This article discusses core teaching practices for health education by defining, unpacking, and describing the use of core practices in teacher education. Core practices offer health teacher-educators and health educators a set of teaching practices that can be introduced during professional preparation and then refined and mastered as health…

Background: Teacher education is a complex endeavor designed to prepare preservice teachers for the task of teaching physical education to students in K-12 schools. Yet, there is widespread criticism of teacher education outcomes within the United States and around the world. Consequently, teacher educators have been increasingly called upon to…

In this article, essential knowledge for teacher educators in the teaching of skill analysis is discussed. The research literature shows that preservice and practicing teachers are not well trained in skill analysis and content knowledge as they need to conduct and act on their diagnoses. First, the reasons why skill analysis deserves much more…

Badminton is a popular sport played across the lifespan. This article introduces a knowledge packet for the teaching of badminton to upper elementary students. The knowledge packet consists of a content map, task descriptions, and an assessment. The content map illustrates progressions and sequences of tasks. The descriptions of the tasks,…

The physical education teacher education (PETE) faculty charged with oversight and delivery of initial teacher licensure programs confront several challenges. Some necessitate responses to revised and new standards, while others can be reframed as timely opportunities for improvement and innovation, whether in response to or in anticipation of…

Background: Recent studies have found the effects of improvements in teachers' content knowledge (CK) on enacted pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and student learning outcomes. However, there is little research exploring the relationship between PCK and student learning in an individual fundamental motor skill-based elementary physical…

Tennis is a lifelong physical activity that is played from young childhood to adulthood. Tennis can be used to meet several of SHAPE America's National Standards and Grade-level Outcomes for K-12 Physical Education in elementary school. Specifically, tennis is tied to outcomes relative to "striking with a short implement" in the…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of a content knowledge (CK) workshop on the enacted pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of teachers and in turn the effects on student learning. Method: A quasiexperimental design was used to examine 4 questions: (a) How does student learning differ as a function of PCK? (b) How does…

Coaching youth athletes has much in common with teaching physical education. Over the past three decades there has been substantive research in physical education settings that has given educators empirical support for effective teaching practices to improve the learner's performance. However, little research has taken place in youth sport…

This investigation examined the effects of Classwide Peer Tutoring (CWPT), a variation of peer tutoring on the volleyball skills of four 6th grade middle school students purposefully selected from an intact class of 21 students. Participants were average to low skilled males and females. A single subject A-B-A-B withdrawal design was used to…

Background: Physical educators and coaches face an ongoing problem of presenting fun and enjoyable practices that also provide efficient learning of technical and tactical sports skills. Effective instruction also promotes the transfer of learning from practice tasks to the real game. Play Practice (PP) describes a structure for teaching sports…