Teaching the Whole Child Through Physical Education and Youth Development

Strategies ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 42-44
Author(s):  
Sheldon Sucre
Author(s):  
Giancarlo Condello ◽  
Emiliano Mazzoli ◽  
Ilaria Masci ◽  
Antonio De Fano ◽  
Tal Dotan Ben-Soussan ◽  
...  

Physical education (PE) is acknowledged as a relevant context for holistic child and youth development promotion. However, interventional research mostly builds on individual theories focused on specific outcome domains. This study presents a multisport enriched PE intervention that capitalizes on the intersection of different theory-based approaches to motor, cognitive and socio-emotional skills development promotion. With a cross-over design, 181 fifth graders, coming from a past class-randomized trial of enriched or traditional PE in their 1st–3rd grade, were stratified (based on their previous PE experience) and class-randomized to multisport enriched PE or control group. They completed pre-post assessments in motor and sport skills, cool (inhibition, working memory) and hot (decision making) executive functions, prosocial (empathy, cooperation) and antisocial (quick-temperedness, disruptiveness) behaviors. Children in the enriched PE group showed advantages in motor and prosocial skills after the intervention, which were linked by a mediation path, and an interactive effect of past and actual PE experience on decision making but no differential effects on other variables. The results suggest that a PE intervention designed with an integrative theory base, although not allowing disentangling the contribution of individual components to its efficacy, may help pursue benefits in motor and non-motor domains relevant to whole-child development.


Author(s):  
Cory E. Dixon ◽  
Jared A. Russell ◽  
Peter A. Hastie

Purpose: This study examined the pedagogical experiences of former graduate teaching assistants following their teaching experiences at a youth development center. Method: A case study approach was utilized to investigate each participant case while a phenomenological approach was employed to analyze each case. The participants, Malik, Dante, and Ray, previously taught physical education at a youth development center as graduate teaching assistants. Results: The results of this study are presented as three cases centered on the participants and their experiences. The first case, “developing people from where they are, not where you want them to be . . .” (Malik) highlights the participants’ appreciation of their students’ culture and context. The second case, “resiliency to teach well regardless of circumstance or situation . . .” (Dante) features the participants’ ability to teach diverse learners. The third case, “uphill battles . . . you cannot learn this in a textbook . . .” (Ray) features the challenges faced while teaching at the youth development center. Discussion: Consistencies across participants’ experiences, the impact on their current careers, and implications for introducing culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogies via nontraditional settings are discussed.


Retos ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 528-536
Author(s):  
Fernando Santos ◽  
Cláudio Farias ◽  
Ivo Van Hilvoorde ◽  
Daniel Gould ◽  
Paulo Pereira

Abstract. To date no research has investigated the key mediation role of PE department heads in the successful implementation of Positive Youth Development (PYD) programmes. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a PYD-based intervention in the learning trajectory of a PE department head leading the implementation of a PYD programme. A PYD intervention was conducted over four months, which included several cycles of theoretical inputs interspersed with a series of PYD field applications. The principal participant in this study was an experienced PE department head who was supervising the work of 63 primary school PE teachers. Findings showed the PE department head progressed from a perspective of PYD as an inherent and naturally emerging outcome to an understanding of PYD as more structured programmes of activities that include a deliberate approach. Further research is needed to uncover effective mediation strategies that can best support the implementation of PYD at an institutional level. Resumen. Hasta la fecha, ningún estudio ha investigado el papel clave de mediación de los coordinadores de departamento de educación física en la implementación exitosa de los programas de Desarrollo Positivo de los Jóvenes (DPJ). Por lo tanto, el propósito de este estudio fue examinar los efectos de una intervención basada en DPJ en la trayectoria de aprendizaje de un coordinador de departamento de educación física que lidera la implementación de un programa DPJ. Se realizó una intervención para el DPJ durante cuatro meses, que incluyó varios ciclos de aportes teóricos intercalados con una serie de aplicaciones de campo. El principal participante en este estudio fue un experimentado coordinador de departamento de educación física que supervisaba el trabajo de 63 profesores de educación física primaria. Los resultados mostraron que el coordinador del departamento de educación física progresó desde una perspectiva de DPJ como un resultado inherente y naturalmente emergente a una comprensión de DPJ como programas de actividades más estructurados que incluyen un enfoque deliberado. Se necesita más investigación para descubrir estrategias de mediación efectivas que puedan apoyar mejor la implementación de DPJ a nivel institucional.Resumo. Até esta data não foram desenvolvidas investigações acerca do papel de mediação desempenhado por coordenadores do departamento de educação física na promoção do Desenvolvimento Positivo dos Jovens (DPJ). Assim, o objetivo deste estudo foi examinar os efeitos de uma intervenção centrada no DPJ na trajetória de aprendizagem de um coordenador de um departamento de educação física. Realizou-se uma intervenção centrada no DPJ, ao longo de quatro meses, que integrou múltiplos ciclos de investigação e implementação dos princípios associados ao DPJ. O participante neste estudo era um coordenador de um departamento de educação física que supervisionava 63 professores de educação física do primeiro ciclo. Os resultados apontam para a mudança de perspetiva do coordenador face ao DPJ, especificamente de uma abordagem que considerava o DPJ como uma consequência natural da prática para outra que considerava a necessidade de desenvolver programas estruturados com este objetivo. Futuros estudos necessitam de aceder às estratégias de mediação que melhor podem suportar a integração do DPJ a nível institucional. 


Author(s):  
Anna N. Zakharova ◽  
◽  
Yulia A. Karvounis ◽  
Leonid V. Kapilevich ◽  
◽  
...  

The article presents a critical analysis and assessment of the current state of foreign experience in monitoring and management of health, lifestyle and physical activity of student youth. An important aspect of lifestyle monitoring is the assessment of physical activity. However, monitoring is not an end in itself; its results are used to develop approaches and methods of correction, and to manage the situation. The concept of health management is becoming more and more popular as a set of measures to preserve and restore the health of large social groups. One such methodological approach is Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR), a model that uses sports and physical activity to teach adolescents to become personally and socially responsible people. This model focuses on two sets of values: personal responsibility and social responsibility. Effort and self-reliance are goals of personal responsibility, while respecting and helping others is social responsibility. The model has been widely adopted as a program for at-risk youth. The Personal and Social Responsibility Questionnaire (PSRQ) was developed as an indicator for assessing young people’s perceptions of personal and social responsibility. Perceptions of personal and social responsibility are positively correlated with intrinsic motivation. Physical education programs based on health and lifestyle management principles can provide students with positive motivational and emotional experiences that will encourage them to continue participating in physical activity. Physical skills are trasferred into other areas of life activity (SBYD – Sports-Based Youth Development), it is claimed that sports can be used as a tool for psychological, emotional and/or academic development. The research has shown that many sports-based youth development programs contribute to the acquisition of life skills (e.g., leadership, self-control) with the ultimate goal of promoting positive social and academic outcomes for young participants. Researchers call this “life skills transfer” (i.e., the idea that the physical, behavioral and cognitive skills that young people acquire in sports can be used in non-athletic settings to promote healthy development). An important result of the development of the concept of monitoring and managing the health and lifestyle of young people is the formation of a consensus on this issue. According to this consensus, physical activity is seen as an all-encompassing term that consists of many structured and unstructured forms in and outside educational settings, including organized sports, physical education, outdoor recreation, motor programs, breaks, and active modes of transportation. such as cycling and walking.


2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca J. Lloyd

Physical literacy, a concept introduced by Britain’s physical education and phenomenological scholar, Margaret Whitehead, who aligned the term with her monist view of the human condition and emphasis that we are essentially embodied beings in-the-world, is a foundational hub of recent physical education curricular revision. The adoption of the term serves a political purpose as it helps stakeholders advocate for the educational, specifically literacy, rights of the whole child. Yet, one might wonder what impact conceptual shifts of becoming “physically literate” in lieu of becoming “physically educated” have on physical education research and practice. Terms such as “reading” the game and metaphors that describe the body as an “instrument of expression” are entering the lexicon of physical education but from a seemingly cognitive frame of reference. Arguably, the extent to which the adoption of physical literacy has on dissolving Cartesian views of the body and the mechanization of movement it performs has yet to be questioned. This article thus acts as an invitation to explore physical literacy in a Merleau-Pontian inspired act of inscribing the world through movement and how a reading of a reversible imprint might awaken a more fluent sense of what it means to become physically literate as new curricular pathways in the field of physical education emerge.


2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas L. Holt ◽  
Zoë L. Sehn ◽  
John C. Spence ◽  
Amanda S. Newton ◽  
Geoff D.C. Ball

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunlei Lu

Mindfulness is a critical dimension in current school physical activity programs (e.g., physical education, intramural, and interscholastic physical activities). School physical activity programs are a key vehicle used in developing healthy active lifestyles among children and youth; however, the absence of mindfulness in these programs has given rise to numerous problems (such as body-mind dualism and stress) that interfere with attaining program objectives. This paper discusses what mindfulness is, why it is needed, and how mindfulness can be integrated into school physical activity programming. The integration of mindfulness can help develop a healthy lifestyle for a whole child; in turn, our school physical activity programs can be re-conceptualized and transformed to deliver this objective on a perpetual basis.


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