JOPERD: Journal of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance

Leveraging Recess and Physical Education to Promote Social–Emotional Learning

Cate Egan and Richole Osborne

Recess is the ideal setting for students to accumulate recommended physical activity minutes and work on social–emotional learning skills. However, many students fail to meet national physical activity guidelines, and recess is often withheld from students for a myriad of reasons, including behavioral issues. Helping students build social–emotional skills and providing opportunities to utilize skills at school can help them succeed in school and even in their future careers. Furthermore, teaching students low-organized, student-initiated games provides students with activities they can use at recess, which may keep them more physically active. Thus, the purpose of this article is to share how one physical educator implemented a recess unit in physical education to (a) work on students' social–emotional learning skills, (b) introduce games that can be played at recess, and (c) evaluate recess before and after a recess unit.

Implementing Action Research in Physical Education: A Guide for Physical Educators

David Adams, Melissa Bittner, Lisa Silliman-French and Barry Lavay

The responsibilities of a physical educator can be challenging and at times overwhelming. Whether teaching a full day of general physical education or inclusive physical education classes that include a student or multiple students with disabilities, the expectation is that all students will be provided an age and developmentally appropriate curriculum based on continuous data collection and reflection. This article describes an action research model for physical educators that encompasses the following teaching behaviors: (a) observation, (b) data collection, (c) designing interventions, (d) analyzing data, (e) reporting data, and (f) reflection of data. It also demonstrates how this action research model can be easily and systematically implemented throughout the school year to help determine and support student learning and behavior.

Using Writing to Promote Understanding in Physical Education

Tyler Johnson and Roger Munger

Although often considered a topic reserved for the English classroom, writing has been successfully used by other disciplines to stimulate active learning of course content. This article demonstrates that physical educators can use writing as a tool to help students better understand and, ultimately, appreciate physical activity. This article also shows that some writing skills can and should be taught or at least reinforced in courses outside of the English classroom, and that doing so will not only enrich student learning but also better introduce students to physical education subject matter. Practical advice for teaching writing skills to students is provided. In addition, strategies for creating appropriate and successful writing assignments in a secondary school physical education course are discussed. Finally, this article includes realistic recommendations for efficiently managing, evaluating and scoring/grading writing assignments.

Utilizing a Logic Model for Planning, Implementing and Evaluating Sport Programs for Youth Who Are Incarcerated

Kalyn McDonough and Erin Knight

Physical activity during adolescence is critical for disease prevention and health promotion. Studies show that youth who are incarcerated have lower levels of physical activity than their non-incarcerated peers, higher rates of overweight and obesity in adulthood, and worse general health over a lifetime. Sport programming is a promising intervention that can address these health concerns. However, such programming is currently limited and varied across the juvenile justice system, and little is known about its implementation. At the same time, there is a considerable interest in adopting sport programming among facility administrators throughout the United States. To address this opportunity in practice, this article describes the process of building a logic model based on a case example for sport programming in a juvenile correctional facility developed through an academic-community partnership. Findings demonstrate the utility of logic-model development to support practitioners interested in designing and implementing sport programming within justice settings and have broader implications for practitioners looking to develop new programs or adapt programs for new populations for which little guidance exists.

Here’s an IDEA to Improve Sport Education: Use a Flipped Classroom to Increase Student-Role Efficacy

Nolan Carey, Kelly Simonton and Tristan Wallhead

Sport education (SE) is an instructional model that attempts to provide students with more authentic sport experiences. A key student-centered structural feature of SE is the assignment of student role responsibilities that go beyond that of a player. Students have been shown to enjoy these team roles but may initially feel overwhelmed with the demands of these newly appointed responsibilities, which may jeopardize their performance and the quality of the SE season. Employing student role training can be a formidable task when considering the quantity of physical education offered in many schools nationwide. A flipped classroom can potentially circumvent this barrier by providing students with online learning experiences that prepare them for their role responsibilities before class. This article provides a description of how a progressive flipped classroom approach (IDEA: Identify, Develop, Embed, and Assign) can be infused within SE to improve student role efficacy and the overall SE experience.

Washing Up: Deciding on a Career in Higher Education

Alexander Kurtzman, Karen Gaudreault and Bob Knipe

Scholars have identified physical education (PE) as a marginalized subject within schools. This may lead to feelings of isolation, marginalization and reality shock, and may end in “washing out” of best practice or exiting from the profession altogether. Some physical educators choose to leave the K-12 classroom and pursue a career in teacher education. The authors have conceptualized the upward movement into Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) as “washing up.” This phenomenon is examined through the lens of occupational socialization theory (OST) to better understand PETE doctoral students and PETE faculty members’ career paths. Two types of trajectories for DPETE students and PETE faculty are discussed. This article is the beginning of a conversation to better understand career paths in PETE with numerous implications for research.

VIEWPOINT

Early Onset Osteopenia and Osteoporosis in Young Women: An Emerging Epidemic?

Kevin P. Hunt and Lisa M. Griffin

Osteoporosis and osteopenia are conditions under which the body’s creation of new bone tissue does not match the degradation rate of existing bone. Both conditions are characterized by low bone mineral density, deterioration of bone tissue, and disruption of bone microarchitecture. Osteopenia is often considered a precursor to osteoporosis and is typically an important factor in predicting bone-mineral density degradation progression rates throughout one’s life.

TEACHING TIPS

Teaching Strategies for Motivating Students to Participate in Physical Activity

Taylor Medina. Heather E. Erwin and Aaron Beighle

While physical education class is intended to be fun, getting students to motivate themselves to participate in activities is challenging. This article provides meaningful strategies to promote physical activity in the classroom while meeting all students' needs and keeping students engaged, motivated and responsible for their own learning. All students learn differently and at different times/levels, but with the appropriate procedures and approaches, teachers can help their students to strive to succeed in the physical education classroom.

THE LAW AND YOU

Student Self-Transport

Thomas H. Sawyer and Tonya L. Sawyer

A high school student caused an automobile accident while driving himself and other students to an extracurricular activity in his family's vehicle. The driver of the other vehicle was killed, and a passenger of the other vehicle was injured. The issue in this appeal is whether the student's school may be held liable to the persons in the other vehicle on the grounds that the school was negligent. The district court answered that question in the negative, reasoning that a school does not owe a duty of reasonable care to the general public to protect against the tortious conduct of its students.