Game Performance Decisions of International Baccalaureate Students in Korea and Students in a Traditional American High School

Middle and high school students engaged in physical education learning activities during the course of an academic year may be able to strengthen problem-solving and decision making skills necessary for success in the other curricular areas of the schools. It is also possible to support the problem-solving and critical thinking initiatives emphasized by teachers in other subject areas by having physical education students engage in learning activities and contemporary instructional model-based lessons which focus more on tactical decision-making. Because of the focus of some contemporary physical education instructional models on the development of game sense and tactical decision-making/problem-solving, it is possible that schools with certain types of curricular emphases and requirements may put physical education students in better position to become more tactically sound while competing in various sporting activities than would other types of curricular requirements in other schools. It is also possible that a focus on tactical decision making in physical education could support a critical thinking culture in the entire school curriculum framework, particularly the highly praised International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum. Many IB schools are attended by students who travel to and live in other countries. In this growing global society, it is possible that middle and high school students attending schools in other countries may have an advantage over young people who have not traveled outside of their countries, particularly those in the United States. By simply traveling and living in another country and having to understand economic, social, political, and cultural issues as well as living according to a different set of customs and expectations, American students may demonstrate the ability to solve problems and make decisions in different ways than their American counterparts without the experience of traveling and living abroad. Now, add to that the curricular experience of those who attend middle and high schools using the International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum, it is possible that the entire experience would enable these middle and high school students to make better and more appropriate tactical decisions in physical education class than those American students without that same set of global experiences. Curricular Influence Within traditional college preparatory high schools, American students have demonstrated a lower proficiency on core subjects and a lower entry rate into post-secondary education programs than students in eight other countries, including Canada, Ireland, and South Korea (Camoy & Rothstein, 2013)). In 2006, the Association for Career and Technical Education (2006) identified three education gaps in secondary education in the United States (U.S.): a. Domestic achievement gap, which can be described as the disparity in learning among American students in relation to racial and economic status; b. International achievement gap between U.S. students and young people from other nations; and c. Ambitions gap, a compilation of factors contributing to a lack of focus and purpose among American youth (cite the authors of Re-inventing the American High School part one) While it has been widely acknowledged in the last two decades that more rigor and accountability has been needed in American secondary education (Camoy & Rothestein, 2013; National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983; No Child Left Behind Act, 2001;). The model of education that is delivered traditionally in public education this country is vastly different than what is delivered in other countries by schools that utilize curricula grounded on critical thinking skills, such as the International Baccalaureate (IB) Programme and Advanced Placement courses (Park, Caine, & Wimmer, 2014). Within curricular models such as IB, critical thinking skills are emphasized, such as interpretation, inference, recognizing connections and analytical skills (Atkas & Guvan, 2015). …

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.