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Background: Although physical literacy is explicitly defined and integrated into Canadian provincial physical education curricula, limited empirical evidence substantiates the development of physical literacy in elementary physical education. Despite physical education curricular expectations, developing and assessing physical literacy in students may be difficult for teachers with little to no background in physical literacy or physical education. Purpose: The primary purpose was to explore the effect of a curricularly linked physical literacy enriched intervention in elementary school physical education. A secondary purpose involved an examination of the intervention's effects on sex differences. Design: A quasi-experimental controlled intervention trial with a matched comparison group was used to determine the impact of a curricular-based physical literacy enriched physical education intervention on students' development of physical literacy. Teachers (n = 6) and students (n = 131) from four Saskatchewan elementary schools participated in either a PLitPE (experimental) condition or a usual practice (control) condition. The PLitPE intervention was created using learning principles consistent with physical literacy and Self-Determination Theory. PLitPE instructional elements were developed with input from thirteen teachers who were members of the local school division's physical education professional learning community. An embedded professional development model was used where a mentor teacher was present to facilitate and support the implementation of the PLitPE intervention. The Physical Literacy Assessment for Youth tools were used to assess motor competence (PLAYfun), student self-description (PLAYself), and movement participation (PLAYinventory). Each domain of physical literacy (physical competence, psychological, and behavioural) was evaluated using these tools. Results: Significant differences, favouring PLitPE over control, were observed for average motor competence (M = 49.4, M = 40.0, p < 0.001, PLAYfun), movement vocabulary (M = 10.3, M = 7.5, p < 0.001, PLAYfun), environmental participation (M = 423.9, M = 390.1, p < 0.05, PLAYself), and a reduction of sex differences on average motor competence and movement vocabulary. Statistically significant relationships with low to fair correlations between PLAYfun and PLAYself variables existed. Conclusions: This study provides empirical evidence supporting physical literacy enriched physical education. PLitPE developed the psychological domain (affective and cognitive) and significantly improved physical competence, however, the intervention did not manifest in improved behaviour. Concerning sex differences, the intervention yielded an equal and substantive improvement in both males and females in the intervention group. Future studies should consider the addition of reflective approaches, as well as the construction of positive challenges for children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research was to examine the pedagogical practices that encourage students with severe disabilities' participation in an elementary physical education program through the lens of ableism. Focus group interviews were conducted with elementary students and semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight educators in the school. Field notes were conducted and documents, including the lesson plan and journal entries were collected. Findings reveal the teacher's intentional instructional practices fostered students' engagement with peers and classroom activities. The results of this research augment the literature describing teachers' orientations and pedagogical innovation that serve the needs of students with disabilities within general physical education settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Korfball was invented in a mixed Primary School in Amsterdam in the early 1900s [IKF (2006). Korfball in the Mixed Zone. KNKV; Summerfield and White (1989). Korfball: A Model of Egalitarianism. Sociology of Sport Journal, 6, 144–151]. The main catalyst for the development of korfball was a need for a competitive mixed sport that relied on cooperation and meant boys and girls could participate on a level playing field [Summerfield and White (1989). Korfball: A Model of Egalitarianism. Sociology of Sport Journal, 6, 144–151]. Previous research into gender in physical education (PE) has found that young people gain gender-related understandings through PE [Azzarito (2009). The Panopticon of PE: pretty, active and ideally white. Physical Education & Sport Pedagogy, 14(1), 19–39; Azzarito and Solomon (2009). An Investigation of Students' Embodied Discourses in PE: A gender project. Journal of Teaching in PE, 28, 173–191; Azzarito and Solomon (2010). A Reconceptualization of PE: The intersection of gender/race/social class. Sport, Education and Society, 10(1), 25–47; Chalabaev et al. (2013). The Influence of Sex Stereotypes and Gender Roles on Participation and Performance in Sport and Exercise: Review and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 14, 136–144; Wright (1995). A Feminist Poststructuralist Methodology for the Study of Gender Construction in PE: Description of a Study. Journal of Teaching in PE, 15, 1–24]. [Thorne (1993). Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School. Rutgers University Press] argues that to remove binary thinking and notions of hegemonic masculinity and femininity, PE lessons should promote equality between girls and boys, reflect cooperation and teamwork between all, and demonstrate to students that gender inclusivity is achievable. This paper will consider findings from a larger ethnographic study, in order to discuss how junior korfball players understand gender within their individual PE settings. It will also seek to discover whether players believe gender discourses can be negotiated in PE through the use of korfball. Players frequently referred to the limitations of their current PE experiences and suggested that the mixed element of korfball could provide opportunities for boys and girls to come together in PE. Players described how the structure of the korfball game reflects a need to use both sexes, which could improve mixed PE lessons. Players also discussed preconceived ideas about boys' games and girls' games, which led to problematic actions and interactions in current mixed PE settings. Findings suggest that embodied practices which demonstrate the abilities of girls, as well as boys, could lead to resistance of dominant discourses which reinforce gender difference and the physical inferiority of girls. They might provide a space which alters dominant discourse often reproduced in PE and sporting environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physical education in elementary education usually provides children's first contact with sports. According to the trans-contextual model of motivation, physical education teachers can positively influence children's beliefs toward and actual leisure time physical activity behavior. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of a dance-based physical education program on motivation regarding physical education lesson participation, as well as leisure time physical activity participation. The sample consisted of 252 pupils attending Grades 5 and 6 of elementary school (Mage = 10.48 years, SD = 0.50 years). Participants were randomly assigned into three groups. The first group attended a physical education lesson based on various forms of dance, the second one attended lessons with Greek traditional dances only, and the third group served as active control group that attended the typical curriculum. The intervention lasted six weeks. Before and after the intervention, students completed survey-based measures of motivational climate, motivational regulations in physical education and leisure time, enjoyment, attitudes, perceived behavioral control, subjective norms, and intentions toward leisure time physical activity. In support of the trans-contextual model, results showed that students in the dance intervention programs scored significantly higher in perceptions of motivational climate and beliefs toward leisure time physical activity. The findings of the study suggest that dancing lessons at school can bolster more positive attitudes and beliefs toward physical education and leisure time physical activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Concerns that current forms of physical education teacher education (PETE) are not adequately providing teachers with the tools necessary for working with the realities and challenges of teaching physical education in contemporary schools has led some scholars to advocate for an approach that prioritises meaningfulness in physical education. There is, however, little empirical evidence of how future teachers might be taught to facilitate meaningful physical education experiences. Purpose: This paper describes a pedagogical approach to PETE to support pre-service teachers (PSTs) in learning how to facilitate meaningful experiences in physical education. We aim to contribute new understanding through sharing pedagogical principles that support PSTs’ ‘Learning About Meaningful Physical Education’ (LAMPE). Participants and setting: The research team consisted of three physical education teacher educators: Tim and Déirdre who implemented LAMPE pedagogies and Mary who acted as meta-critical friend (pseudonyms used for the review process). Results from the LAMPE innovation reported here are taken from implementation across four semesters of two academic years 2013–2015. Déirdre implemented LAMPE in an introduction to teaching physical education course for pre-service generalist elementary teachers. Tim implemented the approach in an undergraduate developmental games course for future physical education teachers. A total of 106 PSTs participated in the research. Data collection and analysis: Data included teacher educator reflections and non-participant observer data from 33 individual lessons, over 7 hours of transcribed teacher educator Skype conversations, 8 ‘turning point’ documents, 15 sets of PST work samples, and transcripts of individual (n = 10) and 9 focus group interviews (n = 18 participants) with PSTs. Data were analysed inductively. Triangulation of multiple data sources and an expert member check supported trustworthiness of the LAMPE approach and data analysis. Findings: We share five pedagogical principles that reflect how PSTs were supported to learn how to facilitate meaningful physical education experiences. Pedagogies included planning for, experiencing, teaching, analysing, and reflecting on meaningful participation. Implementing pedagogies aligned with these five pedagogical principles helped participants learnwhymeaningful participation should be prioritised as well ashowto facilitate meaningful physical education experiences. Conclusions: Pedagogical principles of LAMPE have been constructed from empirical evidence of both teacher educator and PST experiences that supported learning how to promote meaningful physical education. This research contributes new understanding of how to support PSTs in learning to teach with an emphasis on facilitating meaningful physical education experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose: An objective database for physical education (PE) is important for policy and practice decisions, and the System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time (SOFIT) has been identified as an appropriate surveillance tool for PE across the nation. The purpose of this review was to assess peer-reviewed studies using SOFIT to study K-12 PE in U.S. schools.Method: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses informed the review, and 10 databases were searched for English-language articles published through 2016. A total of 704 records identifying SOFIT were located, and 137 full texts were read. Two authors reviewed full-text articles, and a data extraction tool was developed to select studies and main topics for synthesis.Results: Twenty-nine studies that included direct observations of 12,256 PE lessons met inclusion criteria; 17 were conducted in elementary schools, 9 in secondary schools, and 3 in combined-level schools. Inconsistent reporting among studies was evident, including not all identifying the number of classes and teachers involved. All studies reported student physical activity, but fewer reported observer reliabilities (88%), lesson context (76%), teacher behavior (38%), and PE dosage (34%). The most frequently analyzed independent variables were teacher preparation (48%), lesson location (38%), and student gender (31%).Conclusions: SOFIT can be used reliably in diverse settings. Inconsistent reporting about study procedures and variables analyzed, however, limited comparisons among studies. Adherence to an established protocol and more consistent reporting would more fully enable the development of a viable database for PE in U.S. schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: A relationship exists between attitudes toward physical education and future physical activity. The purpose of this study was to examine changes in attitude toward physical education as students progressed from upper elementary school (Grade 4) through middle school (Grade 8).Method: Three cohorts of students (Cohort 1, Grades 4-6, n = 96; Cohort 2, Grades 5-7, n = 71; and Cohort 3, Grades 6-8, n = 73) were each followed for 3 years to examine changes in attitudes toward physical education.Results: After an initial increase from Grade 4 to Grade 5, a significant decrease was observed from Grades 5 to 8 in students' positive attitudes toward physical education, with a faster rate of change for girls than boys.Conclusion: This longitudinal study provides further insights regarding the attitudes of students as they progress from Grade 4 to Grade 8 and expands on previous findings identifying decreasing positive attitudes toward physical education as students age, particularly for girls. The results provide evidence to support targeted interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Primary physical education (PPE) is increasingly being recognised for the role it can potentially play in setting a foundation for lifelong engagement in physical activity. However, the majority of the literature continues to focus on the negative features of the subject within the primary context. Whilst acknowledging the existence of these barriers, this paper sets out to take a proactive approach by presenting a conceptual framework for PPE that seeks to support a renewed and positive vision for the future. Based on ideas from complexity thinking, the framework represents a move beyond the more positivist and linear approaches that have long been reported to dominate practices in PPE and recognises learners as active agents engaged in a learning process that is collaborative, non-linear and uncertain. While acknowledging the contested nature of the complexity field, the paper explores how key principles, including self-organisation, emergence, similarity, diversity, connectedness, nestedness, ambiguous bounding, recursive elaboration and edge of chaos, offer a lens that views PPE as a complex system. With the children's learning positioned as the focus of PPE in the educational setting, the paper discusses how complexity principles interweave with the ecological components to help us better understand and more creatively engage with the complex nature of PPE developments. Specifically, these components are identified as PPE learning experiences and their associated pedagogy, teachers and their PPE professional learning and key environmental factors that include the physical environment and key stakeholders who influence developments across the different levels of the education system. The paper concludes by suggesting that this complexity-informed PPE framework represents an open invitation for the all those involved in PPE to engage in a collective process of exploration and negotiation to positively influence developments in PPE. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examines physical education (PE) curriculum development in an elementary school. Our goal was to understand the daily construction of a curriculum. We sought to analyse the theoretical and methodological framework and documents that a PE teacher uses each day while putting a curriculum into practice (lived curriculum). The data collection instruments included participant observation, interviews and document analysis. The analytical process revealed the influence of internal and external factors that affect both the authorship and the autonomy of a teacher working on the daily construction of a lived PE curriculum and that create tensions, struggles and conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Current concerns about a childhood obesity crisis and children's physical activity levels have combined to justify fitness lessons as a physical education practice in New Zealand primary (elementary) schools. Researchers focused on children's understandings of fitness lessons argue that they construct fitness as a quest for an ‘ideal’ (skinny or muscular) body. The conflation of fitness with thinness, however, is complex and problematic. In this paper, we draw from research conducted with a class of primary school children in New Zealand. Drawing on the theoretical tools of Foucault and utilizing a visual methods approach, we examine how children experience school fitness lessons and construct notions of fitness, health and body. The children's responses illustrated that obesity discourses and body pedagogies ‘collided’ in a way that shaped understandings of fitness lessons in ways inextricably connected with the avoidance of being fat. The children assumed that fitness lessons increased fitness and that being fit was demonstrated by a ‘correct’ corporeal appearance. We argue that body pedagogies inside and outside the school gates shape children's ideas about the body in ways which exclude other understandings of bodies, health, and physical activity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]