This case study tells the story of an in-service elementary physical education teacher, who made a large-scale change from an activities approach to a movement approach based, initially, on “Every Child a Winner” (Rockett & Owens, 1977). Five psychological dispositions facilitated the development of the teacher’s knowledge: (a) the disposition to understand the approach accurately and deeply and to do the job right, (b) the disposition to accept that the approach was difficult to learn and to persist in seeking clarification, (c) the disposition to justify and develop a practice in keeping with a sound educational philosophy and theoretical foundations, (d) the disposition toward change and to learn and implement new ideas, and (e) the disposition to suspend judgment of new ideas. Dispositions can be important aspects of teacher thinking and can help to explain successful knowledge development and teacher change.
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Psychological Dispositions That Facilitated and Sustained the Development of Knowledge of a Constructivist Approach to Physical Education
Inez Rovegno and Dianna Bandhauer
Norms of the School Culture That Facilitated Teacher Adoption and Learning of a Constructivist Approach to Physical Education
Inez Rovegno and Dianna Bandhauer
This interpretive case study describes five norms of the school culture that facilitated a teacher’s (the second author) adoption and learning of a constructivist approach to physical education. The second author used a movement approach initially based on Every Child a Winner. The first author conducted field observations at the elementary school across 3 years and formal interviews and numerous informal interviews each day of field work with teachers, principals, staff, and children. The five norms or set of norms were (a) the set of norms defining the school philosophy, (b) teacher learning, (c) teacher participatory power and responsibility, (d) continual school improvement, and (e) the tendency “to feel that we can do anything.” The paper describes how the norms influenced the physical educator and the physical educators’ role in creating and maintaining the norms.
A Study of the Collaborative Research Process: Shared Privilege and Shared Empowerment
Inez Rovegno and Dianna Bandhauer
Within the past 10 years there have been an increasing number of calls for collaboration between researchers and teachers. A small but growing body of literature has begun to study the collaborative process. The purpose of this study was to examine the collaborative research process between an elementary physical educator (the second author) and a university researcher (the first author) and to describe what the process meant to each during our longterm collaboration. The study examines the effect of collaboration on both teacher and researcher. Standard participant observation methods with an autobiographical component were used. Two major themes captured the meanings of the collaborative research process: shared privilege and shared empowerment. These themes are discussed in relation to the research and literature on collaborative research.
Autonomy-Supportive, External-Focus Instructions Optimize Children’s Motor Learning in Physical Education
Thomas Simpson, Mitchell Finlay, Victoria Simpson, Ayoub Asadi, Paul Ellison, Evelyn Carnegie, and David Marchant
statistical power using MorePower 6.0.4 ( Campbell & Thompson, 2012 ). After excluding three participants for incomplete data sets, a total of 33 participants aged between 9 and 11 years (mean age = 10.30 ± 0.52 years old), who were novice to the task, were recruited from primary schools in northwest England
The Physical Activity of Singapore Primary School Children as Estimated by Heart Rate Monitoring
Helen Gilbey and Malcolm Gilbey
Physical activity patterns of Singapore school children aged 9–10 years were assessed by continuous heart rate monitoring. Fifty boys and 64 girls were monitored for three 14-hour periods during normal school days. In addition, 43 boys and 53 girls were monitored for 14 hours on a Saturday. Only 13 children (11.4%) experienced a daily 10-min period of continuous activity at a heart rate ≥140 bpm. Twenty percent of the boys and more than 50% of the girls never achieved a single 10-minute period ≥140 bpm. Boys achieved more periods of moderately intense activity (p < .01) than girls on weekdays. Lean girls were more active (p < .05) than the obese girls during weekdays. No differences were detected between activity levels on weekdays or on Saturday. The results indicate that Singapore school children in general rarely experience the quantity or quality of physical activity needed for maintenance and development of cardiovascular health and cardiopulmonary fitness.
Assessing Cost-Effectiveness in Obesity: Active Transport Program for Primary School Children—TravelSMART Schools Curriculum Program
Marj Moodie, Michelle M. Haby, Boyd Swinburn, and Robert Carter
Background:
To assess from a societal perspective the cost-effectiveness of a school program to increase active transport in 10- to 11-year-old Australian children as an obesity prevention measure.
Methods:
The TravelSMART Schools Curriculum program was modeled nationally for 2001 in terms of its impact on Body Mass Index (BMI) and Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) measured against current practice. Cost offsets and DALY benefits were modeled until the eligible cohort reached age 100 or died. The intervention was qualitatively assessed against second stage filter criteria (‘equity,’ ‘strength of evidence,’ ‘acceptability to stakeholders,’ ‘feasibility of implementation,’ ‘sustainability,’ and ‘side-effects’) given their potential impact on funding decisions.
Results:
The modeled intervention reached 267,700 children and cost $AUD13.3M (95% uncertainty interval [UI] $6.9M; $22.8M) per year. It resulted in an incremental saving of 890 (95%UI −540; 2,900) BMI units, which translated to 95 (95% UI −40; 230) DALYs and a net cost per DALY saved of $AUD117,000 (95% UI dominated; $1.06M).
Conclusions:
The intervention was not cost-effective as an obesity prevention measure under base-run modeling assumptions. The attribution of some costs to nonobesity objectives would be justified given the program’s multiple benefits. Cost-effectiveness would be further improved by considering the wider school community impacts.
Motor Fitness in Pre-Primary School Children: The EUROFIT Motor Fitness Test Explored on 5–7-Year-Old Children
Ingunn Fjørtoft
This article is a contribution to the experience of testing motor fitness and exploring the EUROFIT test in young children. In the age group 5–7 years, the motor fitness tests showed strong dependency on age and a small dependence on sex. Body weight and height did not appear to have any impact on the test variables for this age group. The reliability test showed significant difference between test and retest in the plate tapping test only. The reproducibility was low in bent arm hang and flamingo balance, with coefficients of variation of 67%. Modest validity of the flamingo balance test and the standing broad jump test was confirmed with correlations of 0.43 and 0.52, respectively, by laboratory testing on a force platform. Factor analyses extracted 3 components, which explained 62% of the total variance, but no single component could explain general motor fitness. The EUROFIT Motor Fitness Test appeared to be applicable also in young children, but the reproducibility of two test items was questionable. Modification of test items was suggested to fit this age group.
Emerging Behavioral Flexibility in Loop Writing: A longitudinal study in 7- to 9-Year-Old Primary School Children
Ida M. Bosga-Stork, Jurjen Bosga, and Ruud G.J. Meulenbroek
The development of the ability to adapt one’s motor performance to the constraints of a movement task was examined in a longitudinal study involving 7 to-9-year-old children who were asked to perform a preparatory handwriting task. The capacity for sensorimotor synchronization was captured by the standard deviation of the relative phase between pacing signals and writing movements and the capacity to adjust wrist-finger coordination while performing repetitive movements was analyzed by autocorrelations of the vertical pen-tip displacements. While the capacity for synchronization improved with age, the autocorrelations were positive at short time lags only and hardly changed with age. A measure of “the long-term memory” of time series (Hurst exponent) confirmed that the findings were systematic rather than noise. Collectively, the results indicate that flexible movement strategies emerge early on in the first 3 years of formal handwriting education. Implications for educational and clinical practice are considered.
Age and Sex Differences in Fundamental Movement Skills Among a Cohort of Irish School Children
Lisa E. Bolger, Linda A. Bolger, Cian O’ Neill, Edward Coughlan, Wesley O’Brien, Seán Lacey, and Con Burns
exists that has examined FMS levels among Irish primary school children. While a study including the assessment of FMS in Northern Ireland was conducted by Breslin, Murphy, McKee, Delaney, and Dempster ( 2012 ), the scoring protocol of the adapted tool developed was not described nor were the current
Results of a 7-Week School-Based Physical Activity and Nutrition Pilot Program on Health-Related Parameters in Primary School Children in Southern Spain
José Joaquín Muros, Mikel Zabala, María Jesús Oliveras-López, Francisco Antonio Ocaña-Lara, and Herminia López-García de la Serra
The goal of this study was to determine the effect of nutrition education combined with sessions of vigorous extracurricular physical activity (VEPA) on the improvement of health related parameters in children in primary education. The sample group consisted of 54 children in the fifth year of primary education divided into two groups: an intervention group (IG) of 25 students and a control group (CG) of 29 students. The intervention lasted 7 weeks and consisted of 13 sessions of VEPA combined with sessions of nutritional education that were attended by the students in the IG as well as their parents. During the intervention the IG showed a decrease in the body fat percentage, total cholesterol, cholesterol linked to low-density lipoproteins and blood pressure, together with an increase in cholesterol linked to high-density lipoproteins, and an improvement in the maximum oxygen uptake and dietary intake profile compared with the CG, which showed an increase in the percentage of fats and no significant changes (p < .05) in other parameters. The results of this study provide evidence that a 7-week program of nutritional education and vigorous short-duration physical activity can improve health related parameters in children.
