Dr. Zan Gao, assistant professor in the School of Kinesiology and director of the Physical Activity Epidemiology Lab (PAEL), recently  published two articles as the lead author and one piece as a co-author.

One article appears in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health and is titled , “Effects of exergaming based exercise on urban children’s physical activity participation and body composition.” This study examined the impact of an exergaming-based program on urban children’s physical activity participation, body composition and perceptions of the program.

The second article, “The Influence of Student Teaching on Physical Education Student Teachers’ Self-efficacy and Outcome Expectancy Beliefs,”was published in the Journal of Teaching, Research, and Media in Kinesiology. This study found that the student teaching experiences had a positive effect on physical education student teachers’ beliefs during this crucial early stage of their prospective teaching careers.

In addition, Gao co-authored a research paper that was published in International Council for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, Sport, and Dance Journal of Research. The piece was titled, “Epistemic-motivational profiles of fitness in high school physical education: Implications on indices of fitness engagement.”