Distinguished Lecture Series at the SHAPE America National Convention & Expo

There is a growing public health burden of unhealthy behaviors (e.g., physical inactivity, excessive energy intake) among children of industrialized nations. Children have become increasingly inactive, leading to concomitant increases in the prevalence of being overweight and unfit. Poor physical activity behaviors during childhood often track throughout life and have implications for the prevalence of several chronic diseases during adulthood. Particularly troubling is the absence of public health concern for the effect of physical inactivity on cognitive and brain health. It is curious that this has not emerged as a larger societal issue, given its clear relation to childhood obesity and other health disorders that have captured public attention. This research program has investigated the relation of health behaviors (e.g., physical activity, exercise) and their physiological correlates (e.g., aerobic fitness, adiposity) to cognitive and brain health in preadolescent children. The techniques of investigation involve a combination of neuroimaging, behavioral assessments, and scholastic outcomes in an effort to translate basic laboratory findings into everyday life. Central to this translational approach is the identification of etiological substrates of brain regions and networks that are amenable to health behaviors. As such, the overarching goal of this research program is to determine factors that improve cognition, maximize brain health, and promote the effective functioning of individuals as they progress through the lifespan. Findings from these studies have indicated that greater aerobic fitness and healthy body weight are positively related to brain structure and function, cognition, and scholastic achievement. Such discoveries are timely and important for public health concerns related to chronic disease prevention as a function of childhood inactivity and obesity. These findings link pervasive societal concerns with brain health and cognition, and have implications for the educational environment and the context of learning.

The RQES Lecture is sponsored by Taylor & Francis Group.

The clinical trial Fitness Improves Thinking (FITKIDS) was intended to increase the physical fitness of children through participation in developmentally appropriate physical activity to determine the effects on cognitive and brain health. Ten years later, I discuss what an evidenced-based initiative taught us about program effectiveness and the mechanisms facilitating cognitive health. We can reduce the health risk experienced by children through physical activity participation, but comprehensive models are needed if our program effects are to demonstrate reach and sustainability. Recommendations about changing the DNA and gene expression of physical education and teacher education programs will be discussed. Models of systems for moving forward will be shared.

Teacher socialization is a complex dialectical process that is dual directional in nature. Beginning early in life and continuing throughout one’s career, individual teachers play a large role in determining which professional beliefs they will adopt and which they will ignore. Comprised of three primary stages (pretraining, professional socialization, and organizational socialization), teachers’ beliefs and practices are influenced by both personal experiences and socializing agents. The purpose of this presentation is to describe my academic journey investigating different aspects of teacher socialization, including the bumps and turns along the way. In particular, I will discuss how my research line evolved and will focus on preservice teachers, the influence of teacher education, and the direction other researchers interested in teacher education and socialization may wish to take. It will become clear that my personal journey was enhanced by the socializing agents I encountered, and through their association, led me to believe that successful careers are rarely built in isolation but on the shoulders of or in collaboration with others.

Kinesiology has evolved in ways that were unimaginable at the start of the twentieth century as the physical education profession emerged as a school subject. While McCloy was supportive of other areas such as social development, the importance of physical development was his primary focus, and he was a primary driver behind physical education’s rise to prominence. Together with his colleagues, McCloy brought upon the field an unheard-of level of passion and expertise in what is now referred to as test and measurement and fitness assessment and published until his death in 1959 at age 82. He saw the importance as well of building a strong professional focus in the support for those delivering the subject in schools. Since his passing, the field of physical education has, as in society at large, seen its share of “diversification.” In this presentation I offer what I believe would be McCloy’s impressions of and reactions to several of the trends and issues playing out in the field at this juncture.

The McCloy Lecture is sponsored by Taylor & Francis Group