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This paper presents an interpretation of student learning from a situated learning perspective, seeking to enhance approaches already employed in teaching games for understanding (TGfU) research. The analysis was designed to help identify three specific dimensions of situated learning in physical education: the perceptual-physical, social-interactive, and institutional-cultural, which have implications for the pedagogy of TGfU. The study describes what happened when a TGfU approach was implemented as part of a regular eighth-grade physical education program in basketball. Three vignettes based on critical incidents generated from observation, interview, and diary data illustrate various aspects of the situatedness of learning. Analysis of the vignettes showed that the constructs employed in cognitive, motor behavioral, and ecological approaches remained useful, but by themselves they provided incomplete explanations of learning to play games. Reworked within a situated perspective, the constructs provided theoretical tools for providing a more targeted approach to the pedagogy of TGfU. (Contains 27 references.) (SM)

This study examined the role of high-profile intercollegiate athletic programs, such as men's football and basketball, in institutional identity. Site visits were conducted at 11 universities in the United States with nationally recognized intercollegiate athletic programs, and a total of 177 formal interviews were conducted with administrators, faculty, and students. An equivalent number of informal interviews were also conducted with faculty, students, and lower-level staff. An analysis of the interview data found that a high-profile college sports program is perceived by external constituents to be something distinctive, central, and enduring about the institution, as well as something that is viewed favorably by others. Both outcomes enhance institutional identification, causing people to: (1) be drawn to the campus, both literally and figuratively; (2) come to know something about the institution, often something positive; and (3) think of the institution in conjunction with the universities against whom the athletics teams commonly compete. (Contains 97 references.) (MDM)

This paper traces representational strategies employed by "Hoop Dreams," the documentary for which two black teenagers and their families consented to have three white film makers follow them around in their day-to-day life for five years. Storytelling techniques, choice of narrator, and on- vs. off-screen action all reflect film maker bias and filter reality. Of particular interest is the way the film employs juxtapositional editing strategies to make sociological observations about racial relations in current American society. As "Hoop Dreams" is placed against the broader cultural context of popular culture representations of class and race, and how mass audiences receive such works, the other topics of discussion which emerge include: (1) the current high visibility of black role models both positive and negative; (2) the images in "Hoop Dreams" contrasting sharply with the black affluence depicted in other television programming; (3) the ghetto playground as a fantasy melting pot experience for white America; and (4) the limitations of film and the documentary genre in depicting the whole person, his family relationships, and his sociological reality. Still, the paper concludes that the success of "Hoop Dreams" is a testament to good film making, as well as to the fact that American culture is desperate for messages that will bring races together rather then pushing them apart. (AEF/BEW)

Using data from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program of students who were college freshmen in 1986 and responded to a follow-up survey in 1990, this study examined differences in degree aspirations and attainment between intercollegiate football or basketball players (N=158) and other intercollegiate athletes (N=801). Although there were significant differences in most background characteristics between the two groups, there was no difference in their mean degree aspiration at the start of their first year of college. Four years later, however, football and basketball players had significantly lower degree attainment and degree aspirations than their counterparts who played other intercollegiate sports. More importantly, even when background characteristics and initial degree aspirations were statistically controlled for in multiple regression analysis, the degree aspirations of football and basketball players significantly dropped while the degree aspirations of those playing other sports did not change. Outcomes were differentially negative not only for male but also for female athletes in the football and basketball group compared to those in other sports. Time devoted to athletics was not significantly different between the two groups of athletes. Peer group effects and role engulfment were suggested as possible explanations for the findings, and limitations to interpretability are discussed. (Contains 14 references.) (Author/JLS)

This study was conducted to investigate factors that might assist in understanding perceptions about women in coaching; contribute to an understanding of the decline of women in coaching; and examine possible differences in the preferences of coaches by players exposed to a gender socialized version of the same game, namely 5- and 6-player basketball. Subjects (N=234) were female varsity basketball players from 21 high schools throughout the state of Iowa. High schools were randomly selected based on the sex of the girls' basketball coach and the team's success. Materials consisted of two coaching philosophy statements, a series of semantic differential rating scales, and a preference question which required subjects to select a preferred coach after reading a description of the coach's philosophy. Results, inconsistent with the literature, indicate that female players from both winning and losing teams tended to choose a hypothetical female coach over a hypothetical male coach; the hypothetical male was preferred over the hypothetical female only when the choice was between a high status male coach and a low status female coach. Findings therefore fail to help explain the small number of women coaches in Iowa. (Contains 34 references and 5 tables.) (LL)

This paper estimates the effects of freshman athletic participation on reading comprehension, mathematics, and critical thinking controlling for pre-college aptitude and other influences. A group of 3,331 students from 18 four-year and 5 two-year colleges and universities participated in initial testing during fall of their freshman year. Testing involved pre-college surveys and the Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency (CAAP). Subjects (n=2,416) were given followup testing the following spring. Women and non-white students were over-represented, and nearly twice as many women participated as men. Intercollegiate athletic participation was found to have significant adverse consequences for the general cognitive development of both men and women during the first year of college. The analyses for women showed somewhat less pronounced and extensive general effects than those for men. In particular, males participating in football and basketball experienced net declines in reading comprehension and math skills during their freshman year while students in other sports and non-athletes showed net gains. The study raises questions as to the educational wisdom of allowing freshmen to participate in varsity level intercollegiate football and basketball. (Contains 40 references.) (GLR)

Data from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 were used to evaluate the contention that big-time college sports exploit athletes, denying them an education that will help them succeed after college. The sample (N=8,101) consisted of six comparison groups of students who attended four year colleges: varsity football and basketball players; varsity athletes in other sports; intramural sports participants; performing arts students; nonathletes; and a residual group who claimed to be active in athletics, identified by transcript entries for "varsity" or "intercollegiate" sports, whether the entries carried credits or not. Major findings of the study include the following: (1) varsity athletes, including football and basketball players complete the bachelor's degree at a reasonable rate, but it takes them longer to do so than other groups, their grades are lower, and their curricula are less demanding; (2) ex-varsity football and basketball players do very well economically in the first decade of their worklives, whether or not they earned college degrees; and (3) at age 32, they had the highest rate of home ownership, the lowest rate of unemployment, but were the most likely to have lower status occupations than other groups. Results suggest that colleges do not exploit athletes but that the near term educational promises colleges make to students are not being kept. Includes 19 references and 17 tables. (LPT)

This is the 12th issue of the "Racial and Gender Report Card," which assesses hiring practices of women and people of color in U.S. professional and amateur sports and sporting organizations. It considers the composition of players, coaches, and front office/athletic department employees in the leading sports organizations. Each organization is assigned a grade for race, another for gender, then finally an overall grade combining the two. The 2003 report covers perhaps the worst overall 2-year period of declines for women and, in some cases people of color, in the report's history, which is a reversal from 2001, when historically best hiring records were noted for race and gender. Each professional sport covered for 2003 had lower averages for gender, and only three improved for race. College sport improved overall for race and gender. Though there were significant losses for African American men playing college and professional sports, the Black Entertainment Television's CEO became the first African American majority owner of an NBA franchise. Latinos had all-time highs in baseball and soccer. There was also an all-time high of head coaches/managers of color in the three biggest professional leagues. Title IX has been the single most powerful tool to create opportunities for women in sports. (SM)

Assesses Astin's (1984) theory of student involvement among NCAA Division III basketball players and the way in which basketball contributes to involvement. Analysis of qualitative interviews (N=14) reveals that these student athletes were involved due to their academic absorption, extracurricular participation, and faculty interaction. (Contains 35 references.) (Author/GCP)

The primary purpose of this study was to determine what effect the diameter of the striking implement has on a basketball's rebound height and on the area of contact between the ball and the implement. A secondary purpose was to determine if changing the air pressure of the ball would alter the pattern established with standard pressure. A basketball was dropped repeatedly from a height of 100 inches above the floor onto one of three striking implements of different sizes located five inches above the floor. The mean rebound height and the mean area of contact produced by each striking implement and for each pressure was computed. Results indicated that (a) the diameter of the striking implement was a significant factor in how high the basketball rebounded, (b) the diameter of the striking implement was a significant factor in the size of the contact area, (c) the smaller striking implement produced the greatest rebound height and the least area of contact, and (d) there is an optimum implement diameter for the specific amount of force and the coefficients of restitution for the ball-implements used in this study. (PB)

This study was undertaken to determine which attitudes were central to the motivation of women involved in championship basketball competition. Seventy-five women members of teams represented in national basketball championships served as subjects for this experiment. In addition, a control group of 212 women was randomly selected from physical education classes required of all first-year students at Kansas State University. All subjects were administered the Kenyon Attitude Toward Physical Activity Scale. This scale includes the following six subdomains: (a) social experience, (b) health and fitness, (c) pursuit of vertigo, (d) aesthetic experience, (e) catharsis, and (f) ascetic experience. Information was also obtained on the player's position on the team, her classification as starting or reserve, and her team's rating. The strongest motive for participation expressed by the athletes was the ascetic. The aesthetic experience was least dominant. Athletes differed from nonathletes on the ascetic, aesthetic, and catharsis subscales. The most striking difference was in ascetic attitudes, where athletes had a much higher score. Athletes also scored higher on the catharsis scale. The only scale on which nonathletes scored higher than athletes was the aesthetic scale. There were no significant differences in attitude when position, classification, and rating were considered. (PB)

Changes in pre-competition state anxiety of junior and senior high school football and basketball players were studied as a function of trait anxiety of these athletes and three experimental athletic environments characterized by stressful and non-stressful conditions. In response to the psychological stress associated with athletic competition, state anxiety significantly increased in all subjects. These rises in state anxiety were occurring between practice and regular season and playoffs. High Trait subjects exhibited significantly higher elevations in state anxiety than Low Trait subjects which was in agreement with Spielberger's Trait-State Anxiety Theory. Stressful athletic environments (regular season and playoffs) did not, as has generally been believed, differentially affect the state anxiety of both groups of subjects. Spielberger's State Anxiety Inventory successfully discriminated between practice and competitive athletic environments and was successfully used in assessing the presence and strength of state anxiety levels of athletes in these environments. (Author)