The purpose of this study was to explore classroom teachers’ perceptions of incorporating physical activity breaks into their classroom and to determine specific features of preferred activity breaks. These perceptions are considered within the conceptual framework of Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program (CSPAP). Twelve elementary and high school classroom teachers from one Indigenous school district participated in the study. The data were collected using semistructured interviews and teachers’ reflective journals and were analyzed inductively by conducting systematic searches for patterns across data types. Emergent themes included: the need for and threats to classroom control; a preference for breaks with connections to academic content; and the importance of implementation ease and student enjoyment. The findings indicated that teachers prefer activity breaks that are easy to manage, quick, academically oriented and enjoyable for students. These findings have practical implications when considering physical education teacher education and professional development that targets classroom teachers.
In the wake of COVID-19, online physical education (OLPE) has become essential to the sustainability of school physical education programs. The purpose of this article is to consider factors that may be influential in efforts to deliver OLPE to students. The comprehensive school physical activity program model is used to frame a multicomponent conceptualization of OLPE and its goals and outcomes. Central to this framing is the intersectionality of school physical education, the family, and the community. This article provides a platform for physical education teacher educators and researchers to advance OLPE in its support of both the educational and public health benefits of high-quality physical education programs.
Preventing the illicit use of prescription stimulants, a particularly high-risk form of substance use, requires approaches that utilize theory-guided research. We examined this behavior within the context of a random sample of 554 undergraduate students attending a university in northern California. Approximately 17% of students self-reported engaging in this behavior during college; frequency of misuse per academic term ranged from less than once to 40 or more times. Although most misusers reported oral ingestion, a small proportion reported snorting and smoking the drug. The majority of misusers reported receiving the drug at no cost, and the primary source of the drug was friends. Misusers were motivated by both academic (e.g., to improve focus) and non-academic (e.g., to experiment) reasons. Our thematic analyses of an open-end question revealed that students abstaining from illicit use of prescription stimulants did so primarily for reasons related to health risks, ethics, and adherence regulations. Results from adjusted logistic regression analyses showed that correlates of the behavior were intrapersonal, interpersonal, and environmental in nature. We conclude that characteristics of misuse are a cause for concern, and correlates of the behavior are multifaceted. These findings, in addition to insights provided by students who choose not to engage in this behavior, suggest that a number of prevention approaches are plausible, such as a social norms campaign that simultaneously corrects exaggerated beliefs about prevalence while also illustrating why abstainers, in their own words, choose to abstain.
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