Physical Education and Curriculum

Physical Education and Curriculum 1. summary of article 2. the broader issues raised in the article 3. the implications for teaching and learning and 4. an assessment of the article in terms of its relevance to the field. Quest, 2011,63,5-18 © 2011 The National Academy of Kinesiology Physical Education Curriculum Priorities: Evidence for Education and Skillfulness Catherine D. Ennis One question facing kinesiologists today is how to implement findings from research into society, in this case, physical education. In this paper I examine the role of a balanced approach to educational physical education in promoting physical activity. I argue that limiting physical education to simple tasks that encourage students to workout at target heart rate to expend calories is not an effective solution to the long-term challenge of promoting physically active lifestyles. As an alternative, I discuss research findings associated with motor skill competence, perceived competence, and knowledge growth that can increase individuals' options to participate in many different types of physical activity at greater intensities and for longer durations. I conclude by considering the role of educational physical education in public health initiatives with the goal of influencing students' decisions to embrace physical activity for a lifetime. In discussing the role of physical activity in schools and communities, often we are caught up in debates about the purpose of school-based physical education. Of particular interest at the 2010 National Academy of Kinesiology meeting were issues regarding the role of physical activity in school-based physical education. Stated simply, should the goal of physical education be focused narrowly on increasing student heart rate and burning calories through moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA)? Or should physical education programs refiect a balanced, educational emphasis on learning skill, sport, dance, and exercise through innovative physical activities? In this paper it is my charge to argue for the second perspective, synthesizing research findings to make the case for a balanced approach to physical education. As a dedicated advocate of this perspective, I will describe briefly the concept of a balanced approach to physical education, followed by a more in-depth discussion of educational approaches to physical education that include enhanced motor skill competence (skillfulness), increased perceived competence, and the role of personalized knowledge in promoting and sustaining physical activity throughout life. I will conclude by summarizing the role of a balanced, educational approach to physical education within public health initiatives and issues facing the effective implementation of this approach to physical education in public schools, today. Ennis (NAK Fellow #381) is with the Dept. of Kinesiology at the University of North Carolina— Greensboro. Ennis A Balanced Approach to Educational I Physical Education Educational physical education focuses first and foremost on student leaming. The content scope of the curriculum emphasizes in-depth instruction in a range of physical activities that students need to learn to be physically active; want to learn because the activities lead to opportunities in competitive sports and recreation; and enjoy leairiing because tbe activities are meaningful and relevant in their lives today. This balanced perspective on a learning-based approach to quality physical education is best reflected in the six Physical Education National Content Standards, presented in Figure I. These content standards were developed and sanctioned by thousands of professional physical educators as members of the National Association for Sportj and Physical Education (NASPE) with the support of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (AAHPERD) (NASPE, 20()4). The NASPE National Content Standards emphasize learning goals promoting motor skill competence (Standard 1) with an understanding of cognitive concepts that impact performance quality and effectiveness (Standard 2). In addition, standards stress the importance of physical activity (Standard 3) and personal fitness (Standard 4)iin a well-rounded approach to physical education. Standards 5 and 6 focus on guiding students' self and social responsibility, positive attitudes, and meaning toward the value of physical activity in physical education and throughout their lives. T^hus "physical activity" is highly valued and plays a central role in Standard 1 : Demonstrates competency in motor skills and movement patterns needed to perform a variety of physical activities. Standard 2: Demonstrates understanding of movement concepts, principles, strategies, and tactics as they apply to the learning and performance of physical activities. I Standard 3: Participates regularly in physical activity. I Standard 4: Achieves and maintains a health-enhancing level of physical fitness. ! standard 5: Exhibits responsible personal and social behavior that respects self and others in physical activity settings. Standard 6: Values physical activity for health, enjoyment, challenge, selfexpression, and/or social interaction. Figure 1 —' National standards for physical education (NASPE, 2004). Evidence for Education and Skiilfulness quality approaches to physical education. Content selection is not a matter of either physical activity or some other content; this is a false dichotomy. Physical educators agree almost unanimously that physical activity is a very beneficial outcome for students and should have a central role in physical education. However, where they differ from some public health professionals is that physical activity is just one of many valued outcomes. The NASPE Content Standards confirm the value of a balanced approach to physical education that has been instrumental in designing physical education programs for almost a century (Wood & Cassidy, 1930). Further, the NASPE standards affirm the importance of curricular goals to address the needs of the whole child: cognitive, affective, social, emotional, and physical. The whole child perspective is critically important today in a world where sedentary lifestyles and unhealthy eating practices are just two of many problems that some children and adolescents face, including mental and emotional distress, unsafe and uncaring home environments, substance abuse, lack of food safety, and malnutrition. Perhaps one of the most important, yet elusive, educational goals to which many physical educators aspire is to prepare students effectively to be physically active for a lifetime (Ennis, 2010). Physical educators, who teach the whole child, advocate not only daily participation in moderate to vigorous physical activity but also the skills, knowledge, and perceptions of positive physical self worth that foster healthy, active lifestyles. Skillfulness One of the cornerstones of a physically active lifestyle is motor skill competence. There is a small, but growing body of research examining the relationships between fundamental motor skills and physical fitness. Evidence from one research study (Stodden, Langendorfer, & Roberton, 2009), for example, examined the relationship between competence in three ballistic fundamental motor skills, throwing, kicking, and jumping, and six measures of health-related fitness in adults age 18 to 25. Stodden and his colleagues used scores from maximum kicking and throwing speed and maximum jumping distance to predict the variance in "overall fitness" measured by the 12 min run/walk, percent body fat, curl-ups, grip strength, and maximum leg press. Multiple regression analysis indicated that product scores for jumping (74%), kicking (58%), and throwing (58%) predicted 79% of the variance in overall fitness. Regardless of gender, motor-skill product scores explained a significant amount of the variance in health-related fitness associated with upper and lower body extremity muscular strength, trunk muscular endurance, and cardiovascular endurance. Jumping explained the most variance, leading the researchers to argue that, "individuals who are skilled in jumping might participate in activities that promote not only leg strength, but also other aspects of fitness" (Stodden et al. 2009, p. 227). Stodden and his colleagues (2009) concluded that skillful individuals are more likely to participate in more diverse forms of physical activity, persist longer, and engage in higher levels of moderate to vigorous physical activity. Further, they explain that adequate levels of muscular strength and coordination are necessary to manipulate body mass effectively in a gravity-based environment. Time spent Ennis in physical education increasing skill competence in ballistic fundamental motor skills, such as kicking, throwing, and especially distance jumping, leads to greater physical fitness and neuromotor development that may be related to voluntary participation, in physical activity both in and outside of school (Stodden et al., 2009, pp. 227-228). These findings build on prior research by Wfotniak and his colleagues (Wrotniak, Epstein, Dom, Jones, & Kondilis, 2006) that examined the relationship between motor proficiency and physical activity in children. Wrotniak et al. (2006) found that children and adolescents who were in the highest quartile of motor proficiency were more active compared with children in lower quartiles and thus more likely to participate in moderate to vigorous physical activity. Not surprisingly; children with a higher BMI were less physically active, more sedentary, and had poorer motor proficiency compared with children with a lower BMI. These researchers found that motor proficiency explained 8.7% of the variance in children's physical activity. Motor skill competence is critical for young school-age children. Clark (2005) explained that around age seven, children shift from a period in which they are learning and practicing fundamental motor skills to a new period in which they begin to implement skills in more complex contexts, such as games. This "contextspecific" period occurs about the same time as the qualitative shift occurs toward higher cognitive development. This is the period in which the relation between motor skill competence and physical activity increases. Children who have attained fundamental motor skill proficiency and continue to become more skillful during middle childhood and adolescence have more options to participate and be successful in physical activities as adults. Clark hypothesized that these individuals will demonstrate higher levels of health-related physical fitness and activity. Certainly, most would agree with Clark (2007, p. 43) that potentially "Physical education is the best public health delivery system our nation has." After all, greater than 95% of children participate in physical education with an opportunity to learn and practice physical skills. However, everyone involved in education and kinesiology must insist that physical educators use effective strategies for student and time management when implementing positive environments for skill learning essential to the goal of motor skill competence. School districts, too, need to work harder to protect the integrity of the learning environment in physical education so that students have opportunities to become more skillful. Educational administrators, classroom teachers, and parents are keenly aware that children cannot reach mathematics competencies with only 30 min of itistruction weekly. Likewise, when only 30 min each week (-18 hr/yr) are allocated to elementary physical education, it is unlikely that children will have time to learn and practice even the most basic skills, much less become skillful! Almond and Harris (1998) pointed out over a decade ago that physical education interventions that achieved positive results in increasing physical activity in physical education required both additional instructional time and nonstandard physical education curricula. It is clear that to promote physical skill development and physical activity, instructional time allocated to physical education must be increased and better used. Evidence for Education and Skiilfuiness What Level of Motor Skill Competence Will Foster Lifespan Physical Activity? What level of skillfulness is enough to prepare students to be physically activity for a lifetime? In 1980, Seefeldt argued for the notion of a "proficiency barrier," or a critical threshold of motor skill competence above which children will be active and successfully apply motor skills in sports and games. Conversely, if children's skillfulness does not reach this threshold, Seefeldt hypothesized that they would ultimately drop out of physical activities, unable or unwilling to be physically active at the intensities and for the duration needed to maintain health and well-being. The notion of a proficiency barrier leads us to questions about the efficacy of critical or "sensitive" periods during which children may learn motor skills more easily (Clark, 2005). Certainly, those of us who teach adult beginners to swim, ski, golf, or perform racquet sports, for example, understand how difficult it is to leam new skills as we get older. Unfortunately, at this point there is little conclusive evidence to explain this phenomenon. Clark (2005) argues persuasively, however, for a research agenda that examines patterns of coordination and perceptual-motor linkages between the vestibular and motor systems acquired early in life. She points out that the deep "grammar" of movement reflected in trunk and limb coordination and control has major implications for building motor skill competence. An example of "deep grammar" inherent in coordinated body movements can be found in body weight shifts when throwing, skiing, or performing other activities that require rapid changes of direction. Weight shifts appear highly relevant to skill learning during the context-specific skill-learning period and later in adulthood. A Coordinated Research Agenda A coordinated research agenda across motor behavior laboratories is greatly needed today to create the evidence-based foundation for the motor skill-physical activity bridge linking kinesiology to society. Although we have valuable data to clarify and extend our understanding of neuromotor functioning related to motor skill development, Clark (2005) points out that we lack specific research evidence to actually join the two bridge spans connecting skill competence with increased physical activity. A similar disconnect motivated exercise physiologists during the early 1990s to veer momentarily from their basic research agendas to conduct the integrative research that provided convincing evidence to connect physical inactivity with disease, thus dramatically affecting United States public health policy (United States Department of Health and Human Services [USDHHS], 1996). These findings published in the now famous Surgeon General's Report ultimately opened numerous funding opportunities benefiting both science and practice. This bridge connecting kinesiology to society presaged a major societal shift toward increased physical activity as a protective and preventative ally in the fight against heart disease and many other life-threatening illnesses. Cognitive motor scientists can have an equally important role in producing the integrative research that may one day bridge the gap between motor skill competence and lifelong physical activity and health. 10 Ennis Perceived Competence Clark (2007) and Stodden et al. (2009) emphasized that increased skillfulness often leads to a positive sense of physical self-worth that psychologists describe as efficacy or perceived competence. Sallis (2000) concurred pointing out that actual body weight may be less important in individual's decisions to participate in physical activity settings than perceptions of body image and self-presentation. Motor skill competence, perceptions of competence, and body image are key factors in students' developing attitudes toward physical education and physical activity (Silverman, 2005). Physical education is a primary site for students' development of positive feelings of physical self-worth and perceived competence related to motor skills and fitness. These can lead to a more positive attitude toward physical activity and increase the likelihood that students who perceive themselves to be skilled and fit will participate in more diverse activities with greater intensity. Perceived competence theory posits that individuals who believe they are skillful demonstrate a higher level of perceived competence and a more positive sense of physical self-worth than those who do not (Bryan & Solmon, 2007). These perceptions appear essential to continued participation and enjoyment in physical activity. Further, competence motivation theory (Harter, 1978) suggests that if individuals do not feel competent in an area, they will find an alternative activity in which they are more likely to succeed. Described by epidemiologists as displacement theory (Biddle, Gorely, & Stensel, 2004), competence motivation theory emphasizes that perceived competence is nurtured when the focus is on personal improvement and task mastery. It is associated with intrinsic motivation, leading to feelings of being energized, intrigued, and self-assured. Perceptions of competence contribute to a sustained commitment to participate in pleasurable pursuits (Bryan & Solmon, 2007). Coupled with feelings of autonomy and relatedness to others, perceived competence can lead to confidence in oneself as a performer (Bryan & Solmon, 2007). It facilities positive comfort levels, fostering students' intrinsic desire to participate in many different activities and their willingness to perform with and in front of others. Social comparative contexts like physical education provide influential environments for children and adolescents to judge self-competence in skill, sport, and physical activity. Positive, efficacious beliefs about ability and competence formed in nurturing, mastery-oriented physical education environments appear to influence effort and decisions to select physical activity over sedentary pursuits. These prioir experiences of both success and failure have a direct and lasting effect on children and adolescents' perceived competence (Bryan & Solmon, 2007). In addition, Ntoumanis (2001) found that students who felt their physical education teachers eniphasized self-improvement, rather than winning or out-performing others, had higher levels of perceived competence than teachers who provided exclusively competitive physical education lessons. Similarly, girls appeared to be particularly sensitive to perceptions of physical self-worth and competence when deciding whether to participate. They often preferred to sit-out or walk rather than participate with boys in activities that required skill, strength, and power. Although pedagogical research documents strategies to engage girls effectively in skill and games-oriented, coeducational lessons (Ennis, 1999; Griffin, 1985), there is a growing body of research to suggest that some girls are more willing to participate in Evidence for Education and Skillfulness 11 skill-based, games-oriented lessons in girls-only classes (Oliver & Hamzeh, 2010; Oliver, Hamzeh, & McCaultry, 2009). Physical education programs that contribute to girls' and boys' perceived motor competence, promote individual success, and foster positive experiences are more likely to lead to long-term commitment to physical activity. Research Methods to Assess Perceived Competence Additional research is needed examining self-determination theories to support solid connections between perceived competence and voluntary physical activity. Methodological issues, such as overuse of self-report data collected using questionnaires and surveys, limits the credibility and applicability of findings from this very promising research area. Direct measures of effort, mastery, and autonomy, for example, are needed to support student self-report data. Interventions to examine effective motivational strategies are the next important step in spanning kinesioiogy and society. If physical educators are to one day design lessons rich in enhancements to foster self-determination (perceived competence, autonomy, and relatedness) and mastery they must have more than correlational evidence with few applications to actual physical education environments. In addition, researchers examining achievement motivation variables need to provide detailed analyses of the physical education curriculum, teaching strategies and practices, and assessment practices within the class settings they examine. Physical education is not an amorphous, generic domain. The content of most physical education curricula include multiple activities, policies, teaching strategies, and student skill levels. These combine to create infinite complexity that cannot be described adequately using the descriptor, "physical education." Instead, careful researchers will describe the domain-specific characteristics of the physical education programs and content areas that engage and motivate children and adolescents to participate in physical activity. Domain-Specific Characteristics of Physical Education Physical education, today, in the United States is taught from at least three different perspectives: recreational, public health, or educational (Ennis, 2010). Each has its unique characteristics, content, opportunities, and barriers. Recreational physical education provides opportunities for students to play sports with little instruction. Often described as multiactivity, exposure, or do-nothing (See Newell, this volume) physical education, units often are too short and unfocused to contribute to student learning or physical activity by almost any standard. Unlike, recreational programs. Public Health approaches to physical education have a specific goal to provide children with an approved dose of physical activity. These programs employ many types of physical activity to entice and reward students for working-out at target heart rate, burning maximum calories through physical activity. Conscientious researcher will examine curriculum guides when they exist, review teachers' lesson plans, and discuss the goals and outcomes of the lessons with teachers and students. This information is essential to evaluate the generalizability of the findings and to promote motivational lessons and unit designs in these domain specific programs. 12 Ennis Although educational approaches to physical education employ physical activity throughout lessons, student learning, not exercise prescription, is the primary instructional goal. Content can be highly focused, concept-based, and skill- and fitness-oriented. Teachers must manage time and organize tasks carefully with a focus on rrraximizing appropriate practice opportunities to increase student learning (Silverman, 2005). Consistent with contemporary theories of student learning, the curricular focus is placed on what, how, and how well students learn. Teaching strategies can be creative and diverse, requiring researchers to document the nature of the environment that resulted in their findings. Researchers examining self-determination theories are encouraged to describe the curriculum (recreational, public health, educational) and specific content that students are experiencing as referents when they participate or respond to interviewer's questions. This careful attention to detail is essential to future efforts to form tight bonds between selfdetermination theories and voluntary physical activity, providing a critical link between kinesiology and society. Cognitive Development and Understanding I We have strong evidence to suggest that for most people, simply presenting facts about the benefits of health and physical activity does little to change behavior. Two important áreas of kinesiology lend support to the argument for an emphasis on cognition in a balanced approach to physical education. First is the neurophysiology research linking physical activity with enhanced brain functioning that may one day lead to credible claims for links between physical education/activity and enhanced academic achievement. Second is the use of developmentally appropriate concepi;ually based curricular approaches that use affective and emotionally meaningful knowledge presentations to address students' concerns and cultural beliefs that|may limit or facilitate their willingness to participate in physical activity. Neurophysiology as a Partner in Lifetime Development The study of the neurophysiological connections between physical education/activity and enhanced brain functioning can lead to understandings that facilitate both healthy aging and children's developing brains. Although strong research bonds have not yet been forged, neurophysiologists are gradually opening windows on these phenomena. Hatfield explains: The physical benefits of activity and fitness have received much attention, but the nerarocognitive benefits, which may well translate into academic achievement given a conducive academic environment, are relatively unexplored. There is compelling evidence that physical activity results in cognitive benefits, particularly in the elderly who are experiencing age-related decline in executive and memory-related processes. This ameliorative effect may be due to the neurobiolpgical benefits observed in animal models such as neurotrophic influence, angiogenesis, and the maintenance and up-regulation of key neurotransmitters such as dopamine and acetylcholine. The benefits likely counter the decline of the brain, promote cognitive reserve, and enable enhanced cognitive function and the delay of symptoms due to pathology such as late-onset dementia of the Evidence for Education and Skiilfulness 13 Alzheimer's type (DAT). At the other end of the age spectrum, it may be that physical activity and fitness enhance the plasticity of the developing brain in children and adolescents resulting in increased thickness of the cortical gray matter and integrity of white matter tracts, thus enhancing cortical connectivity and networking in the brain. In addition, the alteration of key neurotransmitters may well affect both cognitive and affective function in young people, thus facilitating focus, concentration, emotion regulation, and working and longterm memory. Such advantages, if documented, would enable a more efficient transaction between the individual and the classroom environment such that they may be able to attend to and extract information and commit it to memory in a more efficient manner, compared with one who is less active and/or less fit. In this manner, physical activity and the attendant changes in physical fitness may facilitate neural processes and brain development, allowing the student to capitalize on the classroom offerings by the instructor As such, a healthy mind in a healthy body within a fertile educational environment is more likely to achieve their intellectual potential relative to a less fit individual in the same environment. (B. D. Hatfield, personal communication, October 27, 2010) Physical education can have an important role in brain functioning when it supplements both physical activity and cognitive elasticity that can arise from physically active experiences that enhance challenge, fluidity, versatility, and adaptability. Some approaches to curriculum available today, use physical activity both as an opportunity to increase intensity and expend calories and to challenge an integrated mind and body to solve meaningful problems associated with the effects of exercise on the body. Connecting Knowledge With Meaningful Physical Activity Developmentally appropriate affective and skills-based knowledge presented within a meaningful context can facilitate behavior change. Knowledge presented with the direct purpose of immediate application is the first step in this process. Physical education curricula consistent with cognitive conceptions of learning seek to change the way the individual "thinks, reasons, believes, and processes information, in part by expanding or altering the individual's knowledge base" (Alexander, 2006, p. 123). Developmental approaches to knowledge presentation and application appear to hold promise in physical education program designs leading to behavior change. Similar to learning motor skills and effective game play, fitness knowledge needs to be presented within a physical education environment sensitive to students' current beliefs and interests. Corbin and Lindsey's (2007) Stairway to Fitness is a constructivist scaffold to prepare students to engage cognitively in physically active physical education. Corbin and Lindsay's curriculum uses a series of three questions—1) "Why should I exercise?", 2) "What are my exercise needs?", and 3) "How do I exercise to meet my needs?"—to shape a developmentally appropriate concept-based approach to fitness education. Each question focuses the purpose of the lesson to help students answer the "Why" question for themselves, introducing information woven through physically active tasks. Within lessons designed to address the "What" question, students self-assess their fitness level and set realistic short term goals to gauge their exercise needs. As students' knowledge, intrinsic 14 Ennis motivation • and fitness levels increase, they are ready developmentally to answer the "How" question as they consider different fitness principles and training practices to create and maintain a physical activity program. Unlike traditional fitness and conditioning programs that begin and end with a "How do I exercise..." workout, this physical education program nurtures motivation, commitment, and goal setting, leading to íong-term commitment to a physically active lifestyle. I Student |Beliefs in Physical Education Curricula, such as cognitive developmental approaches to fitness, acknowledge the role that inclividuals' prior knowledge, naive theories, and misconceptions play in constraining their willingness and receptivity to physical education, fitness, and physical activity messages. Although for some individuals decisions to make major lifestyle behavioral changes may involve simply adding new facts to their knowledge base, ifor others, behavioral changes requires more than simply leaming the physical acitivity guidelines, experiencing games that are "fun," or walking around the track during physical education. These individuals may live with pervasive, negative beliefs about physical activity and exercise that can significantly limit their willingness to be physically active. Some middle school students, for example, define fitness as "looking good and being thin," (Placek, Griffin, Dodds, Raymond, Tremino, & James, 2001) while some young children worry that "If my heart beats too fast, I will have a heart attack and die." Physical educators are just beginning to realize how extensive and limiting these belief structures can be when attempting to encourage children and adolescents to be¡ physically active. Curricula specifically planned to confront students' naive and incorrect conceptions can target students' concems, enhancing their understanding, soothing their fears, and increasing the pace and depth of leaming. Data are accumulating to support the role of educational physical education in contributing to motor skill competence, perceived competence, and conceptual change. Additional research is needed to understand the ontological and epistemological beliefs that students bring to physical education that limit their willingness to value and participate in physical activity (Ennis, 2007). Further, we require research to link innovative curricular approaches that promote knowledge growth with increases in physical activity. We need additional examinations of physically active environments in which students leam to solve problems using knowledge to influence future decisions. Finding optimal combinations of emotionally engaging, concept guided physical activity may lead to physical education that plays an important role in lifetime physical activity. the Role of Physical Education in Public Health Initiatives Currently, physical activity guidelines stipulate that individuals need more minutes of activity ¡than most physical education lessons, alone, can provide. It is essential to continue to encourage legislatures to pass funded mandates to increase the instructional minutes that students spend in physical education and physical activity during the ^school day. However, even the most effective, well-managed physical education programs fall short of these ambitious physical activity guidelines. Evidence for Education and Skilifulness 15 Rather than devoting the entire class period to the goal of moving at target heart rate, sacrificing skill development and cognitive knowledge growth, a better solution to the time dilemma is to think of physical education as one component of an extensive school-community partnership for physical activity. School Wellness Programs are one mechanism to create diverse opportunities to build improved nutrition and physical activity throughout the day for children and adolescents. As part of the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004, the U.S. Congress established the requirement that all school districts with federally-funded school meals program develop and implement Wellness policies that address nutrition and physical activity. Although the Act originally f^ocused on school nutrition, school Wellness programs have grown to include safe paths to walk to and from school, morning fitness programs, active recess, frequent physical activity breaks, intramurals, and after-school sports. In addition, socioecological frameworks (Elder, Lytle, Sallis, Rohm Young, Steckler, Simons-Morton et al., 2007; Sallis, Cervero, Ascher, Henderson, Kraft, & Kerr, 2006) expand this concept from a "whole-school" Wellness plan to design school-community coalitions to promote improved opportunities for better nutrition and increased physical activity. Within school-community partnerships, physical education becomes one of several sites in which students participate in physical activity. These enjoyable social environments and other community-based physical activities sites, such as dance studios, skate-board parks, and family activity trails, team with physical education to provide ample MVPA within each child's day. PE as PA Currently, however, some school-based partnership models allocate all of the instructional time available in physical education to public health oriented goals associated with MVPA. In programs where physical education is limited to physical activity, the primary goal is for students to workout, increasing heart rate and buming calories (Castelli & Valley, 2007). PE as PA is short sighted. Students log minutes without understanding the benefits and effects of physical activity on their bodies and burn calories without comprehending the principle of caloric balance. These long-term principles permit individuals to commit, control, and adapt their physical activity to their changing lifestyles. In some school-based partnership models, physical education teachers no longer teach physical education. Instead, they become the school physical activity coordinator, charged with running the school fitness program and supervising after-school physical activities. Knowledge outcomes, formally assigned to physical education, are allocated to health education, relegating fitness and health knowledge to a textbook, and replacing dynamic lessons exploring the science of the human body with simple games and exercise routines. In PE as PA, physical education teachers are discouraged from teaching fundamental motor skills. Without motor skill competence needed to maintain physical activity, redundant exercises, and simple, frantic, but vigorous games lead to a mindless approach to physicality. In addition, the sustainabiUty of the PE as PA model is threatened because noneducational programs are incompatible with the educational goals of public schools. When schools promote physical activity as the school mission, the organization is diverted away from its primary educational mission to one of public health. Organizational 16 Ennis resources tnust be transferred from educational to public health initiatives. Although schools will temporarily modify schedules to accommodate PA initiatives when intervention funding makes if feasible and cost-effective, most philosophically incompatible innovations, such as PE as PA, are not sustained after funding is terminated. Educational physical education that promotes motor skill competence and knowledge growth can be sustained, however, when it integrates knowledge with physical activity and contributes to the educational mission of schools. Educational physical education that provides a balanced approach to educating the whole child is consistent with the school's educational mission. There are other barriers, bowever, that limit opportunity for quality physical education programs to contribute to lifelong physical activity. Of particular concem is the diversion of resources away froni physical education to "tested" subjects. Instructional time, facilities, equipment', and staffing deficits limit both the curriculum offerings and the value that others hold for physical education and physical activity. Teachers' pride in the quality of their work and tbeir students' achievements diminishes if no one seems to notice their hard work and dedicated efforts. State legislatures need to hold schools districts and principals accountable for the quality of tbeir physical education programs just as they do for mathematics and reading test scores. Without legislative policies to hold school districts' accountable for educational goals, principals will continue to permit the physical education classroom to be compromised. Principals and parents will permit students to "opt-out" of physical education to participate in band and athletics. They will allow them to be "pulled-oiit" of physical education to complete classroom tests or assignments. Not surprisingly, in school districts that chose to build five new classrooms instead of an elementary gymnasium, physical education is still conducted in crowded classrooms during the winter months where students perform 1 min of jumping jacks behind their desks before being told to sit down again. Schools with gymnasia also have tales to tell when physical education is "thrown-out" of this facility because of picture days, science fairs, pep rallies, and student government speeches. In many schools, we are a long way f'rom making physical education a viable site for leaming and physical activity. The lcjng-term aim of promoting lifetime physical activity requires a far-sighted plan in which schools and communities work in partnership to provide adequate facilities, staffing, and equipment to teach students fundamental and complex motor skills within diverse MVPA-friendly environments. Short sighted approaches to physical education in which we forsake a balanced perspective in favor of tallying MVPA minutes and calories, will not lead to more physically active adults. Quality physical education teaching is not rocket science; it's much harder! Designing and conducting research to provide evidence for sound pedagogical practices, link skillfulness, motivation, and cognition with physically active lifestyles, and engage students in a quest for knowledge about the effects of exercise on their bodies requires coordinated efforts by scientists and practitioners to build from kinesioiogy to society.