Date of Award
Summer 2021
Document Type
Open Access Dissertation
Department
Physical Education
First Advisor
Collin A. Webster
Abstract
Schools have been identified as key venues that have a positive impact on students’ development through physical activity (PA) and physical education (PE) programming. A comprehensive school physical activity program (CSPAP) is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s [CDC] national framework for school-based PA (CDC, 2019). A CSPAP was conceptualized as a strategic approach to leverage the full range of resources needed to meet two broad goals: (a) provide school-aged youth with the opportunity to meet the nationally recommended 60 minutes of daily PA, and (b) achieve Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE) America’s National Standards for K-12 learners (SHAPE America, 2014). While it is well established that a CSPAP can facilitate children’s PA opportunities, little is known about the extent to which the different components of a CSPAP can support students’ achievement of the PE standards.
Originally, the purpose of this dissertation was to investigate the potential of opportunities outside of traditional PE to bolster students’ PE learning. The dissertation was based on the idea that a CSPAP can be used to enhance and accelerate what students learn in PE, including physical, cognitive, and social and emotional skills. From this perspective, all CSPAP components are connected not only through PA experiences but also PE learning. Three studies were proposed for this dissertation, including (a) a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effectiveness of CSPAP-aligned PA interventions in increasing elementary children’s motor competence (MC), in line with SHAPE America’s (2014) Standard 1 (Study 1); (b) a systematic review and metaanalysis of the effectiveness of CSPAP-aligned PA interventions on the development of elementary children’s social and emotional learning (SEL), in line with SHAPE America’s Standard 4 and 5 (Study 2); and (c) a school-based pilot intervention examining the efficacy of classroom movement integration (MI) to support elementary children’s MC and SEL.
Due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic during this dissertation, conducting the intervention for Study 3 was not possible because of school closures and the author and his committee agreed to substitute the intervention with the development of a new research measure for assessing online physical education (OLPE), which was considered appropriate in the context of the pandemic. As such, the revised purpose of this dissertation was to examine CSPAP-aligned strategies, particularly beyond traditional PE, for supporting students’ PE learning. While no changes were made to Studies 1 or 2, the updated purpose of Study 3 was to develop a systematic observation instrument – the System for Observing Virtual Real Time Lessons in Physical Education (SOVRTL-PE) – for assessing synchronous OLPE lessons in K-12 PE.
Studies 1 and 2 followed the updated Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines (Page et al., 2021) and synthesized the evidence of the effectiveness of PA interventions in increasing MC and SEL of children aged 5-12. The CSPAP framework was used to categorize the different intervention approaches. The results of both studies demonstrate that the PA intervention programs had a positive effect on the development of MC and SEL. In light of our results, extensive CSPAP-aligned PA intervention approaches appear to be promising avenues for enhancing children’s MC and SEL. Study 3 used five phases to develop and establish the reliability of the SOVRTL-PE. Specifically, the instrument was content validated, using an extensive literature search, observations of synchronous OLPE lessons, and consensus from a Delphi survey with several experts within the field. The result of Study 3 provides an overview of key features of synchronous OLPE and underscores the importance of optimizing family and community resources to better understand how to support students’ learning during virtual PE instruction. In essence, this study provides one possibility for systematically assessing and improving professional practices amid increased shifts toward virtual teaching and learning alternatives in PE within the CSPAP framework.
Ultimately, understanding the potential of CSPAPs, whether facilitated in-person or remotely, for supporting students’ PE learning fundamentally changes the way both researchers and practitioners might approach implementing such programs.
Rights
© 2021, Jongho Moon
Recommended Citation
Moon, J.(2021). Three Studies Investigating Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program-Aligned Opportunities To Enhance Students’ Physical Education Learning. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/6476