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This presentation traces and reviews past and contemporary concerns, issues, or priorities relating to professional preparation with special emphasis on the identification of people who have had a significant impact upon professional preparation, and the graduates of our programs, who will provide leadership in the future.

This paper focuses on competency guidelines related to adapted physical education Ph.D. professional preparation in the United States with an emphasis on educational models and different orientations applicable to doctoral professional preparation. Key literature and related information are provided on teacher reform, standards, and competencies, with an emphasis on adapted physical education. The method of development, refinement, validation, and endorsement of the doctoral competencies over the course of this 6-year project precedes the listing of the final 79 competencies across two generic areas (adapted physical educator, researcher) and four other competency areas (administrator, movement scientist, advocate, pedagogue). The paper concludes with a discussion of quality control, doctoral program commonality and diversity, future competency guideline refinement efforts, and postgraduation professional development.

The purpose of this research was to design a curriculum for graduate-level preparation of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I and II athletic directors. A survey instrument, consisting of a composite of 41 courses and based on R. Hay's model, Proposed Sports Management Curriculum and Related Strategies, was mailed to the full population of NCAA Division I and II athletic directors (N=569). A total of 307 completed surveys were returned from directors of men's, women's and merged athletic departments. Respondents rated each course using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from not important (1) to essential (5). There were 17 courses that were rated very important according to the acceptance criterion of a mean of 3.5 or greater. Results of a 2 × 3 (Division × Program type) factorial ANOVA, with alpha adjusted from .05 to .001 by Bonferroni's contrasting procedure, indicated that there were no differences in determined levels of course importance. It was concluded that a graduate curriculum to prepare a collegiate director of athletics should be implemented through the collaborative effort of an interdisciplinary faculty and that the program should culminate with a doctoral degree.

This article provides an overview of the application of systematic supervisory strategies in an undergraduate teacher preparation program. Furthermore, the results are reported for a series of intervention studies. These studies were conducted to determine the impact of using systematic supervisory feedback on teacher behaviors and interaction patterns of preservice physical education teachers. Also included are the findings of the effects of such feedback on the trainees’ attitudes toward teaching, the degree to which they exhibited behaviors indicative of effective teaching, and their awareness of their own teaching behavior.

Adapted physical activity professionals have embraced for some time the concept of a nonmedical model; however, traditional approaches in service delivery continue to exist. Abilities-based is not a model for service delivery; it is an approach that offers a new perspective that is based on person-centerdness, openness, and compatibility. The focus is on the person in a learning situation, not the disability, not the activity, and not the environment. Although these factors cannot be ignored, emphasis in an ability-based approach shifts to the person. Attitude within and toward service delivery is the critical point of departure in the abilities-based approach. This article discusses demystifying disability and building positive attitudes as features of this approach. It then discusses the influence of this approach on how we prepare future professionals of adapted physical activity, and it concludes with an example of an abilities-based program.

Partnerships have been developed between faculty in the Department of Health, Human Performance and Recreation at Southeast Missouri State University and professionals from several organizations. These include on-campus partnerships with other academic departments, Recreation Services, Counseling and Disability Services, and a wide variety of off-campus partnerships including those with hospitals, fitness centers, county health departments, local coalitions, not-for-profits, schools K–12, and local corporations. All of these partnerships have resulted in substantial experiential learning opportunities for the students in the BS in Health Management: Health Promotion Option Program. Some of the skills students have acquired include improved written and oral communication skills, public speaking, program planning, program implementation, data collection, program evaluation, exercise testing, and prescription and health screening. The experiential learning activities students completed in two of the required classes in the major are described in this article.

Despite dramatic increases in the older adult population, curriculum development in the area of physical activity and aging has been minimal or nonexistent in most physical education departments in higher education. As a consequence, many practitioners leading programs for older adults have had to rely primarily on self-study and on-the-job training for the knowledge and skills they need. The purpose of this paper is to suggest minimum competencies for preparing specialists in the field of physical activity and aging and to recommend corresponding curriculum development. Suggested core offerings for a concentration in physical activity and aging are presented, including specific course content for three specialty courses: physical activity and aging, physical assessment and exercise programming for older adults, and therapeutic exercise for age related chronic conditions. In view of the fact that many departments are faced with declining budgets and program cutbacks, alternative strategies for curricular revision and for integrating gerontological content into the existing physical education curriculum are discussed.