Dr. Zan Gao, assistant professor in the School of Kinesiology and director of the Physical Activity Epidemiology Lab (PAEL), recently had two chapters published in Current Issues in Contemporary Comparative Physical Education and Sport, edited by Martin Holzweg and John Saunders.
Gao is the first author in a chapter titled, “Relations of children’s hierarchical ability beliefs to their cardiovascular fitness, physical activity levels and persistence/effort.” This chapter examined the predictive strengths of children’s situational-specific ability beliefs (self-efficacy), contextual ability beliefs (competence beliefs), and global ability beliefs (perceived physical ability) on their cardiovascular fitness, in-class physical activity levels and persistence/effort. The findings suggest that self-efficacy was the best predictor of children’s cardiovascular fitness and physical activity levels. However, competence beliefs made more contribution to the prediction of children’s persistence/effort.

In addition, Gao published another chapter in this book as the co-author with his leading author, Weihong Ning, a current doctoral candidate at Texas Tech University and a previous advisee of Dr. Gao. In this article, “Literature review on effect of physical activity on students’ cognitive abilities and academic achievement,” the effect of physical activity, physical education, athletic participation and physical fitness on students’ cognitive development and academic performance are systematically reviewed. Ning conducted the systematic review under Gao’s mentorship.