Ben D. Kern

University of Wyoming | UW · Division of Kinesiology and Health

Background: Most US children and adolescents do not meet recommended daily physical activity (PA) guidelines. Determinants of PA are complex; however, access to opportunities precedes actual PA engagement. Schools are well positioned to support student PA through the provision of physical education (PE) and before, during, and after school PA oppor...

School principals are responsible for leadership toward meeting an academic mission predicated on student achievement in core subjects. Socialization experiences of principals relative to physical education (PE) may impact their perception of PE's academic value. Our purpose was to investigate the development and maturation of school principals’ pe...

Purpose: Our purpose was to gather and evaluate accurate, up-to-date information on physical education (PE) policy implementation across multiple U.S. states and regions. Methods: A U.S. Physical Education and Physical Activity Policy questionnaire was developed and completed by 4,845 public-school PE teachers from 25 U.S. states. The U.S. Physical...

In the United States, the Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program (CSPAP) is a whole-of-school framework to ensure youth meet physical activity guidelines. Physical education teachers (PETs) are poised to be CSPAP leaders, but implementation is low. PETs’ involvement with CSPAPs may be better understood through the lens of their role breadth...

Students who are physically active tend to have better grades, school attendance, memory, and focus.1 Physical activity during the school day also benefits students’ physical and mental well-being. As states reel from learning loss and an ongoing youth mental health crisis, state policymakers can help balance students’ physical, emotional, and cogn...

Demand for supporting the delivery of high-quality physical education (PE) has never been more important, and continuing professional development (CPD) that results in changes in PE teachers’ practices and improvements in student learning outcomes is in short supply. PE-CPD has historically fallen short of meeting this end, though there are written...

Purpose: Despite evidence regarding emotions’ impact on learners, there remains a paucity of research examining the relationships between student emotions and achievement within contemporary instructional models. Grounded in the Control-Value Theory of Achievement Emotions, changes in middle school students’ motivational beliefs, emotions, and lear...

Purpose : To examine the contextual and personal factors that influence teachers’ reported adoption of one or more instructional models (IMs). Methods : Participants ( n = 25) were interviewed that reported adopting Sport Education; Teaching Games for Understanding; Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility; and/or Sports, Play, and Active Recrea...

Purpose : To examine socialization experiences of physical educators who deliver strength and conditioning (S&C) programming, particularly the development of subjective theories, expertise, orientations, and perceived mattering. Methods : Thirty-one secondary school physical educators providing S&C instruction/supervision as part of required duties...

Purpose : The purpose was to examine secondary physical education teachers’ strength and conditioning (SC) knowledge and evaluate associations between SC teaching role, professional preparation, and development. Method : A knowledge survey was developed/validated and distributed to 2,189 middle/high school teachers, with 605 providing complete data...

Purpose: To examine gender and grade-level differences in teaching and 18 assessment of health-related fitness (HRF) among US physical educators. 19 Methods: A survey measuring teaching (tHRF) and assessing (aHRF) HRF 20 subtopics was completed by 796 US physical educators. Dependent paired 21 samples t-tests were performed per individual HRF items...

Purpose : To examine the current pedagogical practices among physical educators with different dispositions toward the change process and belonging to different demographic categories. We hypothesized that change-disposed, nonchange-disposed, and neutral change disposition teachers, along with teachers of different gender identities and student gra...

This article offers a blueprint for how middle-school geometry and physical education units naturally intersect for authentic integration of both subjects. This disciplinary intersection is called the “Geometry Racket” and illustrates how mathematics knowledge provides and almost unfair advantage (i.e. racketeering) in net/wall games.

Background With teachers in high-poverty schools facing increased stress, decreased motivation, and job satisfaction, it is imperative to identify educators that can thrive and sustain over time and intend to remain teaching in high-poverty schools despite these concerns. Identifying individual characteristics of teacher sustainability related to o...

In line with trends in general education, physical education teacher education programs have faced lowering enrollments over the last few decades. These circumstances have led to the closure of some PETE programs while faculty members at others have been called to increase recruitment and retention efforts to reverse the negative enrollment trends....

Purpose: To examine Wyoming physical education (PE) and physical activity (PA) policy and report current district-, school-, and classroom-level data. Method: A total of 175 public preK-12 PE teachers completed the 30-item Wyoming PE and PA Policy survey in April 2021. Results: Participants reported PE offered in elementary school was 73.1 (±34.3)...

The purpose of this study was to determine how the research intervention called Healthy Eaters, Lifelong Movers (HELM) and associated San Luis Valley Physical Education Academy (SLVPEA) influenced teachers' beliefs about physical education and the extent to which they sustained pedagogical changes over time. Seventeen physical educators who complet...

Teacher change in physical education has long been called for; however, current theoretical models guiding the change process do not address contextual aspects of the teaching workplace. Occupational Socialization Theory (OST) addresses contextual factors related to change but omits individual teacher characteristics that develop independently of s...

Psychological flexibility (PF), teaching resiliency (tRES), and sense of purpose (SOP) are characteristics that influence physical education teaching sustainability. The study's purpose was to validate an instrument measuring PF, tRES, and SOP relative to teachers’ intent to remain teaching (IRT) in high poverty (>60% low-income) schools and evalua...

Competition is a ubiquitous component of American culture and in many US physical education programs. In this article, five myths associated with competition are dispelled: (1) Everyone likes competition, (2) Competition is motivational, (3) Competition is fun, (4) Competition promotes physical activity, and (5) Competition prepares children for th...

Background: School wellness legislation has potential to impact the health of children and alter the obesity crisis in the United Sates. Little is known about how state lawmakers perceive child wellness legislation effectiveness relative to obesity prevention. Our purpose was to understand state lawmakers' perceptions of childhood obesity and scho...

Physical education teachers face considerable sociopolitical challenges that can impede quality instruction and complicate recruitment into the profession. Physical education teacher education faculty members may not be prepared to address these challenges during their doctoral education. Accordingly, the purpose of the paper was to utilize the les...

To promote student physical literacy, physical educators must teach and assess health-related fitness content knowledge (HRFK) and model healthy lifestyles. Individual HRFK is associated with lifetime physical activity (PA) and each may precede/predict both teaching and assessing of student HRFK. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine fa...

Background/Purpose: Physical education teacher education (PETE) programs have experienced enrollment decline, leading some PETE faculty to consider increasing efforts to recruit new students to their programs. This aspect of the current study sought to investigate PETE program coordinators' perceptions of possible causes for decreased PETE enrollme...

The preceding chapters of this monograph have served to situate the study of physical education teacher education recruitment and retention within relevant literature and theory. This chapter outlines the sequential explanatory design methods, whereby participants in an online survey were selected using stratified random sampling to participate in...

Background/Purpose: Student retention in physical education teacher education (PETE) programs is critical to promoting highquality physical education in schools. This aspect of the current study was to investigate PETE program coordinators' perceptions of their role in the process of retaining students within their programs. Method: Thirty-six PETE...

BACKGROUND: Public health concerns regarding childhood obesity and sedentary behavior make investigations of children's physical activity (PA) promotion crucial. School recess, a highly discretional time, plays a central role in shaping children's activity preferences. METHODS: Participants included 40 children (30 girls, 10 boys) from fourth and...

This presentation provides an overview of the development of the Teacher Change Questionnaire - Physical Education (TCQ-PE) and how it may best be applied to professional development settings in order to more strategically target teachers' needs regarding pedagogical change.

Background/Purpose: Physical education is critical to addressing childhood obesity, yet many school-based programs do not meet established quality standards (Lee et al., 2007). Reform efforts call for teachers to change from traditional teaching practices to ones that promote knowledge and skills for lifetime physical activity. Little, however is k...

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate physical education teacher change that was self-initiated and externally initiated and to examine dispositions toward the change process relative to initiation. Method: A random national sample of physical educators representing each SHAPE America - Society of Health and Physical Educators re...

Background: Socioeconomic status (SES) is the most accurate predictor of academic performance in US schools. Third-grade reading is highly predictive of high school graduation. Chronic physical activity (PA) is shown to improve cognition and academic performance. We hypothesized that school-based PA opportunities (recess and physical education) wo...

Abstract. CrossFit® has been defined as a constantly varied, high intensity, functional movement strength/conditioning program that has seen a large increase in popularity. Few studies have specifically investigated either injury patterns, injury incidence (per 1000 hours), and/or injury prevalence sustained in the sport. Material and Method. Eight...

Program satisfaction, self-efficacy to change, and willingness to change, are dispositions that influence physical education teacher change. The study purpose was to validate an instrument measuring program satisfaction, self-efficacy to change, and willingness to change relative to teachers’ likelihood to change. A 15-item Teacher Change Questionn...

Background/Purpose: Experts recommend children engage in daily physical activity (PA) and develop knowledge and skills for lifelong PA participation (Institute of Medicine, 2013). Physical education (PE) teachers are urged to teach knowledge and skills for lifetime physical activity while maintaining highly active classroom environments (≥50% stude...

Background: To address childhood obesity, strategies are needed to maximize physical activity during the school day. The San Luis Valley Physical Education Academy was a public health intervention designed to increase the quality of physical education and quantity of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) during physical education class. M...

Background/Purpose: Socioeconomic status (SES) remains the most accurate predictor of academic performance in US public schools (Kuh, Kinzie, Buckley, Bridges, & Hayek, 2006). Students in low-SES environments are at greater risk for reading difficulty (Aikens & Barbarin, 2008). Third-grade reading ability is highly predictive of high school graduat...

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the association between elementary students' physical activity (PA) levels and their social and activity preferences during school recess. Methods: Elementary students (N = 179) were interviewed and the percentage of time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) was used to group st...

This document provides the framework for the Healthy Eaters, Lifelong Movers (HELM) project Physical Education Academy. It defines a range of elements and performance indicators of teaching quality physical education. The rubric was used to guide the creation and implementation of a professional development curriculum for physical educators.

This white paper describes an initiative that was implemented at Adams State University during the 2012-2013 academic year. It was a partnership between ASU and The Rocky Mountain Prevention Research Center (RMPRC)—Healthy Eaters, Lifelong Movers (HELM) Project. The objective of the initiative was to infuse movement into the institutional culture a...

Childhood overweight and obesity levels have reached epidemic proportions in the United States (Imes & Burke, 2014). In response, initial attempts have been made to enact school policies designed to improve children’s nutrition and physical activity/physical education opportunities. These policies, however, are often ineffective because there is mi...

Recent investigations in the neuroscience of physical activity (PA) have shown that higher fit pre-adolescent students as young as 3 rd grade have greater basal ganglia and hippocampal volume, resulting in significantly better performance in tests of attentional control, memory, learning, and achievement on standardized tests (Chaddock et al, 2010,...

Purpose. High-intensity interval training (HIIT) improves muscle buffering capacity, as does supplementation with β-alanine due to increases in carnosine. It’s unclear whether training increases carnosine levels and whether β-alanine can increase previously elevated carnosine levels due to training; as such, β-alanine supplementation in highly trai...

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of β-alanine as an ergogenic aid in tests of anaerobic power output after 8 weeks of high-intensity interval, repeated sprint, and resistance training in previously trained collegiate wrestlers (WR) and football (FB) players. Twenty-two college WRs (19.9 ± 1.9 years, age ± SD) and 15 colleg...

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of b-alanine as an ergogenic aid in tests of anaerobic power output after 8 weeks of high-intensity interval, repeated sprint, and resistance training in previously trained collegiate wrestlers (WR) and football (FB) players. Twenty-two college WRs (19.9 6 1.9 years, age 6 SD) and 15 colleg...

Kern, BD and Robinson, TL. Effects of b-alanine supplementation on performance and body composition in collegiate wrestlers and football players. J Strength Cond Res 25(7): 1804–1815, 2011—The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of b-alanine as an ergogenic aid in tests of anaerobic power output after 8 weeks of high-intensity in...