University of Utah
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MISSION STATEMENT
The Sport Pedagogy doctoral program at the University of Utah is committed to prepare the future leaders in Physical Education Teacher Education by integrating theoretical and authentic experiences in teaching, research, and service. Through intensive coursework and research opportunities our students are prepared to be excellent teachers and scholars.
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
The graduate program in Sport Pedagogy provides prospective candidates with knowledge and practical experiences in the field of physical education. The program is based on a foundation of core courses within a more traditional pedagogy model, e.g. curriculum design, supervision of student teachers, and analysis of teaching. Graduate students in the Sport Pedagogy program will have opportunities to:
- Work with faculty and fellow students in various research projects.
- Assist with the organization and teaching at schools of best practice.
- Teach, supervise, and coordinate the sport pedagogy after-school programs.
- Prepare for careers in college teaching.
- Develop the skills necessary to become an independent researcher.
- Assist faculty in community-based inquiry projects. Design, implement, and evaluate physical activity programs in a variety of settings.
- Learn techniques of measuring physical activity and how to apply in a physical activity setting.
Unique Aspects of our Program:
Our large cohort of doctoral students (currently 12) allows for courses to build on a master’s degree as classes typically are at the doctoral level only, allowing for advanced training and learning. This also allows for a tremendous support system of students at each stage of the doctoral program. Our university is located in a large metropolitan capital city with 1.2 million people with 40 minutes of campus. This setting allows for tremendous school-based research opportunities and our natural setting is unrivaled anywhere in the nation. We also have a partnership with the University of Utah Medical School, allowing for unique research opportunities. We have attracted visiting scholars from around the world and have had scholars from China, Korea, and Turkey in the past year. Our students are truly prepared to be great teacher educators as well as productive scholars!
PROGRAM EXPECTATIONS
Teaching:
All of our doctoral students will have the opportunity to teach undergraduate classes either by themselves or with a senior faculty member. Typical courses that are taught included: Motor Learning, Elementary Methods, Middle School Methods, High School Methods, Introduction to Physical Education, and Introduction to Coaching. Our students also have access to teaching in our ESSF and PEAK activity courses. Furthermore, our doctoral candidates regularly teach in our fully online master’s program for practicing teachers. Lastly, any doctoral students that lack significant public school teaching experience will be provided an opportunity to teach at the K-8 level during their time in our program.
Scholarship:
Students are expected to engage in research each semester through our Sport Pedagogy and Physical Activity Assessment Laboratory. Each of the core pedagogy doctoral classes includes group research projects, and students are required to lead a research project during years 2 and 3. The third year research project is completed in lieu of traditional comprehensive examination. The dissertation requires a 2 or 3 paper format. We also expect students to regularly contribute applied scholarship for practicing school teachers. Our students present annually at Utah AHPERD and at either ACSM or AAHPERD national conventions.
Service:
We believe that professional service is an important aspect of the doctoral education. Our students are actively engaged in Utah AHPERD, often as Vice Presidents. They are also involved in national AAHPERD at the graduate student’s level. We also provide our students opportunity to review research manuscripts through the supervision of their mentor faculty.
CORE COURSES
Core Sport Pedagogy (12 Credits)
Core Research (15 Credits)
Core Higher Education Teaching
Dissertation (14 credits)
Cognate (12-15 credits)
- ESS 6140 – Analysis of Teaching Physical Activity - Study and analysis of effective college teaching with special emphasis on the teaching of exercise and sport science related curriculum.
- ESS 6160 – Curriculum and Supervision in Physical Education - Application of current theories and techniques in curriculum and supervision.
- ESS 7110 Physical Activity Measurement - This course is designed to familiarize students with and give students experience using various techniques to measure physical activity. This course will provide students with experience reading and evaluating previous research, conducting experiments, analyzing data, and effectively writing data based manuscripts.
- ESS 7120 Physical Activity Interventions - This course will focus on the development of theory based PA interventions for the purposes of scientifically evaluating such interventions.
Core Research (15 Credits)
- ESS 7102 Research Methods - Introduction to research methods, and introduction to statistics with emphasis on integration with theory and application to exercise and sport science research.
- ESS 7103 Design and Analysis I - This class provides an in-depth examination of experimental design and associated statistical analysis, within the context of health science research.
- ESS 7104 Design and Analysis II - Application of select quantitative methods to planning, evaluation, and research.
- Plus a minimum of two additional research/stats courses. Courses often include qualitative methods, ANOVA, multiple regression, HLM/SES, survey of statistical packages, biostat I/II, etc.
Core Higher Education Teaching
- ESS 7953 College Teaching II – While working with a mentor, the student will take responsibility for using departmental lines to develop the course syllabus and related instructional materials and teach a section of a course.
- ESS 7954 Practicum of Effective Teaching Doctoral - This course will provide graduate students in PETE with the opportunity to model quality physical education teaching, supervise practicum students, and maintain sites of good practice for the PETE program.
- CTLE 6000 Teaching in Higher Education - Discussion and practice of fundamental teaching methods. This class prepares individuals with the foundational pedagogical knowledge and skills to fulfill their teaching mission in an institution of higher education.
- CTLE 6510 Cyber Pedagogy - Converting a successful in-person classroom course into an online environment involves much more than uploading course material to the institution’s educational technology platform. Online teaching requires a different way of thinking about educational objectives; relationships with and between students; content organization and presentation; and, the interface between teacher, student and technology. This course introduces instructional technology paradigms by exploring principles of online learning; offering examples of instructional technology best practices; and, providing participants the opportunity to experiment with designing their own online strategies, techniques and approaches.
Dissertation (14 credits)
- ESS 7970 Research - A research topic will be identified and an appropriate research design developed. After approval of the proposed study, data will be collected, and a thesis will be written and defended.
Cognate (12-15 credits)
- Typical cognates include: Sport and Exercise Psychology, Adapted Physical Education, Health, Biostatistics, Exercise Physiology, Qualitative Research Methods, Special Education, Multicultural Education
ADMISSIONS
Applications are due December 1st and are reviewed during the month of January/early February. Students will be notified if they are being recommended for admission to the Graduate School and if that admission comes with an assistantship.
Preferred/Minimum Requirements:
Students must submit 3 letters of recommendation, a statement of professional and research objectives with rationale for seeking the degree, a CV, GRE scores completed within the past 5-years.
**These are preferred requirements but exceptions can be made on an individual basis**
FINANCIAL AIDE AND EMPLOYMENT
Assistantships are highly competitive and could be either research or teaching assistantships. We have a variety of assistantships available which could include teaching elementary PE in local schools, serving as a school PA director as part of a CSPAP program, conducting research, teaching lecture or activity classes within the ESS department. Doctoral assistantships include a full tuition waiver and a $16K stipend, students are also eligible for student health insurance.
CONTACT INFORMATION