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Pedagogy and Lifetime Wellness

What is the ultimate goal of physical education?

The ultimate goal of physical education, at all levels, is to have students incorportate physical activity into their lives now and in the future.

To accomplish that goal we must equip them with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to a physically educated person.

What is a physically educated person?

A physically educated person...

  • Has learned skills necessary to perform a variety of physical activities
  • IS physically fit
  • DOES participate regularly in physical activity
  • KNOWS the implications of and benefits from involvement in physical activities
  • VALUES physical activity and its contribution to a healthful lifestyle

How does Campbell University produce a physically educated person?

  • PE 111/112: Physical Activity
    • An "activity-based course"
  • PE 185: Lifetime Wellness
    • A "conceptual physical education course" (CPE course)
    • Sometimes called a "laboratory based" course
    • CPE courses have become increasingly prevalent in colleges and universities since the 1970s
    • 60% of colleges and universities nationwide offer some type of CPE course

What do we know about the effectiveness of PA and CPE courses?

  • Required activity-based programs seem to positively influence students’ physical activity behavior after graduation
  • CPE program, when properly taught and coupled with some fitness activity, is beneficial in developing positive attitudes toward fitness, produce a positive effect on fitness knowledge, and have a some impact on actual physical activity behavior
    • CPE programs demonstrate a stronger relationship to the development of positive attitudes toward fitness, the value placed on fitness, and the quantity of self-reported exercise behavior
  • Required programs (whether CPE or APE) are more effective than elective programs
  • An individual’s athletic or activity experience does not necessarily equate to fitness knowledge, and the ability to determine appropriate health-related fitness activity
  • Confidence (misplaced or real) is a factor in predictor of physical activity levels
  • Behavior change theory is becoming more prevalent in CPE courses
    • The most recent CPE texts incorporate behavior management, social cognitive theory, and the transtheoretical model of behavior change
    • The Hoeger and Hoeger text uses the transtheoretical model of behavior change
    • The transtheoretical model is implemented by using the laboratories at the end of each chapter

How should PE 185 be taught? What pedagogy is approriate for PE 185?

“A choice of pedagogy inevitably communicates a conception of the learning process and the learner. Pedagogy is never innocent. It is a medium that carries its own meaning.”
--Jerome Bruner, The Culture of Education, p. 63
  • "Winning the Battle, Losing the War"
    • Practices that may improve fitness level in the short run, but turn students off of fitness and physical education for a lifetime - Charles B. Corbin
      • For example, PE 101 becomes  "PE Run-Oh-Run"
"It is not what you do, but how you do it."
--Aunt Donna

"The media is the message."
--From a Popular Culture course, East Carolina University, 1974

CPE courses should be taught in accordance with the "best practices" in physical education as communicated in the publications from the National Association for Sport and Physical Education and disseminated through professional literature, conferences, conventions, etc.

Today's best practices in physical education
  • Lines and calisthentics have been replaced with activity based warmups
    • Tag games (develop cardiovascular endurance, body compostion, and with modifications address muscular strength/endurance and flexibility)
    • Lead-up games and skill drills may be adapted to address health-related fitness
       
  • Use of "fun-fitness" activities are preferred over traditional training, calisthentics and stations
    • Music has been proven to effectively lower ratings of perceived exertion and make fitness fun
      • The additon of music transforms calisthenics into "aerobics" and makes stations "fun-fitness" activities
Motivation
 
“The best way to create interest in a subject is to render it worth knowing, which means to make the knowledge gained usable in one’s thinking beyond the situation in which the learning has occurred.”
--Jerome Bruner, The Process of Education, p. 31
 
"Interest in the material is the best stimulus to learning, rather than such external goals as grades or later competitive advantage."
--Jerome Bruner, The Process of Education, p. 14

Meaning

“Learning should not only take us somewhere; it should allow us later to go further more easily.”
--Jerome Bruner, The Process of Education, p. 17
 
“We might ask, as a criterion for any subject taught in primary school, whether, when fully developed, it is worth an adult’s knowing, and whether having known it as a child makes a person a better adult. If the answer to both questions is negative or ambiguous, then the material is cluttering the curriculum.”
--Jerome Bruner, The Process of Education, p. 52
  • Students are taught to perform their own assessments of health-related fitness - these are skills needed for a lifetime
    • Body composition
    • Cardivascular endurance
    • Muscular strength and endurance
    • Flexibilty
We must "devise materials that will challenge the superior student while not destroying the confidence and will-to-learn of those who are less fortunate" (Jerome Bruner, The Process of Education, p. 70). We need to address the needs of all learners and abilities. Performance standards, on one hand, attempt to ensure that all students will achieve a set standard of performance, yet it fails to take into account varying ability levels.
  • Grading based on performance on physical fitness tests is considered inappropriate
    • Replaced with health-related fitness assessments
    • Students need to know their current fitness levels to set goals and develop personal fitness programs
  • Best practices question the need for maximal exercise tests to estimate VO2max
    • When assessment purposes may be met with submaximal tests
    • Test-takers are submaximal exersisers (i.e., walkers)
    • When the maximal test is given to unconditioned individual without at least 6 weeks of aerobic conditioning
    • Maximal tests - any test that requires the participant's all-out or nearly all-out effort
      • 1 Mile Run
      • 1.5 Mile Run
      • 12 Minute Run
    • Recommended Submaximal Test
      • 1.0 Mile Test on page 156 in textbook

Why are we changing the pedagogy of PE 185?

"A curriculum is like an animated conversation on a topic that can never be fully defined, although one can set limits upon it."
--Jerome Bruner,  The Culture of Education, p. 116

Can I implement these changes can be implemented gradually?

"The enemy of reflection is the breakneck pace"
--Jerome Bruner, The Culture of Education, p. 129

What if I don't agree with this pedagogy?

“You cannot teacher-proof a curriculum any more that you can parent-proof a family.”
--Jerome Bruner, The Culture of Education, p. 84

What kinds of questions will be on the final exam?

  • The final exam will be an online exam. The details will be announced after the most effective and cost effective process is identified.
  • How detailed will the questions be?
“It is obvious that an examination can be bad in the sense of emphasizing trivial aspects of a subject.”
--Jerome Bruner, The Process of Education, p. 30

"Given particular subject matter or a particular concept, it is easy to ask trivial questions or to lead the child to ask trivial questions. The trick is to find the medium questions that can be answered and that take you somewhere."
--Jerome Bruner, The Process of Education, p. 40


Will online testing and these pedagogical changes really accomplish anything?

“Problems of quality in a curriculum cannot be dodged by the purchase of sixteen-millimeter projection equipment.”
--Jerome Bruner, The Process of Education, p. 92
 
"What one does and how one teaches with the aid of such devices [teaching machines] depends upon the skill and wisdom that goes into the construction of a program of problems"
--Jerome Bruner, The Process of Education, p. 83
 
"They [computers] can take some of the load of teaching of the teacher's shoulders, and, perhaps more important, that the machine can provide immediate correction or feedback to the student while his is in the act of learning"
--Jerome Bruner, The Process of Education, p. 84
 
"The devices themselves cannot dictate their purpose. Unbridled enthusiasm for audio-visual aids or for teaching machines as panaceas overlook the paramount importance of what one is trying to accomplish"
--Jerome Bruner, The Process of Education, p. 88

What if I don't know how to do skin fold measurements, flexibility tests, etc.?

“Improving education requires teachers who understand and are committed to the improvements envisioned… We need to equip teachers with the necessary background training to take an effective part in reform”
--Jerome Bruner, The Culture of Education, p. 35

 

References

Adams, T. M., & Brynteson, P. (1995).  The effects of two types of required physical education programs on attitudes and exercise habits of college alumni.  The Physical Educator, 52, 203-210.

Adams, T. M., & Brynteson, P. (1992).  A comparison of attitudes and exercise behaviors of alumni from universities with varying degrees of physical education activity programs.  Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 63, 148-152.

Bruner, J. (1960). The Process of Education. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Bruner, J. (1966). The Culture of Education.

Bruner, J. (1973). The Relevance of Education.

Bruner, J. (1974). Toward a Theory of Instruction.

Bruner, J. (1996). The Culture of Education. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Brynteson, P., & Adams, T. M. (1993).  The effects of conceptually based physical education programs on attitudes and exercise habits of college alumni after 2 to 11 years of follow-up.  Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 64, 208-212.

Corbin, C., & Laurie, D. (1978).  Exercise for a lifetime: An educational effort.  The Physician and Sportsmedicine, 7(1), 51-55.

Corbin, C. B., Lindsey, R., & Welk, G. (2000). Concepts of fitness and wellness: A comprehensive lifestyle approach (3rd ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Gabbard, Carl. (January, 2000). Should Physical Education Be in the Core Curriculum? Principal Magazine. (Retrieved February 20, 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://www.naesp.org/comm/p0100c.htm).

Fahey, T. D., Insel, P. M, & Roth, W. T. (1999). Fit and well: Core concepts and labs in physical fitness and wellness (3rd ed.). Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing.

Calfas, K. J., Sallis, J. F., Lovato, C. Y., & Campbell, J. (1994). Physical activity and its determinants before and after college graduation. Medicine, Exercise, Nutrition, and Health, 3, 323-334.

Hensley, L. D. (2000). Current status of basic instruction programs in American colleges and universities. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance, 71 (9), 30-36

Hoeger, W. K., & Hoeger, S. A. (2000). Lifetime physical fitness and wellness (6th ed.). Englewood, CO: Morton Publishing.

Laurie, D. (1981). Knowledge, attitudes, and reported behavior before and after a lecture-laboratory physical fitness class. The Physical Educator, 38, 50-54.

Marcus, B. H., Selby, V. C., Niaura, R. S., & Rossi, J. S. (1992). Self-efficacy and the stages of exercise behavior change. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 63, 60-66.

  McAuley, E., & Courneya, K. S. (1993). Adherence to exercise and physical activity as health-promoting behaviors: Attitudinal and self-efficacy influences. Applied and Preventive Psychology, 2, 65-77.

Pearman, S. N., Valois, R. F., Sargent, R. G., Saunders, R. P., Drane, J. W., & Macera, C. A. (1997).  The impact of a required college health and physical education course on the health status of alumni. Journal of American College Health, 46, 77-85.

Prochaska, J. O., & Marcus, B. H. (1994). The transtheoretical model: Applications to exercise. In R. K. Dishman (Ed.), Advances in Exercise Adherence, pp. 161-180. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Robbins, G., Powers, D., & Burgess, S. (1999). A wellness way of life (4th ed.). Dubuque, IA: McGraw-Hill

Robbins, G., Wayda, V., & Tammen, V. (2000, March). New approaches in the assessment of exercise behavior change.  Presented at the AAHPERD National Convention, Orlando, FL.

Sallis, J. F., Calfas, K. J., Nichols, J. F., Sarkin, J. A., Johnson, M. F., Caparosa, S., Thompson, S., & Alcarez, J. E. (1999).  Evaluation of a university course to promote physical activity: Project GRAD. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 70(1), 1-10.

Trimble, R., & Hensley, L. (1990). Basic instruction programs at four-year colleges and universities. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance, 62(6), 64-73.

Wallace, L. S., & Buckworth, J. (2001). Application of the transtheoretical model to exercise behavior among nontraditional college students. American Journal of Health Education, 32 (1), 39-47.

Wallace, L. S., Buckworth, J., Kirby, T. E., & Sherman, W. M. (2000). Characteristics of exercise behavior among college students: Application of social cognitive theory to predicting stage of change. Preventive Medicine, 31, 494-505.