This Viewpoint looks at Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) in physical education and the authors contend that making SEL the primary learning domain for school physical education programs is problematic. The article shares thoughts and provides suggestions about how to re-focus the discourse about the central goals for physical education programs.

Purpose: Grounded in the behavioral ecological model, and to address a lack of park space, this study looked at community members' use of public high school physical activity (PA) facilities during nonschool hours while considering the effects of seasonality. Method: Data included 3,959 observation sweeps across 19 public high school campuses over…

Purpose: Comprehensive School Physical Activity Programs aim to maximize the application of skills learned in physical education (PE) in other settings. We investigated students' generalization of participation in fitness activities from PE to organized fitness programs during lunch recess. Method: Voluntary participation of 153 (74 girls, age…

Partial Comprehensive School Physical Activity Programming (CSPAP) has been studied extensively in recent years. However, there is little evidence on the efficacy and feasibility of such interventions in high school settings. Physical education teacher education (PETE) programs have been slow in preparing future physical educators for CSPAP…

Children's health is affected by physical activity (PA) opportunities throughout the school day. Schools are a central venue for children meeting physical activity recommendations, and multiple areas, such as recess, have been established to protect against childhood obesity and overweight. Senate Bill 1083 is a law that addresses recess policies…

Purpose: Physical education policies provide guidance and accountability to develop quality programs that increase physical literacy. The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic review of physical education policy research to explore its effects on the school environment and programming as an essential component of physical education.…

Increasing physical activity opportunities in schools has emerged as a global priority among school-aged youth. As a result, many countries have designed and implemented whole-of-school physical activity initiatives that seek to increase physical activity opportunities that are available to school-aged children before, during, and after school.…

The PETE program at Arizona State University (ASU) has taken several steps to diversify its focus in recent years and include the development of the needed knowledge and skills among its majors in not only developing focused physical education programs but also in providing expanded physical activity opportunities for all students. This article…

In this article, I provide a brief historical perspective on how state-level policy was an integral part of the rise of school physical education in the first half of the twentieth century, as well as the evolution of sport pedagogy as a subdiscipline within the field of kinesiology. The role and importance of policy in changing behavior are…

Purpose: Before-school programs, one of the least studied student-related comprehensive school physical activity program (CSPAP) components, may be a promising strategy to help youth meet the physical activity (PA) guidelines. This study's purpose was to examine: (a) how much PA children accrued during a before-school running/walking club and…

The purpose of this study was to determine students' health-related fitness knowledge (HRFK) and physical activity levels after the implementation of a series of fitness lessons segments called Knowledge in Action (KIA). KIA aims to teach health-related fitness knowledge (HRFK) during short episodes of the physical education lesson. Teacher…

This study examined the effectiveness of three conditions in which 48 fourth-grade students were prompted to be physically active out of school. Using an alternating treatments design (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007) the three intervention conditions included: (a) Baseline: No prompting of students, (b) Teacher Prompts: Verbal prompt to…

Comprehensive School Physical Activity Programs (CSPAP) are designed to provide expanded opportunities for physical activity beyond regularly scheduled physical education time-including before, during, and after school, as well as at home and in the community. While CSPAPs are gaining support, currently there are no models for designing,…

Part 1 of this article, which appeared in the April 2013 of JOPERD, presented the theoretical foundation and evidence-based needs for a main-theme curriculum model called Health Optimizing Physical Education (HOPE) for schools. It also described eight strands that could be used to plan, implement, and assess this version of a comprehensive school…

Background: It has been observed that physical activity patterns of health-related behavior are established in childhood and may continue into adulthood. Recent findings showing a relationship between the onset of chronic diseases and sedentary lifestyles support the importance of examining Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity (MVPA). One…