WHAT: The park and recreation department is organizing a program to increase their membership. They’ve established that the focus will be on family members and assuring that programs are readily available to all families. The “Families Together and Active” program is intended to influence positive attitudes with exercise and show improvement in performance abilities among the participants. The director insists the programs are creative and available to families, so it must be presented to the director before being implemented.
SO WHAT: The program must aim for providing a positive social environment that will make families comfortable and welcomed. As stated by the director, the program must be available to families; therefore appropriate timing is a key aspect. Assuming that most parents hold jobs during the day and children are in school, this program should be held in the evening time, or perhaps on a weekend day. Also, it will be important to offer the exercise classes in the program more than once during the week, and possibly at different times. This way, it provides more opportunities for families to participate and have the program available to them. One of the goals was to influence positive attitudes with physical activity, and involving families is one positive approach to this goal. Gill and Williams (2008) discuss Eccles findings that attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs can be influenced by significant others. Family participation in this exercise program will foster these influences regarding physical activity and progress toward this goal. Influencing positive attitudes toward physical activity usually will relate to the values held by an individual. Weiss (2004) explains that observational learning theory is one explanation for whether or not children are physically active. It is suggested that when parents’ are physically active, their children will be as well. Parental behaviors, values, and beliefs have been shown to be determining factors for their children’s beliefs, values, and behaviors as well (Gill & Williams, 2008). Research on competence with engaging in physical activity has a social influence aspect. Parents that are competent perceive their children as competent and engage in PA will provide positive influence for their children to also be competent with PA (Gill & Williams, 2008). The exercise instructor must also provide an atmosphere for families that are motivating and energetic. Providing social support is one aspect Gill and Williams (2008) use to describe an instructor who is likely to retain exercise participants and influence families to continue exercise classes. This type of atmosphere required of the instructor is one way to achieve the program goal of increasing membership.
NOW WHAT: This exercise program will be held on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 6:00pm and 7:30pm. A third exercise class will be held Saturday’s at 10:00am. This schedule provides participants with five different opportunities to engage in the exercise program. The involvement of families will be one of the supporting tools for enhancing attitudes toward physical activity. Modeling by the instructor (and adults) will be performed to show participants how to properly perform the exercises in the class. The instructor will also use verbal cues with participants when modeling an exercise or counting aloud the time spent on a stretch or muscle-specific activity. One example of counting could be a biceps curl where the instructor does 4 counts up and 4 counts down with the weight. Participants will eventually need to remember certain modeling given by the instructor in the exercise class. Gill & Williams (2008) suggest that imagery and verbal codes may help individuals retain information modeled by an instructor. The exercise sessions will be group oriented to assure families can participate and be physically active together. Some of the basic exercises will include: jumping jacks, push-ups, abdominal crunches, and lunges. After the instructor has modeled and verbally cued each exercise, the group will complete the exercises together. During subsequent sessions in the program, the instructor will ask family members to recall the exercises completed the previous week and encourage imagery to help them retain information. When the instructor finds individuals or groups correctly performing an exercise, he will verbally congratulate or compliment them. The expectancy-value model explains that teachers and parents behaviors can influence motivation of children (Weiss, 2004). Therefore, modeling can be shown not only by the instructor, but by participants as well. This will be an important aspect for children, who will likely look at their parents behaviors and model their parents.
CONCLUSION: The park and recreation department wants to implement a program targeted at family members and hopes to create positive attitudes and increase PA performance. They also hope to increase membership this year. Simply involving families in this program is one way to help influence positive attitudes toward PA, as long as parent’s values and beliefs toward PA are positive. The exercise instructor must be socially supportive toward all participants. Before jumping into a new exercise session, the instructor will model the exercise and encourage participants to find ways to recall such exercises through imagery or verbal cues. When the instructor provides positive feedback to participants, then participants can also become models for exercises they are competent with. Children are likely to become motivated when they view their parent’s behaviors and attitudes toward the program. The five available times for the program throughout the week should assure enough availability to all the families that wish to engage in PA and participate in this program.
REFERENCES:
Gill, D. L., & Williams, L. (2008). Psychological dynamics of sport and exercise (3rd Ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Morgantown, W.V.: Fitness Information Technology, Inc.
I really enjoyed reading your case study, and feel you have incorporated a great family exercise program. Having the classes offered 5 times per week really gives the families a lot of options to build the activity into their schedules. Would you allow families to come to more than one session per week if they were interested? I do like the controlled environment for the exercises, which will allow the instructor to influence the families positively and motivate them with a energetic atmosphere. Allowing the participants to be the model after they are comfortable with the exercises is a great way to instill confidence in themselves, and will also allow their children to look up to their own parents. I would possibly consider some other activities like games or team like sessions to change things up some and make it “fun” for the families, rather than just being in one room. However, I know this comes with time, and agree you need to start slow to allow the families to learn about exercise and for it to be a positive experience.
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