The health benefits of physical activity are well documented, and the important role that schools and physical education (PE) can play in reducing sedentary behavior and contributing to population health has been identified. Although effective teaching is ultimately judged by student achievement, a major component of teacher and school…

Performing and learning motor skills has been shown to be enhanced if the performer adopts an external relative to internal focus (or no focus) of attention (Wulf, 2007). The present study examined the generalizability of this effect to top-level performers (balance acrobats). Participants performed a balance task (standing on an inflated rubber…

The concurrent validity of the New Zealand Ministry of Education's Health and Physical Education Assessment (HPEA) (Crooks & Flockton, 1999) was examined with the respective items from the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (Henderson & Sugden, 2000) and the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (Bruininks, 1978) on manual…

Teachers who communicate a clear intent to improve students' motor performance present tasks holistically, concretely, and briefly. Movement skills in a physical education lesson are developed primarily by presenting and working with tasks while students are actually moving. (JN)

One novice subject's learning about the tennis serve was measured (over a 4-day period) by recording the subject's gestures and verbal remarks. This case study compared gestures, verbal remarks, skills, and form data to see which types best discriminated between days 1 to 4, and it also attempted to determine if discriminant analyses were suitable…

The I CAN-Achievement Based Curriculum (ABC) program was designed to improve teaching and the quality of basic motor skill instruction in the subject area of physical education, the instructional levels of elementary through secondary, and for all children (handicapped and nonhandicapped) in mainstream and/or special education settings. The…

Children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) constitute approximately six percent of the population, or about two children out of a class of 35. Often referred to as "clumsy" or physically awkward, children with DCD are generally academically able, but have movement difficulties that affect their progress in academics and in activities…

Presented is a sequential motor development model for use in the assessment of physically handicapped children by physical educators, and discussed is criterion testing and its role in the identification of motor development. The author points out that professionals are generally relied upon in the areas of auditory and visual evaluations, and…

Seven articles contain information about measurement and evaluation in physical education and sport and complement the "Basic Stuff" series. They focus on (1) student self-assessment for exercise physiology; (2) monitoring motor development; (3) biomechanical analysis; and (4) measurements of aesthetic qualities, psychosocial…

This paper describes two practical assessment procedures that enable teachers to use time more efficiently in physical education class. One approach is for teachers who want to use validated or invalidated skills tests, and the other approach takes advantage of instructional progression steps. (SM)

As part of the Project ACTIVE (All Children Totally InVolved Exercising) Teacher Training Model Kit, the manual is designed to provide ACTIVE adopters and potential adopters with: a realistic basis for assessing and evaluating the physical and motor proficiency of ambulatory individuals who are mentally retarded, learning disabled, or emotionally…

This elementary physical education teacher developed a student evaluation system by rewriting the curriculum, producing a series of grade-specific objectives to guide her teaching, matching learning activities, creating rubrics for the objectives which she and the students could use, and generating computerized, personalized grade reports for each…

This monograph is a progress report on efforts to develop curriculum theory for physical education. It focuses on the development of individual human motor performance and the utilization of selected movement learning media to achieve specified educational outcomes in relational perception and orientation in space. Concerned essentially with the…

Paper describes two assessment projects that provide examples of how preservice physical educators design, implement, and understand assessment, focusing on formative assessment. A volleyball project occurred in a middle school where students had physical education twice weekly. A gymnastics project occurred in an elementary school where teachers…

Researchers examined procedures for collecting data on students' competency in two fundamental motor skills, criteria for assessing skill proficiency, and results across several grades. They task-analyzed videotapes of students' performance and determined that most students did not meet criterion expectations associated with an advanced form for…