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Health, physical activity and fitness monitoring within the secondary physical education curriculum in England

Aims: The aims of this study are three-fold: to review the worldwide literature on monitoring the health, physical activity and fitness of young people; to determine the purpose and prevalence of the monitoring of young people's health, physical activity and fitness within secondary PE school curricula in England and to explore the factors affecting teachers' views of and approaches to such monitoring; and to propose recommendations for monitoring health, physical activity and fitness within secondary school PE curricula in England which may have relevance and applicability to the Taiwanese context. Methods: The research design involved the integration of quantitative and qualitative methods, including a national survey of selected state secondary schools and interviewing a sample of Head of PE department (HoPE). Descriptive statistics and Chi-Square analysis were employed to analysis quantitative data of the prevalence of monitoring pupils' health, physical activity or fitness within school curriculum, and to exam the homogeneity of HoPEs' attitudes and views (agree v.s disagree) towards specific statements with different gender, and teaching experience. The significant level of Chi-square is .05. Coding and thematic analysis were employed to analysis qualitative data. Results: 118 schools (38.4%) returned the questionnaires and 12 teachers were interviewed. The proportion of schools which monitored pupils' health, physical activity and fitness was 39%, 61.9%, and 89.0% respectively. The interview data revealed issues including purpose and value of monitoring; responsibility and accountability; pupils' responses; teachers' conceptual confusion, and resource limitations. Recommendations: Nine recommendations were proposed including: (1) physical educators should broaden their monitoring approach beyond fitness; (2) formal guidance on monitoring within the PE school curriculum should be produced; (3) teachers should be offered continuing professional development on this topic; (4) PE teachers should be encourage to employ simply, manageable monitoring methods; (5) health benefits of physical activity and physical activity promotion should be weighted through monitoring processes; (6) PE teachers should realise that the processes of monitoring health, physical activity and fitness are appropriate contexts for learning; (7) it is unnecessary to make comparisons between students or against standardized norms; (8) teachers should aim to personalise monitoring procedures and ensure that pupils' experience of monitoring is positive; (9) PE teachers should encourage and teach children self-monitor skills to develop their independence and self- management skills. An example formal guidance for key stage 3 on monitoring health, physical activity and fitness within the PE curriculum has been proposed to help PE teachers broaden their approaches on monitoring and present them a range of implementation example.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:525684
Date January 2010
CreatorsChen, Ming-Hung
PublisherLoughborough University
Source SetsEthos UK
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Sourcehttps://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/10034

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