History Study Guide

History of PE Study Guide

Multiple Choice

Physical education did not flourish in ancient China because
1. China's topography provided natural protection against invaders
2. of a strong emphasis on intellectual activities
3. of the profound influence of religion on its people
4. of all of the above reasons *
Early civilizations of the Near East developed physical education programs
1. to promote individual enjoyment
2. for religious reasons
3. to condition the people so they could be better soldiers *
4. to contribute to the development of the total individual
The objectives of physical education in Sparta were mainly
1. social
2. militaristic *
3. humanitarian
4. recreational
In ancient Rome individuals
1. enjoyed watching professionals competing in gladiatorial sports *
2. participated in physical education to prepare their bodies as a temple for the soul
3. participated in physical education programs for enjoyment
4. adopted the Greek program of gymnastics and their lofty ideals for competition
In the Dark Ages, Christianity and asceticism fostered the belief that
1. evil resides in the body and physical activity could be used to rid the body of this evil
2. a sound body was essential for mental development
3. physical activities were foolish pursuits for they were designed to improve the body - the body was to be denied for the benefit of the soul *
4. physical education should be part of the medieval university curriculum
Which belief did not increase in popularity during the Renaissance period?
1. the mind and the body are inseparable
2. physical activity had a harmful effect on mental health *
3. learning can be enhanced through good physical health
4. the body needs to be developed for warfare
Renaissance philosophers Rousseau and Locke
1. decried the growth of physical education because it took away from intellectual pursuits
2. believed in scholasticism and limited participation in athletics
3. believed that physical education had little redeeming value
4. proclaimed the value of physical activity *
Friedrich Ludwig Jahn developed the Turnverein movement to
1. develop strong citizens capable of overthrowing foreign rule *
2. build outstanding sport teams to gain prestige in the eyes of the world
3. enhance the health of the citizens of the nation
4. provide recreational opportunities for the nation's citizens
Which individual did not contribute to the growth of physical education and the German system of gymnastics in Germany?
1. Adolph Spiess
2. Johann Guts Muth
3. Chales Beck * (note - Beck introduced the German system to the U.S.)
4. Friedrich Ludwig Jahn
The Danish physical educator who toured the U.S. demonstrating "primitive gymnastics," a series of continuous movements designed to develop the perfect physique, was
1. Franz Nachtegall
2. Niels Buhk *
3. Lars Branting
4. Per Henrik Ling
Great Britain's contribution to the field of physical education was
1. the development of outdoor sports
2. the development of movement education
3. the work of Archibald Maclaren and military gymnastics
4. all of the above *
During the Colonial period in the U.S., physical education's growth was encouraged by
1. sports brought from native lands *
2. religious beliefs
3. the emphasis given to it in the school curriculum
4. the need to be strong to survive the harsh agrarian existence
In the United States, German gymnastics were introduced by
1. Beck *
2. Jahn
3. Beecher
4. Bukh
5. Guts Muth
During World War I, the selective service physical examinations demonstrated that
1. the country was physically fit
2. the country was at the peak of performance
3. one third of the men were unfit *
4. physical education programs were doing a good job of keeping the nation fit
The Depression of the 1930s resulted in
1. many new jobs in physical education
2. a rise in concern for physical education
3. improvements in all areas of physical education
4. improvement in park construction and recreational areas * (note these improvements resulted from the use of unemployed workers in government subsidized special programs)
Which statement best reflects the impact of World War II on physical education?
1. physical education programs became more formalized in nature, emphasizing physical conditioning
2. the selective service exams revealed that, unlike World War I, the men were in excellent shape
3. physical education programs increased in number
4. A and B
5. A and C *
Developments in athletics in the 1950s included all of the following except
1. decreases in boys' and men's athletics because of increased abuses *
2. increased sport opportunities for girls and boys below the high school level
3. increases in intramurals as a means of providing opportunities for all students not just the elite
4. decreased emphasis on team sports and increased emphasis on lifetime sports
The National Children and Youth Fitness Study I and II revealed that
1. because of the fitness movement the youths of today are in excellent shape
2. the youths of today are significantly fatter than youths in the 1960s *
3. the majority of youths participated in physical activity to the extent necessary to develop and maintain cardiovascular endurance
4. the fitness movement had a positive impact on the majority of the nation's youth
Physical education and sport opportunities for individuals with disabilities were increased by all of the following except
1. the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA
2. the Amateur Sports Act of 1978 or PL 95-606
3. the Education Rehabilitation Act of 1978 or PL 95-687
4. the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 or PL 94-142

True or False - (Please note that although True or False items are used in this study guide, the real Praxis PE Content Knowledge Exam is exclusively multiple choice.)

In ancient India the religions of Hinduism and Buddhism stressed that individuals who desired to be holy should prepare their body to be a temple for the soul.
* False - the belief in reincarnation promotes the idea that one should deny the body and refrain from catering to physical pleasures
In the civilizations of the ancient Near East such as Persia, physical education received impetus from the military.
* True
The literature and artifacts from the "Golden Age" of Greece indicated that physical activities were an important part of their culture.
* True
In the Greek city-state of Athens the main objective of physical education was to prepare individuals to be a part of a strong and powerful army.
* False - see question # 24
In the Greek city-state of Sparta physical education was viewed as having the potential to help each individual achieve a proper balance in moral, mental, physical, and aesthetic development.
* False - see question # 23 - the statements would be true if the cities were reversed
In ancient Rome, athletic sports attracted spectators interested in excitement, blood, and brutality.
* True
In Rome, gymnastics and music were considered to be the two most important educational subjects for Roman boys. "Exercise for the body and music for the soul" was a common pronouncement.
* False - it is true of Greece, not Rome
The requirements for participation in the Greek festivals included training for a period of 10 months, a good physique, a free man, professional athletic status, and a vowing to use fair tactics in competition.
* False - all are true except the individual did not have to be a professional athlete
In the Dark Ages the rise of asceticism served as a deterrent to the growth of physical education.
* True - asceticism is the belief that the body was to be denied for the benefit of the soul
In the Dark Ages scholasticism with its emphasis on the education of the whole person served to stimulate the growth of physical education.
* False - scholasticism is the belief that facts are the most important items in education - thus the key to education is knowing facts and increasing one's intellectual prowess - it demphasized the physical and saw physical education as unimportant and unnecessary
During the Renaissance period the theory that the body and the soul were inseparable and that learning could be enhanced if the person was in good physical health became popular.
* True
While European countries were using various programs of gymnastics as the focus of their physical education programs England was concentrating on a program of organized games and sports.
* True
The following questions refer to the United States
During the colonial period the population participated in physical education programs to develop strength necessary to deal with the hardships and perform the work needed to survive in the New World.
* False
Colonists brought with them from their native countries their love of sports. For example the Dutch in New York liked to engage in sports such as skating and bowling.
* True
The Puritans denounced play as the work of the devil, and participation in games was thought to be cause for eternal damnation.
* True
The Turnverein movement in the U.S. emphasized the promotion of physical welfare, social and moral training, winning at all costs and professionalism.
* False - true for all but winning at all costs and professionalism
The late 1880s and the 1890s was marked by the increased popularity of American sports such as basketball, track. lacrosse and football.
* True
The early twentieth century marked a trend toward the establishment of higher standards in physical education teacher preparation, with 4 years of preparation becoming increasingly common as opposed to the 2-year normal school training.
* True
The growth of intercollegiate athletics in the early twentieth century led to the establishment of the Association for the Advancement of Physical Education to govern these growing programs.
* False
During World War I, selective service examinations revealed that approximately one-third of the men called to military service were physically unfit and inept.
* True
The 1929 Carnegie Foundation report "American College Athletics" extolled the conduct of athletics on the nation's college campuses.
* False - strongly criticized college athletics of that time for professional and commercial, the report also criticized wide spread recruiting violations and subsidizing of athletes
The economic depression resulted in the downgrading and elimination of school physical education programs while recreation programs, often with the help of federal subsidization, grew.
* True
World war II stimulated the growth of physical education programs that emphasized conditioning to meet the national emergency.
* True
The physical fitness movement in the 1950s was initiated to maintain the gains in physical fitness achieved by the population during the war years.
* False - (note- The results of the Kraus-Weber tests that were published in late 1953 was the stimulant for the fitness movement of the 1950s. The negative results of the fitness comparisons of U.S. children to European children hit the American public like a bomb. President Eisenhower reacted by forming the Council on Youth Fitness in 1955. The Council on Youth Fitness faded from the public eye during the late 1950s and early 1960s. President Kennedy reformed the council in 1961 and it ultimately became the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports as we know it today.)
The forerunner of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, the President's Council on Youth Fitness, was established by President John F. Kennedy.
* False - see the note for #43
The 1970s and the 1980s was marked by an increased emphasis on preventive medicine.
* True
The great interest in sports and fitness in the 1980s led AAHPERD to emphasize motor skill-related fitness so that individuals can participate at their fullest potential in physical activities.
* False - AAHPERD emphasized health-related fitness and lifetime sports in the 1980s
Title IX helped increase interscholastic and intercollegiate athletic opportunities for girls and women.
* True
Federal legislation such as the Educational Rehabilitation Act or PL 97-180 increased physical education and athletic opportunities for individuals with disabilities.
* False - there is no such law

Completion and Listing - (Please note that although Completion and Listing items are used in this study guide, the real Praxis PE Content Knowledge Exam is exclusively multiple choice.)

"Education of the physical" emphasizes development of the body. Charles H. McCloy is widely associated with this view of the proper focus for physical education.
"Education through the physical" focuses on using physical activity as a means not only to develop the body but as a medium to realize other educational outcomes as well. Jesse Feiring Williams is most often associated with this view of the role of physical education.
The national festivals of Greece, which emphasized singing, feasting, dancing, and feats of physical prowess, laid the foundation for the modern Olympics.
Two movements during the Dark Ages that had a profound impact on physical education were asceticism, and scholasticism or Christianity.
The growth of the Turnverein movement may be attributed to Friedrich Ludwig Jahn. His purpose in promoting the Turnverein movement was to help mold the German youth into strong citizens capable of bringing about an independent Germany.
In the U.S. several factors acted against the growth of physical education in the Colonial Period, particularly in the New England area. Two of these factors were the agrarian existence and its extensive demands in terms of physical activity and the few hours available for leisure time or religion, especially Puritanism.
Two objectives of the Turners in the U.S. were promotion of physical welfare and social and moral training.
In the 1880s, the Swedish Movement Cure was made popular in the United States first by Hartvig Nissen and later by Nils Posse.
American sports began to achieve popularity during the period between the American Revolution and the Civil War - sometimes called the National Period.
In 1885, the forerunner of AAHPERD or the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, was founded. This organization was known as AAAPE or the American Association for the Advancement of Physical Education.
Physical education in the U.S. in the 1890s was marked by a battle of the systems, where advocates of various gymnastics approaches strove to have them incorporated into the school systems. The two major approaches, the German and Swedish systems, dominated the debate.
In the U.S. during the early twentieth century a new physical education started to evolve, emphasizing its scientific basis.
The statistics kept by the U.S. Government for World War I on the men which had been called to duty revealed that many of them were physically unfit and inept. These findings stimulated the passage of legislation to upgrade programs of physical education in the schools.
In the United States during the 1920s many problems arose in intercollegiate athletics and these were addressed in the 1929 Carnegie Foundation report American College Athletics. Two of the problems cited were athletics were becoming professional in nature rather than amateur and athletics were becoming a form of entertainment that was highly commercialized.
In the 1940s physical education programs in the U.S. were given a boost by World War II. As a result, physical education programs in the schools increased and became more formalized in nature, emphasizing conditioning.
In the 1950s the fitness movement was stimulated by the Kraus-Weber tests, a report on the poor fitness status of America's youth.
Four significant developments in athletics in the U.S. during the mid-twentieth century were renewed interest in girls' and women's sports, growth of intramurals, increased emphasis on lifetime sports, and promotion of athletics for children under high school age.
In the 1970s the focus of health care shifted from the emphasis on the treatment and cure of disease to an emphasis on health promotion and disease prevention.
In the late 1970s physical educators shifted their emphasis from performance and motor fitness to health-related fitness.
The national Children and Youth Fitness Study I and II revealed that children and youth were significantly fatter than their counterparts in the 1960s.
Federal legislation has had a profound influence on opportunities for individuals with disabilities. Two laws that mandated increased opportunities for individuals with disabilities were The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (PL 93-122), the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1974 (PL 94-142) or the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

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Last changed: January 18, 2008