Date Available

7-23-2018

Year of Publication

2018

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

College

Education

Department/School/Program

Education Sciences

First Advisor

Dr. Aaron Beighle

Abstract

Introduction: Experts in the field have advocated that quality physical education (QPE) is the centerpiece of a comprehensive school physical education program (CSPAP). Evidence-based programs and instructional models have shown great promise in increasing the physical activity (PA) of today’s youth. However, little is known about the specific impact of teaching behaviors (TB) used within these programs and their impact on student outcomes. Therefore, the aim of this study was to use a systematic observation method that is primarily focused on analyzing TBs that are displayed in class, identify TBs that may contribute to positive student activity outcomes, and make recommendations to current and future physical educators on behaviors they should and should not include in their teaching. Methods: Data for student activity and the Observational Record for Recording Physical Educator Teacher Behavior (ORRPETB) observation methodwere obtained from 22 video recorded elementary PE lessons. Results: The majority of the lesson climate was spent in activity (64.5%), followed by instruction (20.1%), management (10.8%), and waiting (4.6%). Interactions between the teacher and student revealed that teachers spent on average 59% of their lessons interacting with the whole class. Teachers interacted with individuals 32% (52% male, 48% female) and small groups, on average, 8% of the time. The primary outcome variable teacher behaviors found that, on average, teachers spent 27% of lesson time lecturing/orienting and 24% of lesson time monitoring their students. The next most common condensed teacher behavior was managing (13%), followed by fielding and responding to questions (10%), skill feedback – corrective (9%), behavioral feedback (7%), modeling (5%), undesirable behavior (3%), and skill feedback (2%) Discussion: The descriptive information in the study uncovers some important characteristics of PE impact teacher behaviors. Identifying “monitoring” as an impact teacher behavior that contributes significantly to the activity levels of students provides useful variable data. Despite this teaching behavior variable’s potential to increase student PA and moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA), PE specialists should attempt to balance the amount of monitoring that occurs in their classrooms with other desirable impact behaviors (i.e., providing skill feedback – non-corrective) while limiting impact behaviors that negatively impact PA (i.e., managing, skill-feedback corrective, etc.).

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2018.272

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