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Educating the Student Body
results lend support to the value of professional development in enhanc-
ing
teachers’ perceptions of self-efficacy for teaching the curriculum. 
McCaughtry and colleagues (2006) explored the factors that make teacher 
professional development successful and what success might mean in terms 
of teachers’ instructional practices and feelings about change. Results indi-
cated that after teachers completed professional development the resources 
they gained enabled them to improve their instruction by teaching more 
content, maximizing student learning opportunities, teaching diverse 
learners, teaching to development, and increasing classroom safety. 
Learning Forward (formerly known as the National Staff Development 
Council) provides research-based guidelines to assist districts in aligning 
local professional development programs with qualitative standards. Its 
Standards for Professional Learning were revised in 2011 and are guided 
by the relationship between professional learning and student results (see 
Box 5-10). According to Learning Forward (2012):
•
When professional learning is standards based, it has greater poten-
tial to change what educators know, are able to do, and believe. 
•
When educators’ knowledge, skills, and dispositions change, they 
have a broader repertoire of effective strategies to use in adapting 
their practices to meet performance expectations and students’ learn-
ing needs. 
•
When educator practices improve, students have a greater likelihood 
of achieving results.
•
When student results improve, the cycle repeats for continuous 
improvement. 
•
Professional learning standards provide a foundation on which to 
design professional learning experiences at the district or school 
level that will assist educators in acquiring the necessary knowledge, 
skills, and tools. 
As a recognized means of providing physical education teachers with 
the tools necessary to enhance student achievement, quality professional 
development should be provided on a regular basis with follow-up sup-
port, along with a method for determining its effectiveness in meeting both 
curricular and pedagogical standards. Furthermore, to enhance the fitness 
achievement of students, school-based professional development should 
provide instruction on the integration of fitness testing into a curriculum 
and should include training in protocols, the interpretation and commu-
nication of results, and the setting and achievement of fitness goals and 
recommendations for developing healthy living habits for both students 
and their parents (IOM, 2012a).

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Educating the Student Body: Taking Physical Activity and Physical Education to School
Approaches to Physical Education in Schools
 
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