How Feedback and Goal-Setting Impact Children\u27s Recess Physical Activity

In recent years, schools desire to promote physical activity (PA) for their students but are restricted due to resources being expended in other areas of their curriculum, including standardized testing preparation. Recess/lunch periods have potential to contribute important amounts of PA to youth’s overall levels. Interventions to maximize PA during recess are warranted. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the impact of feedback and goal-setting on students’ PA during recess. A sample of 136 (67 females, 69 males) 4th and 5th grade students in the Southeast United States wore unsealed Walk4Life pedometers during recess for one month. Steps, activity time, participant demographics, and weather were recorded daily. Participants engaged in three conditions during recess: baseline, feedback, and goal-setting. Findings indicated that boys were more active than the girls and the 4th grade participants were more active than the 5th grade participants. Results suggest that the goal setting condition was effective in increasing the percentage of time in PA during an unstructured recess period; however, it did not significantly increase participants’ steps per minute levels at recess. Goal-setting with children can be an effective intervention to increase physical activity during recess

Examining Physical Education Teaching Practices During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Purpose/Method: This qualitative case study examined through an interpretive worldview how current high school (HS) physical education (PE) teachers (n=14) implemented online experiences that could have influenced students’ interpretations of their vicarious experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic (spring/fall of 2020). The study sought to better understand teachers’ perceptions of how social modeling of PA was implemented online, how online PA experiences impacted opportunities for social comparison among the students, and what teachers’ opinions of these practices were in relation to supporting students’ PA self-efficacy. Results: The results found that the study participants differed in their opinions on the most effective ways to provide students with PA demonstrations and implement students\u27 PA experiences during online instruction. Many of the teachers relied more on online videos to demonstrate PA, resulting in a decrease in teachers personally modeling PA themselves (theme 1). Due to the stress of the pandemic on students’ well-being, teachers and their school districts prioritized students’ social and emotional health which influenced how teachers had students participate in PA online (theme 2). This resulted in fewer PA experiences with students participating in front of each other and none of the teachers requiring students to model PA for peers online. Conclusion: This study serves as a starting point to better understand how teachers implemented online instructional practices that could have influenced students’ interpretations of their vicarious experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic. The information collected in this study can be used by current PE teachers to design future online practices

Implementation Evaluation of a Professional Development Program for Comprehensive School Physical Activity Leaders

The purpose of this study was to conduct an implementation monitoring evaluation of a yearlong comprehensive school physical activity program (CSPAP) professional development program across eight multi-state physical education (PE) teacher cohorts. Mixed-method data were collected during a three-year implementation period via workshop attendance sheets and evaluations, post-workshop implementation plans and artifacts, and follow-up phone interviews to enumerate and evaluate the program’s process of recruitment, reach, dose delivered, dose received, fidelity, and context. Recruitment strategies reached a total of 234 PE teacher attendees across eight workshops, with 77 PE teachers (primarily female, elementary, public school teachers) completing all program requirements. Facilitators among full program completers were participation incentives and network opportunities, while common inhibitors were difficulty with online technology and perceptions of added workload. Completers submitted implementation plans with at least three action steps, ranging from 4 to 7 months to accomplish, that predominately commenced with securing administration approval as the first step (81%), focused on implementing student physical activity initiatives beyond PE (76%), and evidenced with mostly picture artifacts (78%). Implementation was facilitated by the presence of multilevel support at school and an elevated image of PE and PE teachers at school, and was inhibited by scheduling constraints, unrealistic planning, and conflicting perceptions of physical activity and PE. Overall, this evaluation reveals unique perspectives of PE teachers regarding schoolwide PA promotion and informs future efforts to target and effectively support CSPAP leaders

The Application of an Implementation Science Framework to Comprehensive School Physical Activity Programs: Be a Champion!

Comprehensive school physical activity programs (CSPAPs) have been endorsed as a promising strategy to increase youth physical activity (PA) in school settings. A CSPAP is a five-component approach, which includes opportunities before, during, and after school for PA. Extensive resources are available to public health practitioners and school officials regarding what should be implemented, but little guidance and few resources are available regarding how to effectively implement a CSPAP. Implementation science provides a number of conceptual frameworks that can guide implementation of a CSPAP, but few published studies have employed an implementation science framework to a CSPAP. Therefore, we developed Be a Champion! (BAC), which represents a synthesis of implementation science strategies, modified for application to CSPAPs implementation in schools while allowing for local tailoring of the approach. This article describes BAC while providing examples from the implementation of a CSPAP in three rural elementary schools

Making policy practice in afterschool programs: A randomized controlled trial on physical activity changes

In the U.S., afterschool programs are asked to promote moderate to vigorous physical activity. One policy that has considerable public health importance is California’s afterschool physical activity guidelines that indicate all children attending an afterschool program accumulate 30 minutes each day the program is operating. Few effective strategies exist for afterschool programs to meet this policy goal. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a multistep adaptive intervention designed to assist afterschool programs in meeting the 30-minute/day moderate to vigorous physical activity policy goal

PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHER EDUCATION IN TURKEY: A VISION FORWARD

Physical education in Turkey has a rich tradition evolving with the changing needs of the country for about 200 years. Much of the evolution has been a product of reflection on the history of physical education and an analysis of the current status of physical education. By examining these areas, pioneers of physical education in Turkey have been able to lead efforts through an ever-changing landscape of societal, personal, and educational needs of students. Considering the developing technological possibilities and the requirements of the age, it is essential to develop educational practices with innovative understanding in the field of physical education and teacher education programs today. The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief contextual overview of the history of physical education in Turkey, including teacher preparation as well as an overview of the current status of the field in schools. Building on this information, a vision forward for physical education teacher preparation will be provided leveraging the deep traditions of physical education planted in Turkey generations ago. In this context, the responsibilities of universities and other stakeholders in order to improve the physical education teacher education program will be explained with some examples and also recommendations will be provided

How physically active are children attending summer day camps?

Background: Summer day camps (SDC) represent one of the largest settings, outside the academic school year, where children can engage in safe, enjoyable physical activity (PA). Yet, little is known about this setting and how active children are while attending. Methods: System for Observing Play and Leisure Activity in Youth was used to categorize PA of boys/girls as Sedentary/Walking/Vigorous across multiple days (8 AM to 6 PM) in 4 large-scale community-based SDCs. Contextual characteristics of type of activity, activity management, equipment, and in/outdoors were collected simultaneously; Mixed-model regression analyses examined associations between PA categories and contextual characteristics. Results: A total of 4649 scans of 2462 children were made across 27 days in the SDCs. Physical activity opportunities represented 38% of the daily schedule. Overall, 74%-79%, 13%-16%, and 7%-9% of children were observed Sedentary, Walking, or Vigorous during the SDC, and this changed to 62%-67%, 18%-19%, and 15%-18% observed Sedentary, Walking, or Vigorous during PA opportunities. Water-based PA, equipment, and free-play were related to increased PA. Children waiting-in-line for turns, staff instructing, and organized PA were related to increased sedentary. Conclusions: These findings provide evidence of modifiable characteristics of SDCs associated with PA. Improving staff skills related to facilitating active environments is a viable avenue to increase PA accumulated within SDCs