Teaching physical education in ‘paradise’: Activity levels, lesson context and barriers to quality implementation

Despite the temperate climate, surrounded by pristine oceans, children in the Maldives do not meet the minimum daily physical activity (PA) requirements. Maldives is a resource inhibited country within the Indian rim. Generalist teachers are required to deliver primary physical education (PE). There is a paucity of information about Maldivian PE, and comprehensive studies of children's engagement in PA levels in this, and similar contexts are limited. Therefore, this study examined PA levels of fifth-grade students ( N = 30 classes) during PE lessons from four schools in the capital city of Male’. The Health Optimising PE model conceptually framed the work. Teachers’ ( N = 20) perceptions of implementation barriers were reported during semi-structured interviews. Students’ PA levels, lesson context and PA promotion were assessed during PE lessons with the System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time. The students averaged 31.05% (7.95 min) of PE time in moderate to vigorous PA. During 26.56% of lesson time teachers focused on skill and knowledge development, while for 10.31% of PE lesson time children were encouraged to be active during and outside of class. Programme implementation, according to the teachers, was impacted by a lack of teacher knowledge and confidence, teacher attire and perceived lack of infrastructure, resources and equipment. Recommendations to improve PE outcomes include interventions and continuous professional development aimed at enhancing teachers’ knowledge and confidence towards PE, in conjunction with promotion of effective teaching strategies. Maldivian PE programmes and student health-related outcomes could be improved by addressing these barriers.

Instructional improv to analyze inquiry-based science teaching: Zed’s dead and the missing flower

In inquiry-based science lessons teachers face the challenge of adhering to curricular goals while simultaneously following students’ intuitive understandings. Improvisation (improv) provides a useful frame for understanding teaching in these inquiry-based contexts. This paper builds from prior work that uses improv as a metaphor for teaching to present a translated model for analysis of teaching in an inquiry-based, elementary school science lesson context. We call our model instructional improv, which shows how a teacher spontaneously synthesizes rules of improv with teaching practices to support student learning, engagement, and agency. We illustrate instructional improv through case study analysis of video recorded classroom interactions with one teacher and 26 first and second grade students learning about the complex system of honey bee pollination in a mixed reality environment. Our model includes the following defining features to describe how teaching happens in this context: the teacher 1) tells a story; 2) reframes mistakes as opportunities; 3) agrees; 4) yes ands; 5) makes statements (or asks questions that elicit statements); and 6) puts the needs of the classroom ensemble over individuals. Overall, we show how instructional improv helps explain how teachers can support science discourse and collective storytelling as a teacher (a) shifts power and agency to students; (b) balances learning and agency; and (c) makes purposeful instructional decisions. Findings have immediate implications for researchers analyzing interactions in inquiry-based learning environments and potential future implications for teachers to support inquiry learning.

Ecological correlates of Spanish preschoolers’ physical activity and sedentary behaviours during structured movement sessions

From an ecological perspective that understands health behaviours to be the result of interactions between personal, psychosocial and environmental factors, different authors have described patterns and correlations between physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviours (SB) in physical education (PE). However, to our knowledge there have been no systematic evaluations of the PA levels and patterns during structured movement sessions in preschool children in Spain. Therefore, the aims of this study were: (a) to identify the individual, social and environmental factors that influence PA levels and patterns during structured movement sessions; (b) to assess PA and SB levels during these sessions in a preschool population in our country; and (c) to validate the use of the System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time (SOFIT) in Spanish preschoolers to assess PA and SB levels, using accelerometry as the reference method. Our major findings were that: (a) young children were physically active for more than 60% of the structured movement sessions; (b) boys were significantly more active than girls; (c) the lesson context of free play was associated with low levels of SB; (d) solitary and borderline interaction patterns during structured movement sessions significantly increased moderate- to vigorous-intensity PA; (e) social interaction was generally between the same gender; and (f) teachers spent most of the time observing. This study also provides an argument for reconsidering the responsibilities of early childhood education institutions and practitioners in developing structured PA opportunities in the framework of free exploration and communication.

Promoting Health-Related Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Physical Education: The Role of Lesson Context and Teacher Behavior in an Observational Longitudinal Study

Purpose: Physical education (PE) is an important context for promoting health-related cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) in youth. Within PE, the lesson context and teacher behavior may be relevant for the promotion CRF; however, evidence is scarce. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess whether students’ CRF improvement in a school year was explained by PE lesson context and teacher behavior. Method: A 1-year observational one-group pretest/posttest study, including 212 students, was conducted. The Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER) was used to assess CRF. The PE lesson context and teacher behavior were assessed using the System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time. Multivariate linear regression models were performed to examine the effect of time spent in each category of lesson content and teacher behavior on the change in PACER laps from the beginning to the end of the school year. Results: Lesson time spent in gameplay (boys: B = −0.24, 95% confidence interval [CI] [−0.45, −0.02]; girls: B = −0.17, 95% CI [−0.29, −0.04]), time spent by teachers in instruction tasks (boys: B = 0.38, 95% CI [0.17, 0.60]; girls: B = 0.33, 95% CI [0.17, 0.48]), and promoting fitness (girls: B = 1.40, 95% CI [0.60, 2.20]) were associated to PACER improvement. Lesson time spent in general content (boys: B = −0.24, 95% CI [−0.45, −0.02]; girls: B = −0.17, 95% CI [−0.29, −0.04]) and time spent by teachers in management tasks (boys: B = −0.42, 95% CI [−0.70, −0.15]; girls: B = −0.46, 95% CI [−0.63, −0.28]) were negatively associated to PACER. Discussion/Conclusion: Promoting CRF in PE can be achieved by providing active class contexts, such as gameplay, reducing management time, and promoting in-class and out-of-class fitness.

“We Took Pictures”: Children’s Meaning-Making in Physical Education

Purpose: Studying learning in primary physical education is complex and largely practical and embodied; not only involving the child, but also closely linking the lesson context. The aim of this paper is to understand teaching and learning in primary physical education through the use of photo-diaries. Method: Participants were children (n = 38) and their teachers (n = 2) from two Irish primary schools across a 6-week period. Data included children’s photo-diaries, photo-elicitation focus group interviews with the children, and interviews with their teachers. Results: Results highlight that photo-diaries supported children’s meaning-making processes about their learning, highlighting a variety of meanings grounded in the centrality of the body as performance of learning. Discussion and Conclusion: The value of photo-based approaches with primary school children to access their meaning-making and influences on their understandings is highlighted.

School-based physical education: Physical activity and implementation barriers in Vietnamese elementary schools

Information about the Vietnamese physical education (PE) programme is limited due to a lack of relevant studies. Using the Health Optimising Physical Education as a conceptual framework, this study examined students’ physical activity (PA) levels in the fifth-grade PE programme in Vietnam and barriers to programme implementation. Eight schools (28 PE classes) were randomly selected for assessing students’ PA levels, lesson context, and PA promotion during PE lessons using the System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time. In-depth interviews were also conducted with school administrators, PE instructors, and classroom teachers using semi-structured guides to examine barriers influencing the implementation of the current PE programme. Results showed students spent 33% of PE time in moderate–vigorous physical activity (MVPA), which is less than the international recommendation of 50%. The amount of MVPA varied by school type, instructor gender and qualification. Programme implementation was negatively affected by the current structure that limits autonomy, a proclivity for a “one size fits all” approach to teaching PE, and limited motivation for PE instructors to improve their teaching. The low perceived value of PE, lack of support and professional development for existing PE instructors, and an over-emphasis on sports training due to available financial incentives were also identified as important barriers that affected programme implementation. Addressing these barriers could help improve the quality of the Vietnamese PE programme.

Analysis of School Climate of Senior High Schools in Jember: A Case Study of Student in History Lesson

This paper analyzed of the school climate of senior high school students in Jember in the history lesson context. The purposes of this study are: (1) analyzing the school climate of senior high school students in Jember in the history lesson context; (2) examining the difference of school climate of senior high schools in jember. The total samples involved were 375 students. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the difference by using SPSS 23 for windows program. The results showed that the mean value of school climate of SMA 1 Jember 3.66; SMA 2 Jember 3:47; SMA 3 Jember 3:20; SMA 4 Jember 3:39 and; SMA 5 Jember 3:40. The result of the ANOVA test showed that there was a significant difference of school climate of the senior high school students in Jember in the history lesson context (f = 4.789; Sig.0,001). The largest difference of significance level was shown by the sample group of SMA 1 Jember and SMA 3 Jember (mean differences = 0.46611). The school climate of SMA 1 Jember has very significant difference compared to the school climate of SMA 3 Jember.

Physical Activity, Lesson Context and Teacher Behavior in Large Physical Education Classes

With the advent of national and international concern about children’s decreasing activity levels, a number of interventions have been put in place that aim to promote cardiovascular health. These include national trials such as CATCH (Perry, Sellers, & Johnson, 1997) and SPARK (Sallis, McKenzie, Alcaraz, Kolody, Faucette, & Hovell, 1997). At a more programmatic level, there has been increasing attention towards the expansion of school physical education, dissuading children from pursuing sedentary activities, providing suitable role models for physical activity, and making activity-promoting changes in the environment (Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness, 2006).

‘We have to wait in a queue for our turn quite a bit’: Examining children’s physical activity during primary physical education lessons

The overall purpose of this study was to examine children’s physical activity (PA) during primary physical education (PE). This was achieved through the following two research objectives: (1) to measure children’s PA, lesson context and teacher promotion of PA during PE lessons; and (2) to explore teachers’ and children’s perspectives on PA levels during PE lessons. Evidence suggests that children’s PA during PE is below recommended levels and further research is required to understand the reasons why. Through a mixed method design, 138 children were observed using the System for Observing Fitness and Instruction Time, 80 children participated in group interviews, and 13 teachers were interviewed, across three primary schools in England. Findings indicated that the mean percentage of lesson time allocated to moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) was 42.4% and the average lesson length was 35.3 minutes. Qualitative themes identified were: ‘knowledge and beliefs’; ‘teacher pedagogy’; and ‘teacher development’. The findings indicate that a change in perspective is needed, which includes a focus on PA during primary PE lessons. Intervention work is required that targets teachers’ knowledge and beliefs towards PE along with the development of effective teaching strategies. However, this needs to be grounded in an ecological approach which will allow researchers and schools to target the various levels of influence. It is strongly recommended that interventions are grounded in behaviour change theory, as this study indicates that sharing knowledge about pedagogical strategies to increase children’s MVPA does not necessarily produce changes in teachers’ behaviours.