OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND EXERCISE SCIENCE

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OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN PHYSICAL
EDUCATION AND EXERCISE SCIENCE
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WHY BE PHYSICALLY ACTIVE?

• Help prevent cardiovascular disease
• Help reduce or eliminate some of the risk factors
  associated with high blood pressure, obesity,
  diabetes, and colon cancer
• Lower the risk for stroke
• Reduce feelings of depression and anxiety
• Improve mood

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WHY BE PHYSICALLY ACTIVE?

• Increase cardiorespiratory endurance
• Build muscular strength and endurance
• Improve flexibility
• Build healthy bones, muscles, and joints
• Increase the capacity for exercise

So, why are people not more active, thus
resulting in the obesity epidemic?
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WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES FACING RECREATION AND
LEISURE PROGRAMS?

• Demographic changes
• Altered family and work patterns including
  latch-key kids
• Environmental concerns
• Budget reductions
• Socioeconomic factors of participants
• Unique programmatic needs of individuals of all
  ages

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WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES FACING THE EXERCISE
SCIENCES?

• Public health issues, such as obesity and
  cardiovascular diseases
• Rising health care costs
• Activity program adherence
  in fitness programs
• Inadequately educated individuals conducting
  fitness classes, prescribing exercises, or
  serving as personal trainers
• Lack of access to fitness programs by some
  minorities, females, senior citizens, and
  individuals with special needs

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WHAT ARE PROGRAM ADHERENCE FACTORS?

• Set realistic exercise goals and commit to
  achieving them
• Tailor your exercise program to fit your current
  fitness level and lifestyle
• Meet your physicians expectations for addressing
  a health concern through exercise
• Implement a safe, individualized, and progressive
  program
• Participate in fun and satisfying activities
• Ensure access to facilities at convenient times
• Ensure proper supervision that includes education
  about exercise and helps with motivation
• Develop a positive feeling about exercise and how
  it can affect your health

• Keep records of your exercise program and
  periodically reward yourself for making progress
• Get periodic assessments and feedback about your
  fitness level
• Receive support and encouragement from family,
  especially a spouse, friends, and peers
• Build your self-efficacy, or the optimistic
  assessment that you can cope with the demands of
  life, such as by continuing your exercise program
  
• Develop a strong belief in yourself that you can
  overcome barriers and succeed with your exercise
  program
• Include periodic social functions with others in
  your exercise group
• Be patient because developing fitness takes time
• Ensure that your exercise program has meaning by
  connecting with a personal need

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OTHER ISSUES FACING EXERCISE SCIENCES

• Information-based, global interconnection
• Must seek advanced education (certifications and
  degrees) in order to qualify for and retain jobs
• Must evaluate information on the Web
• Utilization of technology in research
• Focus on assessment and accountability
• Ethical concerns

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ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PROGRAMS

• Understanding the developmental readiness of
  children
• Fundamental movement skills progressing from
  simple to complex, along with basic fitness
  concepts
• Varied curricula including rhythmical activities,
  stunts, games, basic sports skills, relays, and
  lead-up games

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MOVEMENT EDUCATION

• Begins where each child is
• Proceeds from known activities into new movement
  patterns
• Continues within the personal and unique
  limitations of each child
• Develops confidence for each child since each
  learns at his or her own ability level
• Confidence leads to freedom to explore more
  difficult, yet basic, movements

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CHARACTERISTICS OF MOVEMENT EDUCATION

• The program
• Activity-centered
• Student-centered
• Intellectual awareness stressed (problem solving
  and guided discovery)
• Problems to solve have a variety of solutions

• The teacher
• Imaginative
• Creative
• Guides, not dictates

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• The student
• Inner motivation
• Independent
• Thinks and reasons intelligently
• Progresses at own rate
• Self-evaluates based on individualized goals
• Competes against self, not others
• Class atmosphere
• Informal
• Varied formations
• Permissive behavior allowed
• Time allotment based on students' needs

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MIDDLE SCHOOL PHYSICAL EDUCATION

• Attention to the developmental needs of students
  during this transitional period
• Developing responsible personal and social
  behaviors
• Varied curricula that review fundamental and
  sport skills while incorporating these into
  games, dance forms, and outdoor adventure
  activities

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SECONDARY SCHOOL PHYSICAL EDUCATION

• Curricular focus on developing and maintaining a
  health-enhancing level of physical fitness
• Varied program that includes aerobic activities
  and lifetime sports and activities
• Helping students learn to commit to lifelong
  physical activity

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INSTRUCTIONAL CHALLENGES

• Insufficient facilities and equipment
• Apathetic students
• Violence in schools
• Alcohol and other drug use and abuse
• Lack of parental and family support for education
• Heterogeneous students in large classes (along
  with inclusion)
• Disciplinary and behavioral problems

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OTHER ISSUES AND PROBLEMS

• Threats to program viability
• Role conflicts between physical education
  teachers and coaches
• Identity dilemma in name and image
• Fragmentation
• Lack of fitness (rising incidence of obesity) of
  students due to inactivity and poor eating
  habits

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CERTIFICATION AND ACCREDITATION

• Teacher licensure, such as through the Praxis
  Series
• Program accreditation based on achieving national
  standards and performance outcomes, such as
  through the National Council for Accreditation of
  Teacher Education
• Certification of coaches and individuals working
  in the exercise sciences

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ACCOUNTABILITY

• The political right that demands that an
  individual or institution be held responsible to
  achieve a specified action
• Standard a uniform criterion or minimum
  essential element for the measurement of quality
• Assessment a measure of the knowledge, skills,
  and abilities that leads to the assignment of a
  value or score

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Assessment Model
Overall Goal Increase
Admission Requirements
P-12 Student Learning
PROCESS
BENCHMARK
National Content Standards
field experience evaluations
seminar projects
mini teaching lessons
individual research projects
OUTCOMES
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LEGAL LIABILITY

• Tort a private or civil wrong or injury, other
  than breach of contract, suffered due to another
  persons conduct
• Civil trials plaintiff must prove based on
  preponderance of evidence (criminal trials
  require proof beyond a reasonable doubt)

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NEGLIGENCE

• An unintentional tort the failure to act
  (standard of care) as a reasonable, up-to-date,
  and prudent person would act in similar
  circumstances resulting in injury to another
  person

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REQUIRED FOR NEGLIGENCE

• A legal duty or standard of care (i.e., to
  protect a student or client from foreseeable
  risk)
• A breach of the legal duty of care
• Proximate cause of the injury
• Substantial nature of the injuries

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NEGLIGENCE

• Negligent, when not directly involved
• Agency when a teacher directs the acts of
  others
• Respondeat superior employer is responsible for
  the negligence of employees

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DEFENSES AGAINST NEGLIGENCE

• Assumption of risk through voluntary
  participation must know, understand, and
  appreciate the risks
• Governmental or sovereign immunity
• Contributory negligence damages are all or none
  if the injured person was responsible for some of
  the negligence
• Comparative negligence apportionment of damages
  between the (negligent) plaintiff and the person
  injured

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CONTRIBUTORY OR COMPARATIVE

• In Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina,
  Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland and the District of
  Columbia, an injured party will be denied any
  payment if found to have been guilty of even
  slight contributory negligence (is an archaic and
  unfair rule).
• In the other 44 states, comparative negligence,
  the negligence of the claimant is balanced with
  the percentage of blame placed on the other party
  or parties causing the accident.

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SUPERVISION

• General supervision is always required when
  activity is occurring.
• Specific supervision is required when a dangerous
  or high risk activity is occurring.
• Actual notice refers to the responsibility to
  remove known hazards.
• Constructive notice refers to those hazards that
  a responsible person failed to notice and remove.

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WAIVERS (Exculpatory Contracts)

• Are clearly written
• Waives the right to sue for negligence
• Are not an agreement to participate
• Are executed by parties having equitable
  bargaining rights
• Must be signed by an adult for the adults right
  to sue
• Minors cannot sign away their rights to sue, so
  they can sue after being injured and up to one
  year after becoming adults

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SAFETY CONCERNS

• If teachers or leaders have not made sure that
  directions are clear and specified how activities
  are to be executed safely.
• If participants have not been taught how to
  control their movements or work with an awareness
  of others within the available space.

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SAFETY CONCERNS

• If students or participants are expected to and
  are attempting to perform skills they are not yet
  capable of doing.
• If equipment and apparatus are left unsecured
  thus creating attractive nuisances.

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SUPERVISION GUIDELINES

• Make sure that all facilities are safe and free
  of hazards and maintain files of these
  inspections
• Develop and publicize safety procedures and
  communicate these to all participants
• Strictly and consistently enforce all safety
  rules and procedures
• Provide active supervision of all activities and
  all instructional areas

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SUPERVISION GUIDELINES

• Use only equipment that has been inspected and
  evaluated as safe
• Establish a system for identifying, treating,
  reporting, and recording all injuries (retain
  these records)
• Establish an operational system of emergency care
  in the event of a serious injury
• Carry liability insurance with broad coverage

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CAUSES OF CAREER BURNOUT

• Excessive demands (overwork)
• Constant tension or pressure
• Lack of recognition and reward
• Excessive repetitiveness in job
• Lack of challenge or motivation
• Lack of flexibility and freedom
• No possibility for advancement
• Role conflict (such as teacher-coach)

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SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF CAREER BURNOUT

• Chronic stress
• Emotional exhaustion
• Less enjoyment of work and leisure time
• Bodily changes, such as fatigue or increased
  heart rate

• Overeating or under eating
• Excessive drinking or abuse of drugs
• Frustration with job-related factors
• Anxiety and depression

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COPING MECHANISMS PHYSICALLY

• Get a complete physical exam
• Get adequate sleep
• Eat nutritious and timely meals
• Exercise regularly

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COPING MECHANISMS MENTALLY

• Develop coping skills for dealing with stress
• Understand yourself and how you deal with stress
• Set realistic goals
• Learn to manage your time more effectively
• Take time for relaxation

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COPING MECHANISMS SOCIALLY

• Nurture personal relationships
• Engage in meaningful service to others
• Practice healthy communication
• Express your feelings to someone you trust
• Keep your sense of humor