Positive Behavior Management Strategies for Physical Educators

One of the greatest challenges facing physical educators today is determining how to promote appropriate student behavior and enhance student performance. In fact, the reason most often cited by beginning educators for leaving the profession is an inability to manage and motivate students. Positive Behavior Management Strategies for Physical Educators empowers K-12 physical educators to take control of their classes and create an environment conducive to learning.

This practical guide leads you through the process of developing a proactive behavior management plan—one that focuses on preventing behavior problems and maintaining appropriate behavior. By using the book's positive strategies, you'll minimize off-task behavior and maximize learning in physical education classes and other physical activity settings. You'll also learn how to deal effectively with misbehavior when it does occur.

The authors incorporate approaches from psychology, special education, and classroom management and apply them to proven successful teaching practices. To help you understand how to put the methods to use in your own classes, the book is filled with accounts of how the techniques have been applied in real-life physical education teaching situations.

The final chapter outlines a 10-step program for developing your own unique approach to behavior management. Because no two students are alike, you must learn how to apply different approaches to the same behavioral situation. By following the steps in this chapter, you'll learn how to blend the various approaches presented in the book and incorporate them into a system that works for you and your students.

Positive Behavior Management Strategies for Physical Educators also contains many other helpful elements:

• Application exercises in the form of vignettes, along with the authors' suggestions for solving the problems presented

• A description of a behavior management program that has been used successfully in a variety of settings

• 18 checklists for self-evaluation

• 8 reproducible worksheets for collecting data

• End-of-chapter review questions

Barry W. Lavay, PhD, is a professor and the adapted physical education program coordinator in the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education at California State University, Long Beach. Since 1984 he has taught courses in physical education and adapted physical education, including a course on behavior management. He also spent six years as a public school physical educator and adapted physical educator. He has written or coauthored numerous articles, textbooks, chapters, and curriculum guides, many on the topic of behavior management. Dr. Lavay received his doctorate in physical education from the University of New Mexico in 1983.

Ron French, EdD, is a professor and the adapted physical education program coordinator in the Department of Kinesiology at Texas Woman's University in Denton. Since 1981 he has taught a graduate course on behavior management in physical education and sport. A former high school physical educator, he has written or coauthored more than 40 articles and two manuals on the topic of behavior management. Dr. French received his doctorate in special education, administration, and special physical education from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1971.

Hester L. Henderson, PhD, is an associate professor and the special physical education program director in the Department of Exercise and Sport Science at the University of Utah. She was an elementary school teacher for eight years and has been a university professor since 1983. She has taught a class in behavior management to pedagogy majors, written or coauthored 10 articles on behavior management, and authored two other books on the topic. Dr. Henderson received her doctoral degree in special education from Utah State University (Logan) in 1978.