Urban School Physical Education Directors Perceptions of Physical Education

1. Urban School Physical Education Directors Perceptions of Physical Education Howard Zeng1, Wenhao Liu2 & Michael Hipscher1 1Brooklyn College, CUNY, Brooklyn, NY. 2Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, PA.

2. Introduction and Background • For over two decades, researchers have realized and emphasized that physical education (PE) plays a vital role in our school education(Sallis, & McKenzie, 1991; Sallis, McKenzie, & Alcaraz, 1993; U.S. DHHS, 2004; Zoeller, 2007).

3. Introduction and Background (cont. 1) • Participation in regular physical activity (PA) effectively reduces the risk of premature mortality, coronary heart disease, hypertension, colon cancer, and diabetes (Coakley, 2004; Warburton, Nicol, & Bredin, 2006; Zoeller, 2007).

4. Introduction and Background (cont. 2) • Physical education plays such important role in our society as health costs are at all time high and people are living longer. • Recently research reveals that physical inactivity and obesity remain more stable than physical activity from childhood to adulthood (Anderssen, Wold, & Torsheim, 2005; Janz, Burns, & Levy, 2005; Matton et al., 2005; Raitakari, Juonala, & Viikari, 2005; Yang et al., 2007).

5. Introduction and Background (cont. 3) • That is, compared with physically active lifestyles during childhood, sedentary lifestyles adopted early in life tend to track into adulthood at a higher rate. • The finding helps explain the well known facts that physical activity levels decline from childhood to adulthood and that more than half (54.1%) of adults do not engage in physical activity at the minimum recommended level (Center for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2005).

6. Introduction and Background (cont. 4) • As a result, the goal of public health is to get physically active children remain physically active through adulthood and, more importantly, to get sedentary children “untracked” and become physically active (Corbin, 2001; Malina, 2001b). • In fact, the promotion of lifelong physical activity participation has been recognized as the ultimate goal of school physical education programs (Rink, 2006), and physical activity ranks top in the ten Leading Health Indicators (USDHHS, 2000).

7. Introduction and Background (cont. 5) • More ideas and suggestions have been made by the researchers such as: • using interdisciplinary instructive approach incorporates literacy, math, geography and science into PE lessons, • developing a science-base curriculum; • applying different technology to provide visual, kinesthetic and auditory stimuli in daily lessons; and • using various teaching strategies to meet the needs of diverse learners (Graham, Holt/Hale, & Parker, 2005; Pangrazi, 2007).

8. Introduction and Background (cont. 6) • However, no matter how the researchers, educators and media describe and discuss the issues and solutions about school PE, the bottom line is, the director of PE programs are the key figures to make decisions on how PE will be operated in their schools. • In school reform discussion, the role of director of PE programs have consistently identified as a critical contributing factor to school PE effectiveness and to reform implementation success (Fullan, 2001; Graham, Holt/Hale, & Parker, 2008; Pangrazi, 2007 ).

9. Purpose • While many studies have been done to investigate Issues or problems and solutions regarding school PE programs, few studies, if any, have tried to understand urban school PE from the perspectives of PE program directors (PEPD).

10. Purpose (Cont.) • This study was intended to investigate PEPD's perceptions of urban school PE programs so that more comprehensive understanding of PE programs might be ascertained.

11. Methods • Participants in this study were 17 PEPD from a large city in the US (5 from elementary schools, 12 from secondary schools) with a minimum of two-year experience in the PEPD position.

12. Methods (Cont. 1) • The ‘Elite’ interview (Hertz & Imber, 1995) was used with semi structured questions regarding concerns, problems, and solutions for urban PE programs.

13. Methods (Cont. 2) • All interviews were audiotape and transcribed and a detailed audit trail was used for establishing trustworthiness. Constant comparison technique (Patton, 2002) was used for data analysis.

14. Analysis/Results • Three major themes were revealed. • First, the importance of PE programs in urban school districts was confirmed. The PE programs played an important role in providing a big portion of daily physical activity amount for urban kids and in developing healthy, whole persons, and was an integral part of the urban education system.

15. Analysis/Results (cont. 1) • Second, the major problems with the urban school PE programs were the lack of administrative support, shortage of facilities and equipment, apathetic and unqualified PE teachers, oversize classes, and lack of students’ motivation.

16. Analysis/Results (cont. 2) • In addition, a higher prevalence of obesity among urban school kids than those in rural and suburban areas is a serious concern.

17. Analysis/Results (cont. 3) • Third, the urban school PEPD recommend the following solutions to solving the problems: writing grants and raising funds for updating PE equipment and facilities; using community resources to implement PE programs;

18. Analysis/Results (cont. 4) • seeking parental involvement and political support; building new schools; requiring more PE days/weeks; increasing the salaries of PE teachers; raising the bar for accreditation, and hiring of new certified PE teachers.

19. Conclusions • Perceptions of the PEPD on urban school PE reflect problems that urban school PE faces. Whereas the problems are comprehensive, the urban PEPD recognize the important roles that PE plays and are clear regarding the ways to solve those problems.

20. Conclusions (cont.) • However, to reform the quality of urban school PE is beyond the current capabilities of PEPD. Given the higher prevalence of obesity among urban school districts, decision makers at higher levels should take steps to solve problems that urban PE programs face.

21. Selected References Blair, S. N. & Church, T. S. (2004). The Fitness, Obesity, and Health Equation: Is Physical Activity the Common Denominator? The Journal of the American Medical Association, Circulation, 292, 1232-1234. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) (2004). School Health Index: A Self-Assessment and Planning Guide. Middle school/high school version. Atlanta, Georgia: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, CDC, 2004. Coakley, J. (2004). Sports in society: Issues and controversies (8th ed.). McGraw Hill: New York. Graham, G., Holt/Hale, S. A. and Parker, M. (2008). Children moving: A reflective approach to teaching physical education (8th Ed.). Mountain View, CA: Mayfield. Olafson, L. (2002). "I hate phys. ed.": Adolescent girls talk about physical education. The Physical Educator, Spring, 67-74. Pangrazi, R. P. (2007). Dynamic physical education for elementary school children (15th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Benjamin Cummings. Sallis, J., & McKenzie, T. L. (1991). Physical education's role in public health. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 62, 124-137. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (U.S. DHHS, 2000). Physical activity and health: A report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Warburton, D.E., Nicol, C., & Bredin, S.S. (2006). Health benefits of physical activity: the evidence. Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), 174, 801-9. Zoeller, R. F. (2007). Physical Activity and Obesity: Their Interaction and Implications for Disease Risk and the Role of Physical Activity in Healthy Weight Management. The Journal of the American Medical Association, 1, 437-446.