American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance - AAHPERD

 Issue: Nov/Dec 2006

Setting the Stage for Physical Activity for Secondary Students
Lori Ciccomascolo & Deborah Riebe

Abstract:
Despite the positive long-term physiological and psychological effects of exercise, many young adults between the ages of 12 and 21 years do not participate in regular physical activity. With the time constraints and other challenges in teaching and assessing students, physical educators need realistic strategies that will help in their efforts to get students to adopt and maintain an active lifestyle in and outside of the classroom. Since physical activity and participation in physical education are declining—especially at the secondary level—finding ways to help students to prepare for, adopt, and eventually maintain an active lifestyle is a necessity. One approach that can be used is the Stages of Change (SOC) Model of Health Behavior Change. This article introduces physical educators to the SOC and provides them with the goals and rationales of each stage as well as with realistic examples of how they can effectively use the SOC in their physical education classes.

Article category: Teaching