Dr. Weiyun Chen [chenwy@umich.edu] Website

Weiyun Chen is an associate professor in Division of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan. Her research interests focus on how teachers use constructivist-oriented and developmentally appropriate as well as interdisciplinary teaching approaches to facilitate students to achieve desired learning outcomes addressed in the NASPE content standards (NASPE 1995, 2003). She has published data-based research articles in a variety of journals such as Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport (RQES), Journal of Teaching in Physical Education (JTPE), Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, Elementary School Journal, Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education, and Education etc.. In addition, she presents her research works regularly at AAHPERD national conventions and regional conventions and American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual meetings. She is actively involved in AAHPERD, AERA, and NASPE. She is the follow in the Research Consortium of AAHPERD. Dr. Chen is the chair-elect for Curriculum and Instruction Academy of NASPE, and served as the chair on 2006-2007 AAHPERD Writing Award Committee and the Pedagogy Panel Review Chair for Research Consortium abstracts at the 2006 AAHPERD National Convention. She also regularly reviews research abstracts for both AAHPERD and AERA. She has reviewed manuscripts for RQES, JTPE, and Perceptual Motor Skills Journal.

Research Overview

To promote students' achievement of desired learning outcomes, the research focuses on three different but related areas. One line of research aims at investigating how accomplished teachers use curriculum models such as movement education, interdisciplinary teaching, and tactical approach to help students demonstrate competency in motor skills and game performance and gain a cognitive understanding of movement concepts and principles. Another line of research examines how the national standards for physical education have impacted on in-service teachers' curriculums, teaching practices, and assessment and how to prepare preservice teachers for meeting the beginning teacher standards. The third line of research investigates the characteristics of expert and novice teachers' constructivist-oriented teaching practices and how expert teachers utilize constructivist teaching strategies to engage students' use of critical thinking skills in learning specific contents.

1. Pre-service Teachers' Meeting Selected NASPE Standards

This study aims at investigating how well pre-service teachers were prepared for meeting the beginning physical education teacher standards (NASPE, 2003). Six juniors and six student teachers voluntarily participated in this study. Data were collected through (a) observing each participant's teaching six lessons, (b) formally interviewing each participant with the semi-structured interview questions; and (c) collecting each participant's six lesson plans, one curriculum project, and one reflection paper. The audio-taped interviews were transcribed. The investigator analyzed the multiple data using constant comparison technique (Patton, 2002). Trustworthiness of the data was verified through triangulating various data. Analysis of the data yielded five themes: (a) Levels of Meeting Standard One: Content Knowledge. The participants were knowledgeable about identifying critical elements of all fundamental movement and some of specialized skills. However, none of the lesson plans included teaching basic game strategies which were also not taught in the observed lessons; (b) Levels of meeting Standard Two: Growth and Development. All participants emphasized the importance of breaking motor skills down into small steps and using task variations, which were evident in most of the junior's lesson plans. In contrast, most of the student teachers' lesson plans only briefly described one or two drills and games which were also observed in actual lessons, except for gymnastics and dances lessons; (c) Levels of meeting Standard four: Management and Motivation. The participants reflected that using managerial rules and routines is critical to maximizing students' learning time. It was observed that the participants often used efficient routines for distributing and returning equipment, starting and stopping learning activities, and partnering students up; (d) Levels of meeting Standard Five: Communication. All participants commented that presenting appropriate learning cues with demonstration played a key role in helping students' learning. Only did the student teachers describe the power of relating learning cues to students' prior experiences. When teaching their familiar skills, the participants presented short and precise learning cues. Conversely, when teaching their unfamiliar skills, the participants tended to explain too much with vague learning cues. (d) Levels of meeting Standard Six: Planning and Instruction. They had adequate knowledge of writing lesson and unit plans. Most of the juniors' lesson plans were more thorough than that of the student teacher's in terms of content development, managerial tasks, and teaching strategies. It is concluded that the pre-service teachers achieved five out of ten NASPE standards with different levels of outcomes.

2. Students' Understanding of Integration of Movement and Mathematics through Creating games

Interdisciplinary teaching is a curriculum approach that integrates two to more subject areas into a meaningful association in order to enhance and enrich students learning in each subject area. This study aimed at exploring how second-grade students' understanding of integrating mathematics concepts with movement were evolved and enhanced by the teacher's task design and instructional strategies through creating games in an integrated unit. One physical education teacher, one second-grade classroom teacher, and 22 second-grade students voluntarily participated in this study. Data were collected through (a) conducting one formal interview with the two teachers, respectively, and five group-interviews with the students; (b) videotaping the teachers' teaching six integrated lesson to the second grade students, (c) completing descriptive statement about observation of the teachers' teaching and the students' learning responses, and (d) collecting the teacher's lesson plans and the students' task sheets and journal entries. The investigators independently analyzed the data using the constant comparison technique. The interview transcripts were sent to the teachers for member checking. Analysis of the data yielded three themes: (a) Engaging students' previous knowledge in designing coherently integrated games. The teacher's incorporating the students' prior knowledge and ideas into the process of creating games and providing students with specific guidelines elicited and promoted the students to create their own games that coherently integrated mathematics concepts and movements. For example, group A created a game named Extreme Bowling that combined addition, subtraction, doubles, areas, kickboxing, underhand throwing, bowling together; (b) Facilitating students' elaboration on and refinement of the integrated games. As a result of the teachers' encouraging the students to make necessary changes about their own games, each group redesigned the games by redefining game plays, adding and deleting some equipment, re-setting the equipment up, and clarifying game rules; (c) Involving community of learning in the process of creating games. The teacher' offering collaborative learning opportunities, presenting norms for cooperative group work, and providing on-going suggestions if necessary facilitated the students to demonstrate cooperative skills while creating games. For example, the students discussed and negotiated about what mathematics concepts and movements should be included in their games, shared ideas with group members about how to play the game, listened to group members' ideas, and shared responsibilities for setting up their games. This study suggested that students could design interestingly integrated games when they were provided with integrated learning experiences and appropriate instructional guidance.

3. The Collaborative Approach to Developing an Interdisciplinary Unit
Weiyun Chen, Theresa Purcell Cone, and Stephen Cone

This study was part of a larger project aimed at investigating the teacher's implementation of interdisciplinary teaching that linked measurement in mathematics with locomotor movements in physical education. The purpose of this study was to examine the collaborative approach used by a physical education teacher and second grade teacher to develop and implement an interdisciplinary unit. The literature suggests that effective collaboration among teachers is critical to making interdisciplinary learning meaningful for students and teachers (Cone et al, 1998; Stevens, 1994). Collaborative strategies are defined (Cone et al., 1998), however the actual process of planning and implementation had not been documented. The participants for this study comprised of an accomplished physical education teacher, a second-grade classroom teacher, and 35 students from two second-grade classes. Two planning sessions were audio taped. Eight integrated lessons taught by a physical education teacher and three integrated lessons taught by a classroom teacher were video taped. Each teacher was interviewed about the planning and implementation of the unit. The audiotapes and videotapes were transcribed and sent to the teachers for individual member checking. All qualitative data were analyzed using the constant comparison technique to identify categories and themes that were then compared and contrasted among investigators to confirm the findings. The findings indicated that the physical education teacher initiated the collaboration and both teachers shared leadership roles throughout the planning process. They identified and agreed on the focus of the unit in which locomotor skills and concepts were integrated with units of measurement concepts and skills. Building on each other's ideas, they shaped and edited each lesson's focus, scope, sequence, and teaching strategies based on the students' knowledge and skills in both subjects. During the lesson, the physical education teacher and classroom teacher shared the teaching. The physical education teacher taught the integrated movement content and the classroom teacher helped the students make graphs and write in their journals. The teachers attributed their effective collaboration to their prior collaborative working experiences, good personal relationship, common teaching philosophy, enthusiasm about trying out new ideas, mutual respect and trust, and values about the role of other subject areas in enriching and enhancing students learning. The study identified characteristics that contribute to effective planning and implementation and supported the initiation of collaborative interdisciplinary units between physical education and classroom teachers. This study suggested that the interdisciplinary planning and teaching process resulted in a win-win outcome for both teachers.

4. Confirmatory Factor Analysis of Assessing Preservice Teachers' Achieving the NASPE Beginning Teacher Standards

Weiyun Chen

The NASPE Beginning Teacher Standards (1995) provide a targeted direction for fostering qualified pre-service teachers. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate an instrument that assesses pre-service physical education teachers' perceived competency in achieving the NASPE beginning teacher standards. A careful study of the NASPE beginning teacher standards, a review of the literature on teacher effectiveness and competencies shaped and guided development of items on The Achieving the NASPE Standards Inventory (ANSI). A pilot study was conducted with 108 subjects who did not participated in the main study. The resultant pilot study yielded three factors that supported the theoretical constructs of the inventory. The items were revised numerous times based on four pedagogical experts' judgment, suggestions, and critiques. Finally, the ANSI consists of two parts: demographic information and 45 items rated on a five-point rating scale. 173 PETE pre-service teachers (76 male and 97 female) from 10 PETE programs at 10 state universities across the nation were voluntarily and anonymously completed the ANSI. Their teacher educators mailed the completed copies back to the investigator. Cronbach alpha reliability coefficients were used to analyze the internal consistency reliability of the ANSI. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted using LISREL window version 8.54 to examine the construct validity of a three factor-solution extracted from exploratory factor analysis. The results showed the alpha reliability coefficient of 0.93, 0.82, 0.89, and 0.88 for the total scale and the three sub-scales, respectively, indicating high internal consistency of the inventory. Further, 11 items with a factor loading below 0.40 were eliminated from the ANSI based on the exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. To test how adequately the hypothesized three-factor model fitted the sample data, the confirmatory factor analysis was performed on the 34-observed items of the ANSI. The goodness-of-fit indices for the model were: NNFI= .91, CFI=0.92, IFI=0.93, exceeding the criteria of .90. The "fare" indices were RMR=0.05, IMSEA=0.05, meeting the criteria of 0.05. The results indicated that the model adequately fitted the sample data. The standardized maximum-likelihood factor loadings of 33 items were above 0.50 considering as an indicator of acceptable fit item, except for one item of 0.49. The results indicated that the items clearly defined the three constructs of the ANSI. This study suggests that the ANSI is a theoretically sound and psychometrically supported measure that can be used to assess pre-service teachers' perceived competency in achieving the standards.

5. Students' Learning Experiences in Integrated Physical Education and Math Unit: Broadening Horizons and Deepening Understandings

Weiyun Chen, Theresa Purcell Cone, Stephen L. Cone

Research Purposes

The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) how the students' learning movement skills/concepts and mathematical skills/concepts was enriched and reinforced by the teacher's task design and instructional strategies, and (b) how the students' high order thinking and cooperative skills were promoted by the teacher's structuring learning environment in an integrated unit in which measurement in mathematics were integrated with locomotor movements.

Theoretical Perspectives

Interdisciplinary teaching is viewed as a curriculum approach that integrates two to more subject areas into a meaningful association in order to enhance and enrich students learning in each subject area (Cone, Werner, Cone, & Woods, 1998; Placek, 2003). Movement is an effective vehicle for learning. Students would gain a better understanding of abstracted mathematical concepts when they explore and discover the concepts through concrete experiences in movement settings. On the other hand, application of mathematical concepts and skills into learning movement skills and concepts would provide enriched and challenging learning opportunities for students. Integration of mathematical concepts and skills with movement skills and concepts aims at strengthening and reinforcing students' learning discipline-specific content in meaningfully connected and practically transferable ways (Cone et al, 1998; Payne & Rink, 1997; Placek, 2003, 1997). Teachers play a critical role in enhancing students' content learning and promoting students' thinking skills and social interaction abilities through providing meaningfully integrated learning experiences and structuring socially supportive and productive learning environment (Cone et al., 1998; Payne & Rink, 1997; Placek, 2003). Social constructivists claim that the way the teacher scaffolding learning experiences and collaborative experiences in the process of the interdisciplinary teaching is directly associated with what students act, react, and interact (Albert & Jones, 1997; Cohen, 1994). Researchers in physical education pedagogy have studied the effects of teachers' structuring learning tasks and environment on students' learning responses (e.g., Barrett & Collie, 1996; Sweeting & Rink, 1999). They reported that presenting movement quality-oriented tasks along with modeling and providing learning cues enhanced students' demonstration of mature movement patterns in certain components of motor skills and tactical use of motor skills. However, there is little known about the links between the teacher's interdisciplinary teaching and the students' interdisciplinary learning experiences.

Research Methods

Participants and Research Setting
An accomplished elementary physical education teacher and 35 second-grade students from two intact second-grade classes voluntarily participated in this study. The teacher has taught elementary physical education for more than 30 years and has expertise in interdisciplinary teaching. She is the lead author for Interdisciplinary Teaching through Physical Education (Cone et al., 1998). The rationale for choosing the second grade children included: (a) these students primarily function in Piaget's concrete operational stage, (b) the primary focus of the physical education curriculum for second grade is fundamental movement, and (c) second grade children are learning number facts, whole number operations, and measurement with standard and non-standard units. The research setting was an elementary school that served 503 students from K-5 and was located in New Jersey. The student population represented a diversity of cultural and ethnic background.

Data collection
Video-taping the integrated lessons. The first and third authors used two digital camcorders to videotape the eight integrated lessons taught by the physical education teacher to two second-grade classes. Each investigator began the videotaping when the teacher started a lesson, adjusted angles of the lens to make sure the teacher and most of the children were in video camera range at all times, and continued the videotaping until the teacher dismissed the class.
Completing descriptive anecdotal records. The investigators used descriptive anecdotal records to describe the teacher's teaching actions and children's learning responses while watching the videotaped lessons using the describing protocols and following the actual lesson sequence.
Interviewing the teacher. The first author conducted a two-hour formal interview with the physical education teacher at the conclusion of the integrated unit using semi-structured interview questions (Patton, 1990). During the interviews, the author probed questions to elicit the teachers' elaboration on and clarification of the information if needed. The interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed for later analysis.
Interviewing the students. After videotaping each of the eight lessons, the first and third authors independently conducted a group interview with five students using semi-structured interview questions (Patton, 1990). The interviews were audio-taped and transcribed for later analysis.
Collecting lesson plans. The four integrated lesson plans designed by the teacher were collected. Each of the four lesson plans focused on five major aspects: (a) physical education skills and concepts, (b) mathematical skills and concepts, (c) lesson objectives, (d) lesson content and sequence, and (e) class organization.
Collecting students' documents. The students were asked to write a journal entry for each integrated lesson to record their thoughts and understandings about the interdisciplinary learning experiences. At the conclusion of the unit, the students stapled their data sheets, graph sheets, data interpretation essay, and journal entries together and turn them in to the investigators.

Data analysis

The first and third investigators used the constant comparison technique (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) to independently analyze the descriptive anecdotal records, the interview transcripts and documents. This involved identifying similar tentative assertions along with the highlighted information and grouping them into categories, summarizing categories, and organizing them into themes. The first author compared her analysis of the data with the third author's to confirm and/or disconfirm the categories and themes and discussed the comparisons to reach the agreement on the themes between them via emails.

Findings

Characteristics of the Students' Responses to the Teacher's Presenting Tasks
Students' responses to the integrated tasks with demonstration and learning cues. Across the eight lessons, as the teacher presented the integrated learning tasks accompanied with demonstration and learning cues which emphasized the critical features of the motor skills and the integrated learning tasks, a majority of the students were more likely to demonstrate mature movement forms while applying relevant mathematical concepts and skills in the context of the tasks. For example, in the fourth lesson taught to Mrs. M's class, before having the students to create their own movement patterns while counting how many repeated movement patterns they used to travel across the distance, the teacher initially asked questions to elicit the students to share their ideas about the pattern, then asked students to use the shared ideas to demonstrate the correct movement patterns, and provided learning cues for the patterns. As a result, most of the students very often did clear movement patterns such as jump, run, run by jumping on both feet and landing on both feet with bending their knees to get power, swinging their arms naturally, and smoothly transit to running steps while counting out: jump, run, run, jump, run, run…. Building the students' ideas on demonstration with learning cues helped the students understand how to use different movements with certain numbers to create their movement patterns.
Students' responses to sequentially scaffolded tasks. During the exploration phase of the lesson, the teacher intentionally provided the students with sequentially integrated tasks which were holistically served as scaffolding for critical elements of the actual measurement of the movement tasks. The scaffolded tasks helped the students progressively work on specific element of the actual measurement task and laid the foundation for the students to accomplish the actual measurement task. For example, in the second lessons taught to Mrs. G's class, in order for the students to be able to actually measure how far they traveled by using locomotor movements, the teacher initially emphasized traveling with a given number and stop on the last step. Most of the students stopped on the command, except for one boy who took a few steps after the command. As the scaffolded tasks proceeded, the teacher began asking the students to choose their starting line to travel from and stop on the last number of the locomotor movement. Through practicing the tasks, almost all of the students successfully performed three continuous hops with a mature form and demonstrated complete stop by using their arms to help them gain a balance. Next, the teacher had the student work with their partner to practice jump movement with emphasis on the critical elements, starting behind the line, counting, and stopping. As a result of exploring and experimenting with the sequentially scaffolded tasks, the students were able to successfully demonstrate the critical elements of the actual measurement tasks.
Students' responses to the integrated tasks without initial demonstration or cues. When the teacher asked the students to perform more complicated integrated learning tasks in which more complicated locomotor skills such as leap and slide were combined with even or odd numbers, some of the students initially had difficult performing the correct technique of the skills or performing the movement with even or odd numbers even though the teacher emphasized the critical features of the task and checked for understanding. After viewing some of the students' struggling performance of the task, the teacher asked two students to demonstrate their exemplary performances, pointed out the critical elements of the task to clarify the task, and followed by providing variations of the task. Subsequently, the majority of the students consistently demonstrated mature form of the gallop with right leg leading for even number and switching to left leg leading for odd number.

Characteristics of the Students' Responses to the Teacher's Scaffolding Collaborative Learning Experiences
Students' responses to cognitive engagement. As the lesson progressed to the application phase, the actual measurement of movements/movement patterns, the teacher deliberately engaged the students in using high order thinking skills by having the students observe the skills and asking a series of thought-provoking questions. This cognitive engagement instructional strategy promoted the students to use analysis and evaluation skills. For example, in the third lesson taught to Mrs. G's class, the teacher asked two students to demonstrate small jumps and big jumps. As the students demonstrated the two different sizes of jumps, the teacher started with the question for eliciting the students to communicate what they observed. The students used the comparison and contrast skills to figure out that the way the demonstrators swung their arms and generated power made the differences between the two jumps. The teacher then asked thought-provoking questions and built the questions on the students' ideas to promote the students to think about the other critical element of the jump. Finally, the students found out the bending legs and body like spring to make more power.
Students' responses to collaborative learning experiences. Prior to the application phase of each lesson, the teacher used instructional scaffolding strategy to initially coach/model the students how to work together cooperatively step by step and then provided on-going guidance during their actual measurement of movements. As a result of the structured guidance, the students demonstrated socially cooperative skills to accomplish their joint tasks. For example, in the third lesson taught to Mrs. G's class, one group was consisted of one boy and one girl. The boy executed one jump from the starting line by swing his arms vigorously and bending his knees down to push off and stopped on that one jump. The girl marked the position with her foot and stood there while waiting the boy's second try. The boy tried the jump again to see if he could get to her marking position. As the boy jumped, the girl moved with him all the way to the red line while counting the steps and also spreading her arms out to attempt to mark out the distance the boy needed to go. In the students' journal entries, one student wrote, "When I was in P.E. today, I practiced math like estimating, counting on, and being kind. I also helped Cagnie in her math like in our data." Another one wrote, "My partner and I were very cooperative. We loved working with each other."
Educational Significance
This study provided insights about how the teacher structured integrated learning tasks and supportive learning environment to enrich students learning both movement and mathematics and to embrace the development of thinking and cooperative skills into the interdisciplinary learning experiences.

[Edited by Zan Gao]