Articulation between Physical Education and Athletics.

Overview & Synopsis

Athletics, basic instruction programs of physical education, and professional physical education programs are conducted together on hundreds of college campuses, intertwining facilities, personnel, and curriculum. Coaches continue to be assigned almost invariably to physical education departments if they have academic rank and/or teaching duties. This presentation identifies some structural as well as functional problems arising from the melding of the two programs; suggests solutions beneficial to both physical education and athletics; addresses how job expectations, supervision, and evaluation of teacher-coaches can be developed so that neither area of responsibility suffers; discusses articulation from the perspective of the physical education curriculum; and examines the dual role of teacher-coach. About half the paper consists of documents produced by the State University of New York (Brockport), illustrating criteria for assessing the teacher-coach in terms of duties and responsibilities in each of five areas: mastery of subject matter, teaching effectiveness, scholarly ability, university and public service, and continuing growth. (LL)