Putting Research to Work in Elementary Physical Education

This book takes a close look at 30 studies conducted by 69 scholars with the objective of better understanding physical education, summarising and critically evaluating existing research. Key features include 30 easy-to-read annotations to keep readers interested while they learn about new constructs, teaching strategies, measuring instruments, programme alternatives and terminology. Reading research guidelines provide readers with practical skills for navigating through the difficult aspects of the typical research report. Combining both research and teaching perspectives on specific research projects, this book should shed light on the common ground and breed mutual respect between researchers (mostly college professors) and physical education teachers. The annotated bibliographies are intended to help students explore topics that are more specific and more advanced.

Table of Contents:
Part 1 The basics - numbers, time, space, equipment and behaviors: how equipment and class size make a difference; who gets the teacher's attention?; more days per week equals more learning; modifying equipment to fit the students. Part 2 Managing the class: reducing disruptive student behaviors; active supervision and student learning; teaching social behaviors; recording and classifying teacher management behaviors; teaching fair play in the gym and school. Part 3 Interactions among students: using trained peer tutors; peer-mediated accountability and successful practice. Part 4 Strategies for teaching and learning: can learners guide their own practice with self-talk?; using environmental cues to guide practice. Part 5 The voices of students: kindergarten children describe physical education; third-grade children describe physical education; children describe the mile-run fitness test; children describe what they learn in physical education; high school seniors recall elementary physical education. Part 6 Teachers in the workplace - training, experience and context: preservice classroom teachers in the gym; is daily physical education worth the price?; the impact of inclusion on physical education teachers; how five years of experience changed a teacher; how veterans and rookies planned a class. Part 7 Assessment as part of training: using skill assessment to build effective lessons; is peer assessment both practical and accurate?; Part 8 The SPARK studies - a program for teachers and children: the impact of SPARK on children's fitness and activity; the impact of SPARK on catching, throwing and kicking; how well do children like various physical education activities?. Part 9 Reviewing studies of the effects of physical education: the legacy of elementary school physical education. Part 10 The Trois-Rivieres studies - long-term effects of physical education: twenty-year follow-ups of participants in a model program.

About the Author :
Lawrence F. Locke, PhD, is professor emeritus of education and physical education at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He has written extensively on the application of research to teaching and teacher education, and he has authored several books about how to plan and fund educational inquiry as well as how to understand research reports. As a teacher, graduate advisor, and consultant, Locke has supervised many studies of physical education. Much of his work has focused on the use of the qualitative research paradigm in the study of teachers, teaching, and teacher development. He recently received the Clark Hetherington Award for lifetime achievement in scholarship and service from the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education. He also was honored when the American Educational Research Association's annual selection of the outstanding doctoral dissertation in physical education was designated as the Lawrence F. Locke Award. His numerous awards include the NAPEHE Dudley Allen Sargent Scholar Award, the NASPE Curriculum and Instruction Academy Honor Award, the NAPEHE Distinguished Scholar Award, and the AAHPERD Presidential Citation Award. A native of Connecticut, Locke received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Springfield College and a PhD from Stanford University. He makes his home in Sunderland, Massachusetts; with his wife, Professor Lorraine Goyette, he spends part of each year writing, running, and exploring the Beartooth Mountains at Sky Ranch in Reedpoint, Montana. Dolly Lambdin, EdD, knows firsthand what physical education teachers face, having taught for 16 years at the elementary school level and for 24 years at the university level. During much of this time, she taught simultaneously at both levels, a situation that required her to spend part of each day meeting the teaching and research demands of academia while tackling the daily adventure of teaching 5- to 12-year-olds. Lambdin began her conversations with Lawrence Locke during her undergraduate years at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he was her mentor. She received her master's degree at Columbia University and her doctorate at the University of Massachusetts. Lambdin has served on numerous local, state, and national committees, including the writing teams for the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills in Physical Education, the NASPE Beginning Teacher Standards, and the NASPE Cabinet. Lambdin has recently been named the Texas AHPERD Outstanding College and University Physical Educator of the Year. Lambdin is a senior lecturer in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education at the University of Texas at Austin, where she teaches courses in children's movement, methods of teaching, and issues and trends and has supervised more than 60 student teachers. Her passions are playing with her family and friends, camping, canoeing, and spending summers in a cabin by a lake in Maine. She lives in Austin with her husband, Larry Abraham, and their two children, Andrew and Becca.