Xiaofen Hamilton

The rapid technological advancements of the twenty-first century have fundamentally disrupted established paradigms across all facets of human life, transforming contemporary work environments and ...

The rapid emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) tools has begun to reshape research practices across academic disciplines, including physical education (PE) (Caputo 2025). On one hand, AI techn...

Drawing on Lazarus and Folkman’s transactional theory of stress and coping, this study examined the associations of age, gender, three types of social support (family, friends, and significant others), and mental toughness with two dimensions of perceived stress (helplessness and coping inefficacy) among 666 college students majoring in Kinesiology. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that male college students, as well as those with higher levels of mental toughness and family support, reported significantly lower levels of helplessness and coping inefficacy in managing stress. Additionally, greater support from friends was significantly associated with lower levels of coping inefficacy, while younger students reported significantly higher levels of helplessness. Finally, support from significant others did not make a significant contribution to either dimension of perceived stress. Notably, mental toughness was the most influential predictor for coping inefficacy and the second most influential predictor for helplessness. The findings suggest that strengthening mental toughness and family support can effectively buffer perceived stress among Kinesiology students. Given that the two dimensions of perceived stress model provides researchers and educators with deeper and more comprehensive insights into how college students experience stress, we recommend its adoption in future studies.

Purpose : Guided by self-determination theory, this qualitative study explored Chinese high school physical education teachers’ three basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness for health-related fitness testing in school-based physical education programs. Method : Semistructured interviews were conducted with high school physical education teachers ( n = 13, 11 males and two females) who are responsible for conducting health-related fitness testing in their schools. Data were analyzed using a constant comparison method and triangulated with multiple data resources. Results : Three themes were discovered: (a) professional identity and practice challenged by mandatory policy, (b) a misalignment of competence: the capable organizer versus the failed educator, and (c) local cohesion amid external isolation. Conclusion : Findings highlight tensions between policy expectations and teachers’ professional agency, revealing how basic psychological needs are partially supported but also constrained.

Purpose : This study investigated how administrators’ perceptions of physical education (PE) influenced their efforts to combat its marginalization. Method : A qualitative case study was used to explore how five participants’ childhood and professional experiences shaped their views and actions toward PE using the occupational socialization theory. The data came from questionnaires, autobiographies, and three rounds of interviews analyzed collaboratively. Results : The findings were organized into three themes: (a) the impact of positive childhood PE experiences, (b) disservice to PE: lack of administrative preparation, and (c) valuing PE despite early marginalization. Discussion/Conclusion : Although participants received little formal training to support or supervise PE professionally, their appreciation—rooted in positive early experiences—led them to advocate for PE in their schools and communities.

Purpose : This study investigated experiences of physical education teachers (PETs) participating in online remote andragogy-based lesson study (AbLS) during a pandemic. Method : Five PETs participated in this phenomenological case study. Seventeen online AbLS collaborative meetings took place via Zoom software. Three rounds of semistructured interviews were conducted and analyzed using collaborative qualitative analysis. Results : Three themes emerged: (a) AbLS facilitated depth of learning, increasing professional and individual growth; (b) AbLS structure influenced experience; and (c) the professional community of AbLS supported a natural adult learning (andragogical) environment. Discussion/Conclusion : Remote AbLS presented benefits for these PETs beyond professional learning that prior continuing professional development had not, including a sense of community, belonging, and professional worth. AbLS may have implications for research in perceived mattering and continuing professional development facilitation for PETs. Remote AbLS may bolster PETs in challenging local learning communities.

Health-related fitness (HRF) evaluations should be an important component of teaching and learning in physical education (PE). Assessment, however, has been severely neglected by researchers and practitioners in the field of PE. This chapter focuses current studies on (a) students’ HRF assessment methods and (b) the evolution of physical education teachers’ and pre-service physical education teachers’ attitudes toward HRF testing. Based on the findings, instructional strategies are suggested, and benefits and challenges are discussed.

Purpose: This study aimed to compare the result assessment approaches used in the widely implemented health-related fitness batteries in school-based physical education programs. Method: Fitness test batteries implemented in the European Union (Assessing Levels of Physical Activity and Fitness), China (China’s National Physical Fitness Testing), the United States (Fitnessgram), and Russia (Ready for Labor and Defense [Gotov k Trudu i Oborone [GTO]]) were included in the study. The document analysis method was used to identify commonalities and differences of results assessment methods in the above test batteries. Results: It was found that the norm-referenced method has been used in Assessing Levels of Physical Activity and Fitness, China’s National Physical Fitness Testing, and GTO, and only Fitnessgram used the criterion-referenced method. Among the three norm-referenced evaluation methods, there were two variations: (a) total numerical points used in CNPFT, and (b) categories employed in Assessing Levels of Physical Activity and Fitness and GTO. Conclusions: Both norm-referenced and criterion-referenced evaluations were used in the current youth health-related fitness test batteries, suggesting that the current understanding of the purpose of school-based-fitness testing in schools has not reached a consensus.

Science and engineering practices are intended to engage students authentically in the work that scientists and engineers do in order to provide opportunities for meaningful engagement in disciplinary work, including design-based learning. Meaningful engagement, particularly for sensemaking purposes, requires a shift in who is leading the classroom community’s intellectual work, from the teacher to the students. When students are positioned with the intellectual responsibility of producing and evaluating ideas, there is potential for them to act with epistemic agency. Enacting epistemic agency involves socially negotiated framing and power dynamics. The purpose of this study is to determine the ways in which gendered power dynamics influence the negotiation of epistemic agency in a design-based learning context. Using a qualitative case study methodology, student negotiations of epistemic and positional framing from a mixed-gender group were observed. Transcripts from their discourse during two design challenges were mapped, and focal group interviews were holistically analyzed to understand students’ perceptions and navigation of epistemic and positional framings in a design-based learning context and to understand how power dynamics influence these negotiations. Students understood the epistemic goals of the design challenges to involve designing solutions to real-world problems. During the first challenge, the group distributed positions of epistemic authority among the members. However, the group experienced a change in composition, resulting in changed power dynamics and epistemic oppression. These findings have implications regarding the critical impact that classroom culture and interactional practices might have on students’ epistemic agency, especially considering their multiple identity markers.

In recent years, the exercise behavior of Chinese adolescents has been on the decline, which is extremely detrimental to their physical and mental health development. However, few studies have explored the mechanisms by which exercise cognition influences Chinese adolescents’ exercise behavior. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between exercise cognition and exercise behavior among Chinese adolescents and the mediating role of satisfying basic psychological needs for exercise. The study consisted of 996 adolescents (44.6% males, 55.4% females) between the ages of 12 and 15 (M = 13.34, SD = 1.059). Participants’ exercise behaviors and the satisfaction of basic psychological needs for exercise data were collected via surveys. Structure equation modeling (SEM) was performed to examine the direct and indirect effects. The results were as follows: (1) adolescents’ perceptions of exercise were significantly associated with exercise behavior and (2) the mediation model suggests that the satisfaction of basic psychological needs for exercise is an important mechanism by which exercise cognition influences the occurrence of exercise behavior. Therefore, it is crucial to help adolescents form good exercise cognition. Schools, families, and society should take responsibility for adolescents’ formation of good exercise cognition and satisfy adolescents’ basic psychological needs for exercise so as to enhance adolescents’ exercise behaviors and thereby develop good exercise habits.