We are pleased to introduce the collection Frontiers in Sports & Active Living – Highlights in Physical Education and Pedagogy 2021/22. This collection will welcome and showcase a selection of high impact articles authored by leaders in the field. The work presented here highlights the broad diversity of research performed across the Physical Education and Pedagogy section, and aims to put a spotlight on the main areas of interest. This collection aims to further support Frontiers’ strong community by shining a spotlight on our authors' highly impactful research.

Department for Health, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Bath

State University of Maringá

Examining the breadth of research across Physical Education and Pedagogy with a focus on impactful studies

. This research topic explores the integration of positive youth development principles and practices in physical education, sports pedagogy in Germany, risk and safety management practices of physical education teachers in Norway, and physical activity levels and sedentary time in German elementary school physical education lessons. <ul> <li>An intervention based on the Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility approach enhanced student perceptions of learning life skills in the PE context.</li> <li>Sports pedagogy in Germany is based on the distinction between claim and reality, which is present in the discipline's central discussion lines.</li> <li>Physical education teachers in Norway employ multiple strategies, from safety procedures to common sense, and prioritize measures that cater to the students' needs.</li> <li>Gender, grade, body mass index, and parents' physical activity levels were important determinants for physical activity levels and sedentary time, and specialist PE teacher status was a negative determinant for both boys and girls.</li> </ul>

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Frontiers in Sports and Active Living

Physical Education and Pedagogy

Highlights in Physical Education and Pedagogy: 2021/22

Editorial on the Research Topic <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/42094/highlights-in-physical-education-and-pedagogy-202122">Highlights in Physical Education and Pedagogy: 2021/22</a>The call for the Frontiers in Sports and Active Living Research Topic Highlights in Physical Education and Pedagogy: 2021/22 was put forth to be a selection of high-impact manuscripts produced by influential researchers on various topics related to the aforementioned areas of knowledge, with the potential to further reflection in a multidisciplinary forum. This joint effort by editors, authors, and the Frontiers team is animated by high expectations about how the selected themes would shine a light on the Research Topic itself and about the likely repercussion of these publications in the broader academic scenario. Once this stage of organizing the articles in the collection was concluded, some questions emerged: How would the published manuscripts on this Research Topic be received and appropriated by the broad forum of physical education and pedagogy researchers? Do these manuscripts have the potential to challenge and impact a multidisciplinary forum? What other topics would be highlighted in physical education and pedagogy in contemporary society, in addition to those that make up this collection, and which could motivate other Research Topics?This Research Topic does not aim to be a thoroughly sufficient overview, given the diversity of approaches that integrate physical education and pedagogy in different contexts that have the potential to be highlighted. Therefore, these articles do not say everything! Nor do they intend to say so. They aspire for the incursion into peculiar themes that are not restricted to certain researchers, institutions, or countries. Such topics include the process of students&apos; perception of learning life skills, sports pedagogy as an empirical-analytical academic discipline, risk and safety management practices in physical education classes, and determinants of physical activity and sedentary behavior in the school context.The articles that make up this Research Topic are authored by researchers linked to higher education institutions in the United States, Norway, and Germany. Each manuscript brings investigative specificities that can be appropriated by different realities, given its potential for interlocution, cultural dialogues, and potential links to new findings. This peculiarity of the manuscripts encourages the establishment of connections and stimulates the production of knowledge in different local contexts.The study developed by <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2022.898738">Jacobs et al.</a> shows students' perceptions about learning life skills in the context of physical education classes. The authors use a teaching model of social responsibility (Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility—TPSR) to assess the perception that students have about the transposition of the knowledge acquired in the teaching environment into their daily lives. The results indicate that it is possible to give meaning to the knowledge acquired in class for the student's life and point to our social responsibility as educators. The research also points to the need to review our teaching methodologies so that the school's knowledge gains resonance in the student's life, in different spaces in which they build their identity.The investigation of sports pedagogy and its position in the structure of modern sciences as an empirical-analytical academic discipline, carried out by <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2021.775322">Jaitner et al.</a>, problematizes the difference between claim and reality through the analysis of 212 scientific texts of sports-pedagogical provenance in the Germanic context. Based on Luhmann's systems theory, the authors analyze the mode, functions, and consequences of communication (disciplinary) in sports pedagogy, derived from conferences, collected editions, journals, and monographs, with emphasis on semantic forms and themes fixed in writing. The investigative findings lead to reflections on the field of sports pedagogy and notably transcend the investigated German reality.The publication by <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2021.663676">Lise Porsanger and Leif Inge Magnussen</a> explores risk and safety management (RSM) practices by teachers in physical education programs in Norway and reports a dearth of empirical studies on this topic. Through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews applied to teachers, the authors found the use of multiple strategies related to safety in physical education classes. For them, the physical education teacher can limit the exploration of movement by students, especially when teaching is permeated by fear of professional liability for the risk of accidents and physical injury to students. The theme is stimulating and challenges us to think about the fears and responsibilities that sometimes make it impossible for teachers to conduct teaching processes that explore creative and innovative practices in the school system. The manuscript leads us to think about gaps in teaching support in matters that involve risk in the teaching and learning process.The article written by <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2020.00113">Jaitner et al.</a> discusses the determinants of physical activity and sedentary behavior in physical education classes in German Elementary Schools, with the involvement of more than 300 students, in 11 schools. Data collection focused on physical activity concerning gender, grade, body mass index, active life, health behaviors, and the PE teachers' PE education status. The results are challenging as they indicate that physical activity levels and sedentary time are directly associated with gender, age, family habits, and PE teachers' PE education status, given the need for teacher didactic and methodological training to tackle these problems in the school system.It should be noted that although this Research Topic foregrounds prominent themes in the fields of physical education and pedagogy, it could be expanded in terms of the number of themes and researchers from other institutions and countries, in addition to the North American and European outlines. In this direction, issues particular to different countries and continents could tense and provoke peculiar and enriching debates, expanding the scope of the Research Topic. I recognize, however, that unequal access to the publishing market also generates asymmetries in the production and dissemination of knowledge, often causing a lack of opportunities for researchers who could highlight new themes.Finally, I emphasize that the topics presented in this Research Topic move us to examine our realities, to face issues that may be invisible in our investigative practices and need to be open to different interlocutions. The exercise of rationality that triggers alterity in the reading of these manuscripts makes it possible for us to be constantly crossed by the &#x201c;other&#x201d; (different from me), which reveals our fluid, dynamic identity constitution, for learning. This &#x201c;doing in relation&#x201d; awakens our social yearning, our affections, our condition as historical subjects, and our potential to learn &#x201c;with&#x201d;. I hope the highlights of this Research Topic can be read, appropriated, tensioned, and criticized. I hope also they contribute to the dynamics of the scientific field and to be shining a spotlight on other issues to provoke a fruitful debate. In that sense, what other highlights in physical education and pedagogy would you bring into the conversation?LL edited manuscripts for the Research Topic Highlights in Physical Education and Pedagogy and wrote the Editorial.The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Editorial: Highlights in Physical Education and Pedagogy: 2021/22

PurposePhysical education (PE) lags behind community-based sport and physical activity programs in the integration of positive youth development (PYD) principles and practices such as teaching transferable life skills. However, research and educational policy indicates this can and should be part of the PE curriculum. Therefore, there is a significant need to explore students' perceptions and experiences about learning life skills within the PE context. In the current study, an intervention based in a wellestablished PYD approach called Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR), was delivered to assess these issues.</sec>MethodsThe current study was conducted in the mid-western U.S. Participants were 122 adolescent students (m = 60, f = 62; M = 12.48 years, SD = 0.97 years) in intervention and control classes. For the intervention, a PE teacher received training on the TPSR approach to promote life skills, while the control teacher received no training and participated in usual practices. Pre- and post-surveys were distributed that examined student perceptions about learning life skills, and supplemental systematic observations were recorded to capture the intervention teacher's fidelity to the TPSR model.</sec>ResultsResults indicated that the intervention group students' perceptions of in-class experiences with life skills such as problem solving, emotional regulation, effort, goal setting, identity experiences, time management, and promoting social norms were enhanced overtime, compared to the control group.</sec>ConclusionPE is in a unique position to promote PYD in the school curriculum by teaching of life skills. In this case, participants in the intervention group demonstrated learning personally and socially responsible behaviors across the course of 15 PE lessons. Future research should examine if changed in-class perceptions about life skills can foster use of these skills outside of the PE setting.</sec>

Purpose: Physical education (PE) lags behind community-based sport and physical activity programs in the integration of positive youth development (PYD) principles and practices such as teaching transferable life skills. However, research and educational policy indicates this can and should be part of the PE curriculum. Therefore, there is a significant need to explore students' perceptions and experiences about learning life skills within the PE context. In the current study, an intervention based in a wellestablished PYD approach called Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR), was delivered to assess these issues.Methods: The current study was conducted in the mid-western U.S. Participants were 122 adolescent students (m = 60, f = 62; M = 12.48 years, SD = 0.97 years) in intervention and control classes. For the intervention, a PE teacher received training on the TPSR approach to promote life skills, while the control teacher received no training and participated in usual practices. Pre- and post-surveys were distributed that examined student perceptions about learning life skills, and supplemental systematic observations were recorded to capture the intervention teacher's fidelity to the TPSR model.Results: Results indicated that the intervention group students' perceptions of in-class experiences with life skills such as problem solving, emotional regulation, effort, goal setting, identity experiences, time management, and promoting social norms were enhanced overtime, compared to the control group.Conclusion: PE is in a unique position to promote PYD in the school curriculum by teaching of life skills. In this case, participants in the intervention group demonstrated learning personally and socially responsible behaviors across the course of 15 PE lessons. Future research should examine if changed in-class perceptions about life skills can foster use of these skills outside of the PE setting.

Students' Perceptions of Learning Life Skills Through the Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility Model: An Exploratory Study

Academic sports pedagogy continuously assures itself of its disciplinary foundations and determines its position in the structure of modern sciences. While communication is based on differences, the distinction between claim and reality plays a crucial role in sports pedagogy. However, the forms and functions in which the distinction appears have not been more closely investigated in sports pedagogic. This article starts with this in mind, exemplarily focusing on academic sports pedagogy in Germany. While analyzing 212 scientific texts of sports-pedagogical provenance, three central variations of the distinction could be identified, which persist until today and are present in the discipline's central discussion lines: (1) hierarchical demarcation, (2) unsystematic approach, (3) direct synthesis. From a functional point of view, the distinction between claim and reality continuously (re)organizes the relationship of sports pedagogy to other scientific disciplines, educational policy guidelines, and school practice expectations, thus proving to be a supporting pillar of disciplinary identity work.

Academic sports pedagogy continuously assures itself of its disciplinary foundations and determines its position in the structure of modern sciences. While communication is based on differences, the distinction between claim and reality plays a crucial role in sports pedagogy. However, the forms and functions in which the distinction appears have not been more closely investigated in sports pedagogic. This article starts with this in mind, exemplarily focusing on academic sports pedagogy in Germany. While analyzing 212 scientific texts of sports-pedagogical provenance, three central variations of the distinction could be identified, which persist until today and are present in the discipline&apos;s central discussion lines: (1) hierarchical demarcation, (2) unsystematic approach, (3) direct synthesis. From a functional point of view, the distinction between claim and reality continuously (re)organizes the relationship of sports pedagogy to other scientific disciplines, educational policy guidelines, and school practice expectations, thus proving to be a supporting pillar of disciplinary identity work.

“Claim vs. Reality”—A German Case Study on Modes and Functions of Sports-Pedagogical Communication

The aim of this article is to explore and understand teachers' risk and safety management (RSM) practices in physical education (PE) programs in Norway. A survey questionnaire and semistructured interviews were therefore used to generate quantitative data on trends from a larger sample of teachers (n = 698) and rich in-depth qualitative data concerning teachers' (n = 17) practices. By providing the teachers' perspectives, a better understanding of the complexity of RSM in PE may be possible. The results from both the survey and interviews suggest that teachers employ multiple strategies: from safety procedures, complying to compulsory risk measures, to the use of common sense in their RSM practices. The interviewees, on the other hand, initially claim that their RSM practice is quite scarce and, in some respects, not appropriate for PE. They emphasize measures that cater to the students' needs and modification to physical activities in their teaching. However, the interview data suggest that teachers do not primarily conceptualize this part of their practice as RSM but as measures of other pedagogical concerns. Combined, the results from both the survey and the interviews may characterize a RSM practice that relies on teaching experience and the use of discretion. The results in this article both converge and diverge and emphasize the importance of multiple data sources in investigating teachers' RSM practices.

The aim of this article is to explore and understand teachers' risk and safety management (RSM) practices in physical education (PE) programs in Norway. A survey questionnaire and semistructured interviews were therefore used to generate quantitative data on trends from a larger sample of teachers (n = 698) and rich in-depth qualitative data concerning teachers' (n = 17) practices. By providing the teachers' perspectives, a better understanding of the complexity of RSM in PE may be possible. The results from both the survey and interviews suggest that teachers employ multiple strategies: from safety procedures, complying to compulsory risk measures, to the use of common sense in their RSM practices. The interviewees, on the other hand, initially claim that their RSM practice is quite scarce and, in some respects, not appropriate for PE. They emphasize measures that cater to the students' needs and modification to physical activities in their teaching. However, the interview data suggest that teachers do not primarily conceptualize this part of their practice as RSM but as measures of other pedagogical concerns. Combined, the results from both the survey and the interviews may characterize a RSM practice that relies on teaching experience and the use of discretion. The results in this article both converge and diverge and emphasize the importance of multiple data sources in investigating teachers' RSM practices.

Risk and Safety Management in Physical Education: A Study of Teachers' Practice Perspectives

Physical activity (PA) in school physical education (PE) is a signature component of health promotion and health education. The study's aim was to explore PA levels and sedentary time in German elementary school PE lessons and relate them to selected personal and environmental PA determinants. Accelerometer measurements were collected from 328 students (47% male, mean age 8.7 ± 1.2 years) in 11 elementary schools in Baden-Wuerttemberg (Germany). PA levels and sedentary time were analyzed regarding gender, grade, body mass index, selected correlates of active living and health behaviors, as well as the PE teachers' PE education status. In line with previous research, the analyses of PA levels and sedentary time confirm gender and grade differences and highlight older girls as the less active group. Deviant weight status and parents' PA levels were found to be important determinants for PA levels and sedentary time of girls and offer starting points for intervention studies as well as gender-appropriate PE in elementary schools. Specialist PE teacher status proved to be a negative determinant of PA levels and sedentary time for boys and girls and should be investigated in further studies, especially regarding the didactic and methodological background.

Physical activity (PA) in school physical education (PE) is a signature component of health promotion and health education. The study&apos;s aim was to explore PA levels and sedentary time in German elementary school PE lessons and relate them to selected personal and environmental PA determinants. Accelerometer measurements were collected from 328 students (47% male, mean age 8.7 &#xb1; 1.2 years) in 11 elementary schools in Baden-Wuerttemberg (Germany). PA levels and sedentary time were analyzed regarding gender, grade, body mass index, selected correlates of active living and health behaviors, as well as the PE teachers&apos; PE education status. In line with previous research, the analyses of PA levels and sedentary time confirm gender and grade differences and highlight older girls as the less active group. Deviant weight status and parents&apos; PA levels were found to be important determinants for PA levels and sedentary time of girls and offer starting points for intervention studies as well as gender-appropriate PE in elementary schools. Specialist PE teacher status proved to be a negative determinant of PA levels and sedentary time for boys and girls and should be investigated in further studies, especially regarding the didactic and methodological background.