AUSTIN, Texas—Dr. Daryl Siedentop’s sport education research has sparked global acclaim in the last decade, nudging more traditional school “P.E.” classes toward appreciation of active lifestyles that lengthen student lives.
The renowned Ohio State University professor will speak at 7 p.m., Wednesday, April 5 in Bellmont Hall 328 on “Physical Education in the New Millennium,” co-sponsored by the UT Austin College of Education and the department of kinesiology and health education.
The event is free and open to the Austin community.
“Daryl Siedentop’s ideas and research have pushed students with a broad range of abilities to participate successfully in authentic sport experiences, and his work has helped coaches and other physical education teachers to improve their teaching,” said Dr. Dolly Lambdin, an elementary teacher education specialist.
Siedentop’s ideas — along with implementation plans — have been formally adopted in school systems throughout Australia and New Zealand, as well as in the United States.
His “sport education model” encourages students to learn fair play, leadership and participation skills — emphasizing self-responsibility while becoming competent players in varied sports. “Siedentop’s programs have assisted low-skilled students, and those who tend not to participate, to become active and valued team members,” explained Lambdin. “You have an increased focus on fitness for life and self-improvement.”
Siedentop also serves as an adviser for the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention & Health Promotion in Atlanta, Ga. Along with the U.S. Surgeon General’s Office, its reports have announced regularly that American children are becoming less active and more obese.
“Although regular physical activity enhances health and reduces the risk for all-cause mortality and the development of many chronic diseases among adults, many adults remain sedentary,” said one 1997 report, Guidelines for School and Community Programs to Promote Lifelong Physical Activity Among Young People.
“Young people are more active than adults are, but many young people do not engage in recommended levels of physical activity; in addition, physical activity declines precipitously with age among adolescents. Comprehensive school programs have the potential to slow this age-related decline in physical activity and help students establish lifelong, healthy physical activity patterns,” according to the report.
In the past two years, Siedentop has focused on his interim deanship of the College of Education at Ohio State University. A Fellow of the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education, he has published 11 books and more than 100 research articles, with translations into Japanese, Korean and French.
The yearly Alderson Lecture celebrates the late Dr. C.J. “Shorty” Alderson, and his late wife, Dr. Mary Buice Alderson, who were much-honored faculty in the UT department of kinesiology and health education. Their service to UT students and alumni spanned a cumulative total of 85 years.
NOTE to EDITOR’s: Media interviews available on morning of April 5th.
