Critical inquiry, critical thinking and problem-solving are key concepts in contemporary physical education. But how do physical educators actually do critical inquiry and critical thinking? Critical Inquiry and Problem-Solving in Physical Education explains the principles and assumptions underpinning these concepts and provides detailed examples of how they can be used in the teaching of physical education for different age groups and in a range of different contexts. Topics covered include: sport education and critical thinking dance as critical inquiry media analysis understanding cultural perspectives student-led research and curriculum reflective coaching practice. The authors are teachers, teacher educators, policymakers and academics. Each shares a commitment to the notion that school students can do more than learn to move in physical education classes.

A key distinction between an education doctorate, or Ed.D., and other doctorates in the field of education is the development of scholar practitioners armed with knowledge and skills to successfully lead change in their profession. Critical inquiry is one such skill, increasingly taught in many Ed.D. programs in some form of applied research methodology. Teaching Critical Inquiry and Applied Research: Moving Beyond Traditional Methods gathers insights from Ed.D. faculty regarding how the teaching of applied research occurs to develop scholar practitioners prepared to bring change to their respective professional fields. The 13 chapters provide a broad coverage of related topics, which includes advocacy and leadership through research, innovative features of methods courses, and methodology-focused program redesign. Each chapter includes strategies and recommendations for others interested in implementing something similar in their courses and programs. This book also captures student voices, in the form of vignettes written by students within each chapter, to illustrate the powerful impact of learning related to critical inquiry and applied research. Teaching Critical Inquiry and Applied Research is an excellent text for classrooms devoted to critical research, critical pedagogy, and other courses.

Standards-Based Physical Education Curriculum Development, Second Edition is developed around the National Association of Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) standards for K-12 physical education. This innovative guide teaches students about the process of writing curriculum in physical education and was written by experts who have had specific experience designing and implementing this thematic curriculum. The text begins by looking at the national physical education standards and then examines physical education from a conceptual standpoint, addressing the “so what” of physical education. It then goes on to examine the development of performance-based assessments designed to measure the extent of student learning. The second part of the text explores the various curricular models common to physical education: sport education, adventure education, outdoor education, traditional/multi activity, fitness, and movement education. It goes on to describe each model, provide examples of curriculums that use it, show how the model links with physical education standards, and provide appropriate assessments for it. The third part, Chapter 14: It’s Not Business As Usual, discusses how to improve one’s physical education curriculum by doing things differently and embracing change.

In this book, Shay Welch expands on the contemporary cognitive thinking-in-movement framework, which has its roots in the work of Maxine Sheets-Johnstone but extends and develops within contemporary embodied cognition theory. Welch believes that dance can be used to ask questions, and this book offers a method of how critical inquiry can be embodied. First, she presents the theoretical underpinnings of what this process is and how it can work; second, she introduces the empirical method as a tool that can be used by movers for the purpose of doing embodied inquiry. Exploring the role of embodied cognition and embodied metaphors in mining the body for questions, Welch demonstrates how to utilize movement to explore embodied practices of knowing. She argues that our creative embodied movements facilitate our ability to bodily engage in critical analysis about the world.

This title focuses on complexity thinking in the context of physical education, enabling fresh ways of thinking about research, teaching, curriculum and learning. Written by a team of leading international physical education scholars, the book highlights how the considerable theoretical promise of complexity can be reflected in the actual policies, pedagogies and practices of physical education.

In this powerfully argued and progressive study, Kimberly Oliver and David Kirk call for a radical reconstruction of the teaching of physical education for girls. Despite forty years of theorization and practical intervention, girls are still disengaging from physical education, dropping out of physical activity, and suffering negative consequences in terms of their health and well-being as a result. This book challenges the conventional narrative that girls are somehow to blame for this disengagement, and instead identifies important new ways of working with girls, developing a new pedagogical model for ‘girl-friendly’ physical education. The book locates our understanding of the experiences of girls in physical education in the broader context of young people’s multifaceted engagements with popular physical culture. Adopting an activist perspective, it outlines a programme of action informed by principled pragmatism and based on four critical elements: student-centred pedagogy; critical study of embodiment; inquiry-based physical education centred-in-action, and listening and responding to girls over time. It explores the implications of this new thinking for teaching, research, PETE and policy, and outlines a future agenda for work in this area. Offering a profound theoretical critique of contemporary research and practice, as well as a new programme of action, Girls, Gender and Physical Education is essential reading for all researchers, advanced students and practitioners with an interest in the issues of gender, equity and inclusion in physical education.

The first fully comprehensive review of theory, research and practice in physical education to be published in over a decade, this handbook represents an essential, evidence-based guide for all students, researchers and practitioners working in PE. Showcasing the latest research and theoretical work, it offers important insights into effective curriculum management, student learning, teaching and teacher development across a variety of learning environments. This handbook not only examines the methods, influences and contexts of physical education in schools, but also discusses the implications for professional practice. It includes both the traditional and the transformative, spanning physical education pedagogies from the local to the international. It also explores key questions and analysis techniques used in PE research, illuminating the links between theory and practice. Its nine sections cover a wide range of topics including: curriculum theory, development, policy and reform transformative pedagogies and adapted physical activity educating teachers and analysing teaching the role of student and teacher cognition achievement motivation. Offering an unprecedented wealth of material, the Routledge Handbook of Physical Education Pedagogies is an essential reference for any undergraduate or postgraduate degree programme in physical education or sports coaching, and any teacher training course with a physical education element.