Overall, this thesis provides a number of evidence-based studies to address the requirements and methods through which physical skills are developed and assessed in primary school children. With practical requirements at the fore, this work serves to aid teachers and educators in delivering a standardised, evidence based curricula of comprehensive physical education. Additionally, the thesis raises questions about the adequacy of existing theory, policy and practices that lack the empirical validation and offers a useful insight into how this might be rectified in the future.

The early identification of talented individuals is considered increasingly important across many performance domains. Traditional concepts of talent have primarily emphasized genetically driven variables, proclaiming that exceptional abilities are the result of favourable genes matched to the required performance domain. Consequently, an oversimplified concept of sporting talent exists where the focus has typically been on discrete, one-dimensional measures at unstable periods in the athlete’s development. Talent identification processes adopted by several countries around the world have evolved from this oversimplified concept of talent and are unlikely to reflect adequately how talent emerges in sport. In fact, retrospective interviews with successful athletes emphasized that a range of factors impact success within sport and these are not solely governed by genetic determinants of performance. In particular, athletes highlighted the crucial role that psychology can have on the ability of an individual to translate potential to performance. It is concluded that TI models need to place a greater emphasis on the development of potentially talented performers rather than early identification. In this thesis, the concept of talent is revised as a complex, dynamical system in which future behaviours emerge from an interaction of key determinants such as psychobehavioural characteristics, motor abilities, and physical characteristics. A generic model of talent identification and development (TID) that addresses these issues, and resources that enable its practical application, is proposed. Initial findings from this pilot study are discussed and implications for further work are provided.

This thesis aimed to develop an intervention to improve the life skills of British adolescent competitive sport participants, who are in full time education. Study one investigated the life skills needs of adolescent competitive sport participants and provided a participant-centred definition of life skills. The problem exists that it is unclear which life skills are needed by adolescent competitive sport participants and which life skills should be included in life skills programmes. As such, existing programmes may not reflect the needs of adolescents. The aim of this study was to examine the life skills needs of competitive adolescent sports participants from the perspective of youth sport participants, coaches, and experts in sport psychology and youth sport. Eighteen adolescent sports participants, fourteen coaches, and four experts in sport psychology and youth sport participated in a series of focus group interviews. An inductive analysis revealed how participants defined life skills and which life skills adolescent sports participants need. Life skills were defined as ranges of transferable skills needed for everyday life by everybody, that help people thrive above and beyond the normal requirements of everyday existence. Participants described the need for interpersonal skills including social skills, respect, leadership, family interactions, and communication. Personal skills including organisation, discipline, self-reliance, goal setting, managing performance outcomes, motivation, and identity were also reported. Participants described communication skills and organisation as the most important life skills for British adolescent competitive sport participants to acquire. Study two presents an in-depth, idiographic study illustrating how life skills were learnt through the experience of sport. The aim of the current study was to investigate how life skills could be learnt and improved through experiences in sport. (Continues...).

This research explores the development of a Specialist Sports College within a framework of educational justice. It asks whether the development of the Specialist School can really mean equality of opportunity for all children, when some schools will, as a result, receive considerably more funding than others. It also considers the contentious policy location of the Specialist Sports College, found somewhere between ideologies of health and fitness for all and the development of elite sportsmen and women of the future. By investigating the transformation of one school into a Specialist College using a Case Study approach, this research explores the concept of transforming a school’s culture, and questions the Government’s expectations within this concept arena. What are the micro, lived effects of the macro policy of the Specialist School? By exploring the key themes that emerged through the data I conclude that transforming cultures is a far more complicated task than the Government perceive and also that the introduction of a single subject specialism may, in reality, lead to more division than unity. I also question whether PE can ever be a subject area that truly offers the possibility of success for all.

Low levels of physical activity and unhealthy dietary behaviours have been associated with poor health in adolescents, leading to an increased risk of chronic disease in adulthood. These behaviours are modifiable and since adolescents spend a significant amount of time in school this provides an increasingly popular setting for physical activity and dietary interventions. A systematic review of school-based interventions aimed at changing physical activity and/or dietary behaviours in adolescents was conducted. The aim was to identify successful interventions, identify effective intervention components, behavioural theories and techniques which may have facilitated interventions success and assess reporting quality. Fifteen studies were included in the review; two dietary only, seven physical activity only and six physical activity combined dietary interventions. Diet only interventions were not successful. Interventions aimed at only physical activity behaviours were the most successful, with education combined with environmental adaptations identified as being most effective. Physical activity only interventions aimed specifically at girls were generally successful. Physical activity interventions aimed at both boys and girls tended to be more effective at improving the behaviours of boys only. Interventions aimed at both physical activity and diet showed some evidence of gender differences with boys increasing physical activity behaviours and girls improving dietary behaviours. Studies based on a theory which considered environmental influences appeared more effective. No specific behaviour change techniques were identified with studies reporting significant results. The reporting of intervention design/methodology was of moderate quality. The heterogeneity of the studies made it difficult to generalise which interventions were most effective. Education combined with environmental adaptations appeared effective at changing physical activity behaviours in both boys and girls. Further research into dietary interventions is required, especially in boys. The quality of study reporting needs to improve to facilitate the identification of the active components/techniques implemented within interventions.

Modern Physical Education (PE) administered systemic models of teaching crafts. It atrophied the play element in human nature, and shaped a single-lens attitude to the treatment of bodies. Framing minds, it veiled the conditions of learning processes and thus “instituted” the sovereignty of subjective concerns. It created many unexplained “gaps” between abstract concerns and pragmatic issues. Following language’s poststructural analysis, PE’s professional communication practices were exposed to alternative methodological refocusing from conforming to move to personalise the agent’s experience in moving to learn. In the wake of poststructuralism came Whitehead’s Physical Literacy (PL) which I adopt as “leitmotif” to reform PE’s teacher preparation and schooling practices. PL addresses children up to 14 years. For older pupils, PL’s language needs to constitute versions of human purposes voiced by the introduction of a new development called “Movement Literacy” (ML). ML acknowledges that language and movement are very different forms of “self-expression”. By itself however, self-expression is inadequate when it comes to learning how to learn. Critical dialogue needs to be brought in to facilitate meaningful innovation in the PE world. By employing the philosophies of phenomenology and hermeneutics I make a case that expression in languaging movement [subjecting the agent’s account to hermeneutic treatment] is expression for others, and in exchange with others the expression is redefined, and changes the way one sees and talks about movement and about oneself. In its reflective practice, reverentially, ML will also unpack pedagogy’s hidden protocol, hoping to reclaim PE’s authentic purpose. It connects secular matters with sacred implications by reconciling the polemic differences between “techne” [purpose] and “phronesis ” [prudence]. With limited reference to Eastern “selflessness” ML advances teaching, through pedagogy and andragogy as a life-time mission. Not providing answers, the thesis offers a manifesto attempting to facilitate new questions such as: how can language and movement communicate? and how can movement educators “minister” to their learner’s sense of well-being?

Background: Physical inactivity has been identified as the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality. Despite public health guidelines advising children and adolescents to spend a minimum of 60 minutes per day of at least moderate intensity physical activity, a large proportion of children and adolescents fail to meet these guidelines. Interventions promoting physical activity show varying degrees of success, and more detailed evaluations of such interventions are essential. The aim of this research was to conduct an in-depth evaluation of a community-based physical activity program aimed at children and adolescents, specifically the Tribe Project. Methods: The RE-AIM framework (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation and Maintenance) was used to evaluate the individual and organisational-level impact of the Tribe Project. A single mixed method case study was used based on five sources of evidence: interviews, questionnaires, documentation, archival records and direct observations. Participants included the Tribe managers and coaches implementing the program and the Tribe parents and children/adolescents who attended. Results: The Tribe Project reached approximately 2.5% of the eligible population living within Bath and North East Somerset. The program successfully met some of its objectives although feedback procedures were poor and the program aims were unclear. The community-level adoption of the program was high, however, the implementation and adherence to the program principles at the setting-level varied. The program was successfully institutionalised within the University of Bath yet pathways after the program into the community varied, and were mostly competitive only. Nonetheless, a combination of social, psychological and physical benefits was reported following participation. Conclusion: To assess accurately the potential impact of physical activity interventions a combined assessment of individual and organisational-level factors is necessary. This will help inform policy on effective strategies to promote physical activity in the community, and develop interventions that are more effective as a result.

Much of the existing research on primary physical education (PE) has focused on the supposed importance and potential of the subject at this age range, rather than on its actual nature and practice. It is repeatedly claimed within the literature that the development of movement skills during early learning experiences is significant as it lays the foundation for continuing participation in health enhancing physical activity. While much of the existing research has focused on the supposed importance of primary PE, further study in this area expresses concerns about the deficiencies in the preparation of primary generalists to teach the subject; over the quality of learning and teaching within the subject; and over a perceived lack of investment (in the long term) in the primary age phase. In the light of the comparatively limited research relating to primary PE, the reported issues which surround the provision of the subject and the current emphasis on its promotion through the PE and Sport Premium, the study aimed to examine change alongside continuity in what has been identified, rhetorically at least, as an important area of PE. Drawing upon data gathered from one-to-one interviews with 36 subject leaders (SLs), this study sought to describe and explain the nature and practice of primary PE and develop a more adequate understanding of what is actually happening in the name of the subject. The analysis of primary PE was undertaken through the use of a case study of one School Sport Partnership (SSP) in the north-west of England, with the theoretical framework for this study being formed by the figurational sociological perspective. The findings revealed that the most common model for the delivery of PE involved responsibility being shared between the generalist class teacher and either a sports coach or specialist PE teacher. The SLs recognised strengths and weaknesses in all of the three main approaches used. However, while they favoured the use of specialist teachers because of their subject knowledge and expertise, the more prosaic constraints of cost and flexibility meant that the use of coaches had become increasingly popular. Whether or not, the growth of coaches is de-professionalizing the delivery of PE, it certainly appears to be exacerbating any existing tendency to turn primary PE into a pale imitation of the sport-biased curricular of secondary schools. Ironically, the apparent ‘threat’ to the status of PE in the primary curriculum (as well as the status of PE specialists) posed by the growth of coaches in curricular PE in primary schools may well be exaggerated by the primary PE and Sport Premium which appears to have added momentum to a change of direction regarding staffing the subject – towards sports coaches and away from generalist classroom teachers and PE specialists. The data also showed that while the pedagogical approaches adopted in primary PE lessons did include some inclusive and developmentally appropriate methods, the overriding focus was on didactic teaching approaches being used to achieve narrow skills based outcomes. The historical dominance of games, the inclusion of primary teachers in lengthening chains of interdependence with sporting groups and individuals, and the conflation of sport with PE were all thought to have influenced the adoption of a teaching model that is unduly influenced by sport. It was also clear from SLs responses, that the prevalence of teaching methods that bind didactic and skill based pedagogy are unlikely to be challenged by the greater inclusion of sports coaches within primary PE. Finally, the contents of primary PE lessons were shown, by the data, to be dominated by sport and traditional team games; and to be organised around the timings of the major inter-school competitions and tournaments. Overall it was argued that the portents of a future with sports coaches as the main deliverers of primary ‘sport’ lessons are there for all to see, and that this apparent change is best understood by locating the subject leaders of PE in the networks of interdependent relationships that they have with others.

This research explores the process of becoming a teacher of primary physical education (PE) within an English University based Initial Teacher Training context. Despite the introduction of a National Physical Education and school sport subject strategy in 2003, academics and professionals in the UK and elsewhere have continued to suggest that primary PE is highly problematic, echoing the views of others expressed consistently over four decades. There have been regular calls for a significant increase in the time allocated to the subject within the structure of primary ITT and some have suggested that primary PE is best taught by ‘specialists’ as many class teachers feel most comfortable delegating this task to others. However, although some researchers have suggested that trainee primary teachers are more or less disposed towards the teaching of PE, little is known regarding the dual role of dispositional and structural factors, or the way in which they combine to result in particular primary PE practices. Data were collected over a three year period (2004-2007). The research was conducted within a university provider of primary ITT in the South of England and focused on trainees following a three year undergraduate degree route to Qualified Teacher Status. In Stage 1, an initial quantitative scale was administered to a large cohort of trainee primary teachers at the outset of their course. This was followed by a series of semi-structured interviews with a smaller sample of trainees. Qualitative data generated through semi structured interviews were analysed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis as an organisational framework, creating descriptive coding and the presentation of organisational themes. This analytic process led to the development of a model to represent the relationship between structures, disposition and practice in primary PEITT. The outer dial of this model represents a typology of trainees in primary PEITT, which is the outcome of combined influences of structures and disposition. Four recommendations for practice are made, including the need to develop the structures of primary PE ITT with differentiated learning opportunities and to provide more effectively mentored practice in school settings. Whilst those trainees with a very negative disposition towards PE may be best advised to avoid teaching the subject altogether, the greatest potential for improving primary PE lies in the development of those trainees with an initially ambivalent attitude to the subject. This majority of trainees in the middle ground of the proposed typology may hold the key for long term improvements in the subject should ITT providers be able to respond to the identified learning needs. The findings of this research are particularly pertinent in light of current government plans to increase school based responsibilities within ITT.

Physical inactivity is one of the major public health problems of the 21st Century. In England it is reported that two thirds of adults ( > 16 yr) and one third of children ( < 16 yr) do not do sufficient physical activity to gain the health benefits that leading a physically active lifestyle has to offer. The benefits of physical activity and dangers of a sedentary lifestyle to health outcomes are well documented and numerous studies have investigated physical activity participation. Indeed, many interventions have been trialled to increase engagement in physical activity; however results are weak and generally do not correlate to sustained physical activity participation. Furthermore, much debate exists on how best to encourage both children and adults alike to engage in sufficient physical activity to maintain a healthy lifestyle. The purpose of this research was to address this important research gap and to assess the physical activity levels and other factors for promoting engagement in physical activity of school aged children in Devon aged 7-15 years in order to assess the feasibility of using social marketing within the school setting to increase sustained physical activity participation. A mixed methods approach was adopted to gather data and consisted of both quantitative and qualitative methods, in two phases. The initial phase was quantitative in nature and utilised a self-report survey based on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) (Azjen, 1991) and social cognitive theory (SCT) (Bandura, 1977) to measure the participants’ physical activity levels; it also measured their beliefs and attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and self-efficacy pertaining to physical activity participation. The second phase utilised qualitative methods adopting the socio-ecological model (McLeroy et al., 1988) to identify opportunities to promote participation in physical activity in recognising the multiple factors (individual, social environment, physical environment and policy) that influence an individual’s behaviour. This phase consisted of a series of interviews with the students, teachers and head-teachers to enable the researcher to gain in depth information into physical activity patterns and beliefs. During phase two, ethnographic research was also conducted across a number of schools in Devon to complement and enhance the data collected in the survey. The results revealed that of the 1124 participants (‘students’) surveyed, 48% were not sufficiently active to meet the government guidelines. Males were 30% more active than females. Physical activity decreased with age (e.g. 15 yr olds on average taking part in 3 hours less activity than 7 yr olds). Lifestyle/recreational activities were the most regularly participated activities (e.g. walking – 52%, running – 31%, football – 29%, outdoor play – 28%). Moreover, attitudes, subjective norms and perceptions of behavioural control affected physical activity participation both in and out of the school setting. Self-efficacy also played a role in physical activity participation. The results of the thesis show that interview and ethnographic data produced a rich source of evidence. Physical activity provision within schools played a major role in students’ physical activity. Overwhelmingly the qualitative data revealed that students want greater choice in the physical activities they participate in and suggest that the focus of PE lessons should be on having fun and enjoyment rather than skills and rules. Transition from primary to secondary school affected physical activity participation and therefore experiences in schools, may affect children’s general views on physical activity which it is suggested may impact on physical activity participation beyond the school gates and also in adulthood. This thesis provides substantial evidence to support the link between the school environment and participation in physical activity in children and adolescents. More specifically it highlights a need to incorporate a ‘whole school approach’ to physical activity participation. This research has demonstrated that there is an urgent need to combine theory based physical activity research in schools with that of social marketing. Physical activity researchers and social marketers should combine their knowledge to bring together social marketing campaigns within schools to enhance the health and wellbeing of the whole school environment for both staff and students. An innovative school based social marketing campaign should encourage physical activity both within and outside the school environment and lead to sustained levels of physical activity participation across the life stages.