To promote student "physical literacy," physical educators must teach and assess health-related fitness content knowledge (HRFK) and model healthy lifestyles. Individual HRFK is associated with lifetime physical activity (PA) and each may precede/predict both teaching and assessing of student HRFK. Purpose: The purpose of this study was…

Purpose: Our purpose was to gather and evaluate accurate, up-to-date information on physical education (PE) policy implementation across multiple U.S. states and regions. Methods: A U.S. Physical Education and Physical Activity Policy questionnaire was developed and completed by 4,845 public-school PE teachers from 25 U.S. states. The U.S.…

Physical education is critical to addressing childhood obesity, yet many school-based programs do not meet established quality standards and teachers are called upon to change. Little is known about how change is initiated and its associated internal and external factors. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate physical education…

Objective: Health-related fitness knowledge holds the potential for physical activity and behavioural changes. The purpose of this retrospective longitudinal study with retrospective data was (a) to examine high-school students' health-related fitness knowledge growth through the 9th, 10th and 11th grades under one curriculum condition and (b) to…

Often students have a difficult time when asked to use critical thinking skills to solve a problem. Perhaps students have a difficult time adjusting because teachers frequently tell them exactly what to do and how to do it. When asked to use critical thinking skills, students may suddenly become confused and discouraged because the teacher no…

The purpose of this manuscript was to discuss the recommendations and guidelines of the Carnegie Group's 2007 effort to "Reclaim the EdD" as well as to outline the work completed at the University of Virginia related to their re-design of the Doctor of Education (EdD) degree. In order to address the re-envision and re-formulation of the…

This feature has told stories of high school physical educators who have refused to accept the status quo of high school physical education programs. They have identified problems, initiated innovations in their own classes, implemented changes beyond their classes, and moved toward institutionalizing improvements throughout their programs and…

"Promoting Student Achievement through Improved Health Policy" is a quick primer of the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] CDC's "Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child" model, which highlights 10 important areas for connecting health and learning: health education; physical education and physical activity;…

When Saul Lerner became director of physical education, athletics, and health for the Bellmore-Merrick (New York) School District 14 years ago, football, soccer, basketball, and floor hockey were staples of most physical education classes on Long Island and around the rest of the country. The mindset of physical educators was to emphasize sports…

This article describes ways that physical educators and librarians can team up to improve student learning in both content areas. The authors worked together at Trevilians Elementary School in Louisa County, Virginia for nine years. The suggestions included in this article are based on techniques they used and on the contents of a typical…

The findings reported represent the major portion of an extensive statewide needs assessment of physical education for the handicapped in Virginia. Questionnaires were sent to school principals, physical educators, and special educators in 1,076 elementary, junior, and senior high schools. The survey revealed that the educable mentally retarded,…

Plagued by one of the most overweight populaces in the country, the state of West Virginia was looking for a solution to its obesity problem that would appeal to the school-age crowd. It turned to Linda Carson, a professor at West Virginia University's School of Physical Education. Carson recalled witnessing kids lining up in an arcade to play a…

In order to prepare outstanding teachers, it is essential to provide opportunities for teacher candidates to use the theory learned in the college classroom in a "real physical education class." It is difficult to accomplish this when the university has so many physical education teacher education (PETE) majors that they overwhelm a…

Investigated the impact of high stakes testing on Virginia's elementary school art, music, and physical education (AMPE). Principal surveys indicated wide variation in the time allocated for AMPE taught by specialists, and few schools changed the amount of time allocated from the previous year. Overall, time allocated to AMPE did not seem to…

Overweight children would not be the first thing a visitor to Grafton, West Virginia, would think of when seeing the small farms that cling to steep hillsides and cultivate the bottomland along the Tygart River as one drives into town. Like most of the state, the landscape around this village nods to pastoral enterprise, suggesting a place where…