To optimize students’ levels of skills, knowledge, and competence in higher education, teachers have been encouraged to work systematically to understand how their pedagogical approaches affect the students’ learning process and learning outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of a student-centered learning design (SCL) in the subject of PE. A total of 24 PETE students were given the responsibility to create the schedule for their own education in a subject for a semester. During the semester, the students wrote reflections note on three occasions related to their learning process and learning outcome. The thematical analysis of the reflection notes revealed two main findings concerning the learning process: an invitation to participate and develop professional ownership, and mixed reflections on the need for teacher scaffolding. Furthermore, the analyses revealed two main findings concerning the learning outcome: improved learning and meaningful learning. Our findings indicate that students’ participation, motivation, enjoyment, and learning outcomes increased due to the use of SCL as a pedagogical strategy. These findings are supported by other investigations, identifying SCL as a preferred strategy according to students’ learning process and learning outcomes. The main pedagogical implication of our findings is a recommendation to implement SCL as a pedagogical strategy for student learning in teacher education.

The aim of the study is to shed light on how physical education (PE) is experienced among a varied group of adolescents in school, and to nurture debate related to the relationship between adolescents' lived experience of PE and their identity-formation processes. Nuanced insights can help to increase teachers' ability to perceive, react to and deal appropriately in relation to fostering healthy lives in young people, in and through PE and physical activity (PA). The empirical material is derived from interviews with four adolescents, firstly in year 7, followed-up in year 8. Two of the teenagers were characterised by a high level of PA, two by a low level. The analysis was carried out using the interpretative phenomenological analysis method. The findings give a glimpse into the unique lived experience of PE of four pupils in modern society, and into how their meaning-making experiences of the subject seem to be situated in its context, as much as in wider contexts of family, and the PA related values, norms and discourses extant in their local communities. From their unique lived experiences of PE of the four participants, two overarching themes emerge. The first, ‘PE is “a bag of sweets with more sweet than sour flavors”, reflects the participants’ experience and understanding of PE as predominantly positive. The second theme, ‘PE is in negotiation with football culture’, reflects that the culture of football, as a sport-related framework for the understanding of content and mastery, appears to have a special significance for the participants' meaning-making in physical education. Our findings also point to the importance of acknowledging that meaning making experiences in PE are embedded in the wider and overall context of the life of each individual.

Research on physical activity (PA) behavior reveals an overall decrease worldwide from early childhood and throughout adulthood. The ability to illuminate which factors promote activity for whom and in which phase of life, therefore, becomes a key concept in extending our understanding of individuals' physical activity trajectories. Accordingly, this study investigates latent trajectories of objectively measured PA in adolescents (n = 306) over 3 years from ages 13 to 15. Further, it was tested whether eagerness for physical activity, perceived athletic competence, and parental support were associated with the different trajectories of PA. Latent class growth analysis revealed two PA trajectories (trajectory 1: “decrease from very high” and trajectory 2: “steeper decrease from high”). Trajectory 1 had a higher PA level at baseline and less PA decline than trajectory 2. Trajectory 1, “decrease from very high,” was associated with higher levels of eagerness for physical activity and perception of competence at all three time points. Furthermore, the effect size of differences between trajectory 1, “decrease from very high,” and trajectory 2, “steeper decrease from high,” increased from baseline (age 13, seventh grade) to posttest (age 15, ninth grade). This finding indicates a stronger experience of PA as enjoyable, personally relevant, and self-confirming behavior (i.e., “I regard myself as a person who exercises”) within the most active adolescents and even stronger as they get older. Consistent with previous research, the PA level declined from seventh to ninth grade. Being more eager for PA and perceiving oneself more as athletically competent is related to higher levels of PA. This highlights the importance of optimizing environmental factors that increase adolescents' experience of eagerness for physical activity and physical athletic competence.

The aim of this article is to shed light on the lifeworld of thirteen-year-olds with high and low activity levels in relation to movement activities. Insights on this topic could serve as important resources for all those who contribute to the development and life quality of young teenagers through various contexts involving movement activities. The empirical material is based on individual interviews with four young teenagers. Two of the teenagers were characterized by a high physical activity level, and two by a low physical activity level. The analysis process has been carried out in accordance with the interpretative phenomenological analysis method. The study uncovered both unique and parallel meaning-making dimensions among the participants, but a pattern of several dissimilarities distinguished the highly active from those with low activity. Among those with high activity 'finding oneself in the activity', 'to be better', 'interplay', and 'self-regulation' were identified as meaning-making dimensions. Among those with low activity, 'ambivalence', 'to be good', 'interplay', and 'self-regulation' were identified as meaning-making dimensions. Meaning-making, in terms of interplay and self-regulation, expressed a partly polarized picture of the lifeworld of young people with high and low activity levels in relation to movement activities. The identified meaning-making dimensions have been interpreted and discussed in accordance with physical literacy (Whitehead, 2010. Physical literacy: Throughout the lifecourse. Routledge), as an expression of individual stances in a journey of bodily formation. In light of this perspective, the importance of gaining experience with a wide range of activities in different activity contexts, in addition to experiencing self-confirming and competent interplay with the surroundings, are highlighted as important meaning-making dimensions in a positive and confirming relationship to movement activities.

Background and purpose: In recent years, sedentary behaviour (SB) has become a significant risk factor for health, alongside the decline of physical activity (PA) in the population. This study explored adolescents’ PA and SB using a longitudinal design, from the age of 13 to 15, to elucidate any changes and when they potentially occur. Method: The data material from the accelerometer measurements was analysed using the program SPSS, version 28. Repeated measures ANOVA (and follow-up test with Bonferroni corrections) were used to assess changes in the four activity levels during the three years. Independent t-tests were used to examine gender differences in each year and at each activity level and to determine differences in activity level between participants with valid data for all three years and those with valid data only at 13 and/or 14 years of age. Results: Statistical analyses of the accelerometer measurements revealed a significant increase in time in the lowest activity level and a decrease in light, moderate and vigorous intensity PA levels during the three years. These changes were larger from 13 to 14, than from 14 to 15, years of age. However, no significant interaction was found between time and gender. Analyses also showed a significantly higher time spent in SB and lower time spent in moderate activity among girls compared to boys at 13, but not at the age of 14 and 15. Conclusions: The findings, which indicate a reduction in PA and increased sedentary time with increasing age, are discussed, which we argue are important to increase and solidify involvement in PA among adolescents. Emphasized here is the importance of communicating the diverse possibilities of movement and challenging understandings of what PA can be for youth.

This study investigated the association between perceived parental support and eagerness for physical activity (EPA) among adolescents, and the association between EPA and physical activity. We further examined whether perceived athletic competence (PAC) mediates a presumed association between EPA and physical activity level, when controlling for gender. This study included 320 adolescents (aged 12–13) from 18 schools in two medium-sized Norwegian municipalities. Questionnaires and accelerometers were assessed during spring 2017. Structural equation modeling was applied to examine the associations. Standard regression coefficients are presented. Data demonstrated that perceived parental support was positively associated with EPA (β = 0.52), and eagerness was positively associated with PAC (β = 0.52). Both EPA (β = 0.20) and PAC (β = 0.24) were also positively associated with moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA). When mediating the relationship between EPA and MVPA, through PAC, the effect on MVPA increased (from β = 0.20 to β = 0.32). Analysis revealed that 87% of the adolescents fulfilled the national health recommendations for physical activity. This study highlights the relevance of EPA and PAC in studies of physical activity among adolescents, and the impact of perceived parental support for adolescents' EPA and physical activity level.