A variety of feedback strategies, including video feedback, have been employed to provide accurate and meaningful feedback to pre-service teachers about their own teaching. In addition, semi-structured interviews following teaching sessions can serve as an opportunity for self-analysis of desired teaching behaviors. The purpose of this study was to explore the use of video feedback and semi-structured interviews following teaching sessions for physical education pre-service teachers. Self-confidence and positive perceptions about their own teaching resulted and all participants improved in several target behaviors (use of feedback and use of student names) from the first round to the second round of teaching.

A sample of 170 college freshman completed assessments related to emotional awareness, sexual values, and levels of sexual activity. There was a significant relationship between sexual values and sexual activity. Abstinence values appear to be important in the decision to engage in sexual activity.

Sex education is a highly discussed, controversial topic in the literature. Instruments measuring knowledge about sexual health exist, but none measure how comfortable educators are teaching sex education. The purpose of this study was the development and validation of items for the Sex Education Confidence Scale (SECS). This Scale was intended for use with teacher preparation students and practicing teachers in health and physical education. Overall, the psychometrics of the SECS were quite sound, with evidence for internal structure demonstrated through strong factor loadings. Strong reliability estimates were evident on the three scales across a representative and diverse sample. Background Sex education is a controversial topic in today's society. Americans have a variety of views in regard to the type of curriculum taught, with 82% supporting programs teaching both abstinence and additional pregnancy-prevention methods (Bleakley, Hennessey, & Fishbein, 2006). Current curriculums may be taught by a variety of individuals including school nurses, community educators, and teachers of various disciplines. One logical choice may be the health or physical education teacher.

The Athletic Coping Skill Inventory (ACSI-28) was completed by twenty-six collegiate baseball players. Performance statistics were collected, including batting average (BA), number of errors committed (ERR), and earned run average (ERA) for pitchers. Regression analysis was carried out using the seven areas of the ACSI-28 (peaking under pressure, freedom from worry, coping with adversity, concentration, goal setting and mental preparation, confidence and achievement motivation, and 'coachability') as the independent variables, and the current season's performance statistics as the dependent variables. Correlation coefficients revealed significance between concentration, confidence, and ERA, while there were no significant relationships with BA or ERR and any of the psychological variables. Many of the psychological variables were highly related. While sequential linear regression did not reveal statistically significant relationships between the performance statistics and the psychological variables, large effect sizes indicated a strong degree of practical significance. Specifically, peaking under pressure and 'coachability' appeared to be strong predictor variables for ERA, concentration for ERR, and 'coachability' for BA. Introduction Athletes and theorists in human performance agree on the influence of psychological factors in the performance of motor skills, particularly at a high level of competition. As a result, an abundance of research has been dedicated to finding out not only how to prepare athletes mentally for high-pressure situations, but also what psychological factors are specifically determinants of performance. The link between research and application is of great importance because the business of sports is at an all-time peak and athletes from early childhood to advanced age are seeking ways to improve their not only physically but mentally. The use of self-reporting instruments that indicate specific psychological skills is widespread, especially in collegiate and professional athletics. Because of the comparable levels of physical abilities among top-tier athletes, coaches seek to understand which psychological factors separate the elite from the non-elite. In sports where choking may cost a player or team a championship ring or millions of dollars, it is understandable that non-invasive, simple indicators of psychological skill measures have become popular. The baseball skills of pitching, hitting, and fielding are arguably as mental as they are physical. Pressure can affect a pitcher at any point in the game; managers and pitching coaches make it their business to know which pitchers will crumble under pressure and which will rise to the occasion. Certainly, if a method for predicting correctly the mental toughness (coping, if you will) of an athlete was shown to be valid and reliable, it would be of great benefit to coaches, managers, and athletes alike. The Athletic Coping Skills Inventory (ACSI-28), created in 1988, contains seven sport specific subscales: coping with adversity (COPE), peaking under pressure (PEAK), goal setting/mental preparation (GOAL), concentration (CONC), freedom from worry (FREE), confidence and achievement motivation (CONF), and 'coachability' (COACH) (Smith, Schutz, Smoll, & Ptacek, 1995). Smith and Christensen (1995) defined the subscales as follows as they apply to the sport of baseball: Peaking under Pressure: is challenged rather than threatened by pressure situations and performs well under pressure; a clutch performer Freedom from Worry: does not put pressure on self by worrying about performing poorly or making mistakes; does not worry about what others will think if he/she performs poorly Coping with Adversity: remains positive and enthusiastic even when things are going badly; remains calm and controlled; can quickly bounce back from mistakes and setbacks Concentration: not easily distracted; able to focus on the task at hand in both practice and situations, even when adverse or unexpected situations occur Goal Setting and Mental Preparation: sets and works toward specific performance goals; plans and mentally prepares self for games and clearly has a game plan for pitching, hitting, playing hitters, base running, and so on Confidence and Achievement Motivation: is confident and positively motivated; consistently gives 100% during practice and games and works hard to improve skills 'Coachability': open to and learns from instruction; accepts constructive criticism without taking it personally or becoming upset (p. …

A brief yoga sequence consisting of three inverted positions was designed to test the hypothesis that inverted yoga positions positively influence memory and attention due to increased blood flow to the brain. Three hundred participants were divided into four treatments utilizing a Solomon Four (Trochim, 2005) design (yoga pre/post, yoga post, control pre/post, and control post). All participants completed a short-term memory test of a series of words read aloud at the conclusion of the treatment condition; number of words recalled was the dependent variable. One week separated the pre- and post-test for the pre/post conditions. A 2 x 2 factorial ANOVA was conducted to evaluate the effect of the testing and treatment. There was no significant difference between the control group and the experimental group. In this study, the practice of inverted yoga positions did not influence short-term memory. Any improvement appeared to be the result of being exposed to the pretest rather than the participation in yoga.

PURPOSE The purpose of this pilot investigation was to test the hypothesis that perception of heart disease risk would differ among cardiac patients, medical professionals, and college age adults. METHODS Subjects were 641 men and women recruited into the following groups: cardiac patients (CP, N = 15, mean age = 65 yr.), physical education majors at a major research university (PE, N = 38, mean age = 20 yr.), business students at small 4 year university (BU, N = 129, mean age = 24), adult professionals working in the medical field (MP, N = 20, mean age = 43 yr.) and undergraduate students of varying majors at a major research university who took an activity class (UG, N = 339, mean age = 20). The perception instrument was composed of a series of 40 questions in which the subjects were asked to rate their perception of causality between contemporary heart disease risk markers and a heart attack. Subjects were instructed to rate the strength of causality of each relationship on a scale of 0 to 10. If they did not understand a term used in the question or were unfamiliar with a particular causal relationship, they were instructed to mark an “X” in the rating blank as opposed to making a guess. Since the number of subjects for each group was substantially different, general linear models were used to test for differences in perception scores among the groups. Comparisonwise Type I error rate was set at 0.05. RESULTS There were no differences in the perception ratings for total cholesterol, age, hypertension, physical inactivity, and LDL-cholesterol among the 5 groups. MP perceived family history to have higher causality than the other 4 groups (MP: 7.7±1.6 vs BU: 6.6±2.3, CP: 6.6±2.5, PE: 6.2±1.7, UG: 6.1±2.0). CP and BU perceived obesity to have higher causality than the other 3 groups (CP: 8.6±1.6, BU: 8.3±1.6 vs. MP: 7.5±1.6, PE: 7.2±1.4, UG: 7.5±1.7). CP and MP perceived diabetes to have higher causality than the other 3 groups (CP: 7.5±1.8, MP: 7.4±2.5 vs. PE: 5.7±2.0, BU: 6.4±2.4, UG: 5.5±2.3). CP and MP also perceived smoking to have higher causality than the other 3 groups (CP: 7.5±1.9, MP: 8.2±1.6 vs. PE: 6.2±2.1, BU: 7.1±2.5, UG: 6.1±2.6). Further, MP perceived low HDL-cholesterol to have higher causality than the other 4 groups (MP: 7.8±2.1 vs. CP: 5.3±3.3, PE: 4.1±2.7, BU: 4.5±3.3, UG: 4.2±29). Finally, CP and MP perceived male gender to have higher causality than the other 3 groups (CP: 6.1±2.8, MP: 6.7±1.5 vs. PE: 3.9±2.3, BU: 4.5±2.9, UG: 4.3±2.7). Conclusion Although subject number in the CP and MP categories is low, cardiac patients and medical professionals seem to perceive stronger causality in classic heart disease risk markers than do active or sedentary college age men and women.