Thomas McKenzie to Receive National Award

Thomas McKenzie, emeritus professor in the SDSU School of Exercise and Nutritional Sciences, will receive the Physical Education Teacher Education Honor Award from the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) during the national convention of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD).

McKenzie will be recognized at the NASPE Physical Education Teacher Education Awards Luncheon on Thursday, March 18, at the Marriott in Indianapolis, Ind.

About the award

A national honor, the Physical Education Teacher Education Honor Award recognizes and honors exemplary, innovative work that impacts physical education teacher education. The recognition is for a service, product, unique collaboration or contribution that benefits the profession. Nominations might include individuals, programs, associations or government entities.

McKenzie's work and research

McKenzie aims to research physical activity levels and promote physical activity amongst children and youth through data-driven physical education programming. He is a frontrunner in making physical activity a central outcome for any school physical education program, advocating for health-related physical education programs and identifying the new teaching skills needed to deliver such programs.

He created the often-used SOFIT (System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time) observation system. This system has been used to gather valid and reliable data about levels of physical activity in physical education classes across the nation and has become the standard for much research in the physical education field.

McKenzie was a major investigator on nine multidisciplinary research projects supported by the National Institutes of Health, providing millions of dollars of funding to examine the teaching and physical education curricula. 

These research projects have developed excellent curriculum materials for teachers, as well as adding to the available academic literature. McKenzie was also a major contributor to the curriculum, study design and data collection in several programs, including:

• Sports, Play, and Active Recreation for Kids (SPARK)
• Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health (CATCH)
• Middle School Physical Activity and Nutrition (MSPAN)
• Trial of Activity for Adolescent Girls (TAAG)

The SPARK and CATCH curricula have impacted physical education for more than a million children. McKenzie has also served as co-principal investigator on two obesity prevention programs, including:

• AVENTURAS, which targets Latino homes, communities and schools
• MOVE, which targets 30 community recreation centers in San Diego

He is also an investigator with RAND on two four-year studies of parks and recreation centers in five U.S. cities.

Among his many accomplishments, McKenzie has received the:

• C.H. McCloy Research Lecturer Award from the Research Consortium of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance
• Honor Award from NASPE
• Public Service Award from the Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis
• Dudley A. Sargent Award from the National Association for Kinesiology and Physical Education in Higher Education

McKenzie received his M.Sc. from Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and his Ph.D. from Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.
        
About NASPE

The preeminent national authority on physical education and a recognized leader in sport and physical activity, the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) is a non-profit professional membership association that sets the standard for practice in physical education and sport.

NASPE’s 15,000 members include:

• K-12 physical education teachers
• Coaches
• Athletic directors
• Athletic trainers
• Sport management professionals
• Researchers
• College and university faculty who prepare physical activity professionals

NASPE seeks to enhance knowledge, improve professional practice and increase support for high-quality physical education, sport and physical activity programs through research, development of standards and dissemination of information. It is the largest of the five national associations that make up the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation & Dance (AAHPERD). 

For more information, visit www.naspeinfo.org.