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The purpose of this study was to explore and reveal naïve conceptions and misconceptions about energy embedded in elementary school students’ prior knowledge. Students’ performance on standardized knowledge test was used to classify students into low, median and high levels of knowledge about the cardiovascular system. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with students in each group to extract their understanding of energy in relation to food choices, physical activities, and exercises. Analysis of the interview data generated six categories of naïve conceptions and two categories of misconceptions. Different conceptual change theories, including Chi’s ontological change theory, Ohlsson’s resubsumption theory, and enculturation theory were used to analyze and understand these naïve conceptions and misconceptions and why they could be robust to change. The analyses confirm the need to adopt a multi-theoretical approach to the understanding of students’ naïve conceptions and misconceptions (Chinn & Samarapungavan, 2009. Conceptual change-multiple routes, multiple mechanisms: A commentary on Ohlsson. Educational Psychologist, 44(1), 1-10). The findings encourage physical and health educators adopt different strategies to address the potential learning obstacles brought by students’ naïve conceptions and misconceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation to learn is a disposition developed through exposure to learning opportunities. Guided by the expectancy-value theory of Eccles and Wigfield (1995), this study examined the extent to which expectancy belief and task value influenced elementary school students’ physical activity and knowledge learning in physical education (PE). Students (N = 753) from 15 US public schools contributed student-level and class-level data. With a 2-level design, the data were analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling. Physical activity (t = 3.18; p < .01) positively predicted fitness knowledge. Attainment value (i.e. perception of importance) as the only expectancy-value construct, significantly predicted fitness knowledge (t = 3.07; p < .01), when physical activity was held constant. As the physical activity intensity increased, the positive prediction of attainment value to knowledge attenuated and then turned negative (t = –3.10; p < .01). The study indicated that although a physically-active context helps students to make sense of fitness knowledge, a vigorous context shifts their motivation away from cognitive learning, toward physical participation. To resolve the difficulty of attaining learning objectives both physically and cognitively, PE teachers may want to maintain an active learning context with moderate physical intensity. Future research should address the effect of learner motivation on dual or multiple learning outcomes in PE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose:A primary goal of physical education is to develop physically literate individuals with the knowledge, skills, and confidence necessary for a physically active lifestyle. Guided by the expectancy-value and interest motivation theories, the purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between students' motivation and health-related fitness knowledge developed in physical education and their after-school physical activity participation.Method:Third-, 4th-, and 5th-grade students (N = 293) from 6 elementary schools in a large metropolitan school district in the United States provided data on expectancy beliefs and perceived task values, situational interest, health-related fitness knowledge, and after-school physical activity. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and a simultaneous multiple regression model.Results:It was found that expectancy beliefs (β = .20,t = 2.16,p = .03) and perceived exploration demand (β = .25,t = 2.58,p = .01), a source for situational interest, were positively related to after-school physical activity. The 2 variables, however, accounted for only 11.2% of the variances for children's after-school physical activity participation.Conclusion:This study demonstrates that students' active exploration and expectancy beliefs for success in physical education have limited influence on leisure-time physical activity participation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]