and adaptation strategies, and establishing rural school districts as practicum…

Federal legislation requires that all handicapped children be afforded an appropriate and individualized physical education program. The state education agency of Montana, however, has not assumed this responsibility, and unqualified special education classroom teachers and regular physical education teachers are reluctantly charged by local…