Book Description

"How students' experience and learning in an educational context influence their self-directed learning and behavior outside of school has always been an important question in education. Scholars have named the effects of physical education (PE) on students' out-of-school physical activity (PA) as the "PE effect". The purposes of this dissertation research were to first test a two-pathway model of the "PE effect" and then determine the extent to which a concept-based PE curriculum influenced middle-school students' PA behavior outside of the school. Specifically, the following research questions were addressed: (a) to what extent did eighth graders' knowledge and autonomous motivation for PE contribute to their autonomous motivation toward PA and, subsequently, influence their out-of-school PA? (b) Did eighth-grade students who had experienced the Science of Healthful Living (SHL) curriculum have higher levels of knowledge, autonomous motivation for PE, autonomous motivation toward PA, and out-of-school PA than those who had not? A total of 394 eighth-grade students from five schools participated in this study, in which 168 students studied the SHL curriculum when they were in sixth grade while 226 students only experienced traditional PE. Students' knowledge, out-of-school PA, and autonomous motivation toward PE and PA were measured using valid self-report instruments. Structural equation modelling was used to test the two-pathway model of the "PE effect". A static group comparison design was adopted to answer the second research question. Results showed that students' knowledge had a direct, positive relationship on their autonomous motivation toward PA and an indirect, positive relationship on out-of-school PA through influencing autonomous motivation toward PA. Students' autonomous motivation for PE had a direct, positive relationship on their autonomous motivation toward PA and an indirect, positive relationship on out-of-school PA through autonomous motivation toward PA. The results also showed that the students who had studied the SHL PE curriculum had significantly higher levels of knowledge, autonomous motivation toward PA, and out-of-school PA than the students who had experienced the traditional, multi-activity PE. No significant difference was found for autonomous motivation for PE. These results indicate that the two-pathway model is tenable in terms of knowledge learning and autonomous motivation in PE and imply that teaching knowledge in an autonomy-supportive PE environment can be an effective way to promote students' out-of-school PA behavior. The findings about the effects of the SHL curriculum further supported the knowledge learning pathway of the "PE effect" and indicate that the concept-based PE approach could be an effective model to promote students' PA behavior outside of the school."--Abstract from author supplied metadata.