Ang Chen

Dr. Chen is a professor in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro . Dr. Chen received the Bachelor of Education degree in 1982 from Nanjing Teachers University of China, a Master of Education degree in 1988 from the Shanghai Institute of Physical Education (currently Shanghai University of Sport) of China, and his Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Maryland at College Park in 1993. Since 1982, Dr. Chen has been a middle/high school physical education teacher and coach, college physical education instructor, and college professor and researcher. Before coming to UNCG, Dr. Chen has been a faculty member at the University of Hawaii at Manoa (1993-96), Arizona State University, and the University of Maryland at College Park (1999-2008).

There are 71 included publications by Ang Chen :

TitleDateViewsBrief Description
Adolescent expectancy-value motivation and learning: A disconnected case in physical education 2010 1301 This study reports adolescent expectancy-value motivation, and its relation to fitness knowledge and psychomotor skill learning in physical education. Students (N = 854) from 12 middle schools provided data on expectancy-value motivation, fitness kno...
Adolescent Expectancy-Value Motivation, Achievement in Physical Education, and Physical Activity Participation 2013 1420 This study examined the relation between adolescent expectancy-value motivation, achievements, and after-school physical activity participation. Adolescents (N = 854) from 12 middle schools completed an expectancy-value motivation questionnaire, pre ...
Are K-12 learners motivated in physical education? A meta-analysis 2012 1238 Previous studies devoted to K-12 learner motivation in physical education share a general assumption that students may lack motivation. This meta-analytic study examined published original studies (n = 79) to determine students' motivation level and ...
A clash of fundamental assumptions: Can/should we measure physical literacy? 2020 932 The special issue of the Journal of Teaching in Physical Education (JTPE)1 on physical literacy (PL) has provided much needed information about measuring and assessing student learning in terms of the well-defined and yet abstract concept. Multiple a...
Cognitive style differences within an analytical curriculum: Examples of success and nonsuccess 1991 2301 This research was conducted to examine field dependence/independence cognitive style differences exhibited by young children. In analytically-oriented movement education curricula. It was hypothesized that an analytical focus demands mental energy, m...
Conceptualizing a Theoretical Model for School-Centered Adolescent Physical Activity Intervention Research 2006 3381 Adolescent physical inactivity has risen to an alarming rate. Several theoretical frameworks (models) have been proposed and tested in school-based interventions. The results are mixed, indicating a similar weakness as that observed in community- ...
Constructing cardiovascular fitness knowledge in physical education 2014 856 In physical education, it has become necessary for children to learn kinesiological knowledge for understanding the benefits of physical activity and developing a physically active lifestyle. This study was conducted to determine the extent to which ...
Content knowledge transformation: An Examination of the relationship between content knowledge and curricula. 1995 6195 Theories associated with teacher knowledge suggest that teachers transform subject content knowledge into pedagogical content knowledge in teaching to enhance the content comprehensibility. It is assumed that the connection between teacher content kn...
Content specificity of expectancy beliefs and task values in elementary physical education 2008 1036 The curriculum may superimpose a content-specific context that mediates motivation (Bong, 2001). This study examined contentspecificity of the expectancy-value motivation in elementary school physical education. Students' expectancy beliefs and perce...
Curriculum intervention research as a source of knowledge of most worth 2018 3338 A major portion of Catherine Ennis’s scholarship and career was devoted to developing culturally relevant physical education curricula for K–12 students. She held a strong conviction that the efficacy of a curriculum lies in its ability to enhance st...
Curriculum matters: Learning science-based fitness knowledge in constructivist physical education 2012 401 Teaching fitness-related knowledge has become critical in developing children's healthful livingbehavior. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a science-based, constructivistphysical education curriculum on learning fitness knowled...
Developing a psychometric instrument to measure physical education teachers’ job demands and resources 2017 1073 Based on the job demands–resources model, the study developed and validated an instrument that measures physical education teachers’ job demands–resources perception. Expert review established content validity with the average item rating of 3.6/5.0....
Domain specifications and content representativeness of the revised Value Orientation Inventory 1993 1743 Value orientations represent theoretical belief systems that guide teachers' curricular decision making. Research using the Value Orientation Inventory (VOI) to examine physical educators' value orientations in school settings found inconsistencies b...
Effects of exergaming and the physical education curriculum 2013 1018 From an education perspective, play has always been viewed as an integral part of learningexperiences1 and physical activity is a major component in many games that children play. Inrecent two decades, rapid technology development has brought the pla...
Elementary school students’ naïve conceptions and misconceptions about energy in physical education context 2017 323 The purpose of this study was to explore and reveal naïve conceptions and misconceptions about energy embedded in elementary school students’ prior knowledge. Students’ performance on standardized knowledge test was used to classify students into low...
An Examination of Learning Profiles in Physical Education. 2007 4561 Using the model of domain learning as a theoretical framework, the study was designed to examine the extent to which learners’ initial learning profiles based on previously acquired knowledge, learning strategy application, and interest-based moti...
An examination of the multidimensionality of situational interest in elementary school physical education 2008 243 It has been demonstrated that situational interest in physical activity may derive from five dimensional sources, Novelty, Optimal Challenge, Attention Demand, Exploration Intent, and Instant Enjoyment. The purpose of this study was to examine the mu...
An examination of situational interest and its sources in physical education 2001 6075 Background. Situational interest is articulated theoretically as a construct associated with five dimensional sources: novelty, challenge, attention demand, exploration intention, and instant enjoyment. Aims. This study aimed to examine the influenc...
An Examination of Sixth Graders’ Self-Determined Motivation and Learning in Physical Education 2010 4396 Self-determination theory (SDT), when applied in education, emphasizes helping learners internalize extrinsic motivation so as to regulate their learning behavior from an amotivation state to intrinsic motivation. The purpose of this study was to ...
Examining the Interrelations Among Knowledge, Interests, and Learning Strategies. 2006 3466 Guided by the Model of Domain Learning (MDL), the study was designed to explore the extent of interrelations among prior knowledge, learning strategies, interests, physical engagement, and learning outcomes in a sixth-grade (N = 91) volleyball uni...
Exercise facilitates memory: Implications for helping youngsters learn in school 2012 801 Up to this day I still can vividly remember a routine in my elementary school: the daily school-wide morning calisthenics. It started at about 7:45 am in the school courtyard. Our physical education teacher stood on the concrete stage where our princ...
Expectancy Beliefs and Perceived Values of Chinese College Students in Physical Education and Physical Activity. 2008 4902 Background: The expectancy-value theory postulates that motivation relies on individuals’ beliefs of success, perceived Attainment, Intrinsic Interest, and Utility values and Cost. This study examined Chinese college students’ expectancy-value mot...
Gender and Interest-Based Motivation in Learning Dance. 2003 9233 Guided by the interest-based motivation theory, this study examined the extent to which personal interest and situational interest accounted for boys’ and girls’ learning outcome in a middle school physical education dance unit. Personal and situa...
Gender, BMI, values, and learning in physical education: A study on Chinese middle schoolers 2011 1041 Students' different perceptions of task values influence their learning experience and achievement in physical education. Framed using the subjective task value construct, this study was conducted to determine the extent to which male and female Chin...
Goals, Interests, and Learning in Physical Education 2004 9955 Student achievement motivation has become a complex construct in physical education because of the competitive nature of sports and physiological discomfort associated with exercising. With updated national standards, physical education has been unde...
A great leap of faith: Editorial for JSHS special issue on physical literacy 2015 903 The concept of physical literacy seems to be an abstract idea. Since it emerged in the literatureabout 25 years ago, it has been a philosophical topic for scholars and intellectuals in the field ofphysical education (PE). But with the recent adoption...
Impact of Expectancy-Value and Situational Interest Motivation Specificity on Physical Education Outcomes 2013 1341 To be successful in learning, students need to be motivated to engage and learn. The domain-specificity motivation theory articulates that student motivation is often determined by the content being taught to them. The purpose of this study was to ex...
The Impact of Social Change on Inner-City High School Physical Education: An Analysis of a Teacher's Experiential Account 1999 4501 This report analyzes changes in a traditional physical education curriculum in an inner-city high school. The analysis is based on my l4-week participant observation of classes and interviews with a veteran physical educator (Mary) who experienced co...
Impact of teacher value orientations on student learning in physical education 2017 1487 Based on the value orientation theory, the purpose of this study was to determine the impact of value orientation incongruence between physical education teachers and an externally designed curriculum on student learning in a concept-based fitness-ce...
Implementation challenges for a constructivist physical education curriculum 2011 1227 Background: Curriculum fidelity describes the extent to which a curriculum is implemented faithfully as planned. Curriculum fidelity issues may arise when teachers implement the curriculum inconsistently due to differences in philosophy, barriers in ...
Individual and Situational Interest: The Role of Gender and Skill 2002 10867 The purpose of this study was to examine individual and situational interests in learning motor skills as associated with gender and skill. Individual and situational interests and motor skill were measured in middle school girls (n = 109) and...
Influences of personal and lesson factors on caloric expenditure in physical education 2012 268 Background:Increasing caloric expenditure in physical education is considered an effective school-based approach to addressing the child obesity epidemic. This study was designed to determine synergistic influences of student characteristics and less...
Instructional and learning outcomes in China and the USA as policy implications 2019 836 There are substantial differences between the Chinese and US education systems. One difference is in the design and use of assessment due to differences in educational policies. This study described the differences in student learning outcomes, instr...
Interactive Impact of Intrinsic Motivators and Extrinsic Rewards on Behavior and Motivation Outcomes 2005 12798 In this study we examined the interrelationship among extrinsic rewards and achievement goals (including a work-avoidance goal), competence beliefs, and task values associated with health-enhancing running tasks over a school year. A group of element...
Is in-class physical activity at risk in constructivist physical education? 2007 928 Constructivist physical education emphasizes cognitive engagement. This study examined the impact of a constructivist curriculum on in-class physical activity. Caloric expenditure in metabolic equivalents (MET) and vector magnitude count (VM) data fr...
Large-scale physical education intervention: Past, present, and future 2018 1311 A large body of Catherine Ennis’s work is focused on physical education curriculum development. Her approach to curriculum development is unique in that it is completely based on research evidence. The curricula she developed have been field-tested a...
Many-Faceted Rasch Modeling Expert Judgment in Test Development 1998 5392 The purpose of this study was to model expert judgment in test and instrument development using the many-faceted Rasch model. A 150-item value orientation inventory-2 (VOI-2) assessing the value of physical education curriculum goals was developed an...
Meaningfulness in Physical Education: A Description of High School Students' Conceptions 1998 4700 A theoretical framework distinguishing meaning and meaningfulness guided this study of high school students' conceptions of meaningfulness in physical education. A 9-dimensional meaningfulness construct was developed through analyzing former high ...
Measurement invariance of expectancy-value questionnaire in physical education 2012 4502 Expectancy-Value Questionnaire (EVQ) measures student expectancy beliefs and task values of the domain content (Eccles & Wigfield, 1995). In this study the authors examine measurement invariance of EVQ in the domain of physical education between elem...
Motivational cost aspects of physical education in middle school students 2013 1096 Expectancy value theory presumes that learners’ motivation is determined by their expectancy beliefs and task values associated with learning tasks. This study examined students’ cost and its relation to expectancy beliefs, other task value component...
Motor skills matter to physical activity – at least for children 2013 1019 Physical activity (PA) is an effective means of curbing the prevalence of child obesity, andfundamental skills are hypothesized to be an important factor that determines physically active orinactive behavior in children.1 Research evidence suggests t...
The nature of learning tasks and knowledge achievement: The role of cognitive engagement in physical education 2019 1470 Acquiring scientific knowledge about physical activity is necessary for students to become physically literate for life, and cognitive engagement and cognitive levels of tasks are two components that often determine the effectiveness of knowledge acq...
Ninth graders’ energy-balance knowledge and physical activity behavior: An expectancy-value perspective 2012 979 Expectancy beliefs and task values are two essential motivators in physical education. This study was designed to identify the relation between the expectancy-value constructs (Eccles & Wigfield, 1995) and high school students’ physical activity beha...
Ninth graders’ learning differences in a healthful-living curriculum 2014 932 Physical education and health education are relevant avenues for adolescents to learn knowledge and behavior related to energy-balanced living. Grounded in the framework theory of conceptual change, this study examined ninth graders' energy balance k...
Nothing but being there matters: Expectancy-value motivation between U.S. and Chinese middle school students 2013 308 Current literature theorizes that culture-induced expectancy beliefs and values in learning mayengage learners of varied cultures in differentiated motivational processes. The purpose of thestudy was to determine the extent to which U.S, and Chinese ...
On childhood obesity prevention: “Exercise is medicine” vs. “exercise is vaccine” 2012 1103 The most recent report on the obesity epidemic by the U.S. Institute of Medicine (IOM) has painted a bleak picture of reality in the U.S.1 It reports that two third of adults and almost one third of children are either overweight or obese by any coun...
Operationalizing physical literacy for learners: Embodying the motivation to move 2015 1023 Physical literacy is a concept that is expected to encompass the mind and body in an integratedway to explain, promote, and help sustain human beings' fundamental function: movement.According to Whitehead (2010), physical literacy is defined by motiv...
A pedagogical understanding of the self-determination theory in physical education 2010 3520 Learner motivation is considered an important premise for learning achievement. One of the theories used to explain learner motivation in physical education is the Self-Determination Theory (SDT). Different from others, SDT acknowledges the controlli...
Physical activity and fitness knowledge learning in physical education: Seeking a common ground 2013 1296 Motivation to learn is a disposition developed through exposure to learning opportunities. Guided by the expectancy-value theory of Eccles and Wigfield (1995), this study examined the extent to which expectancy belief and task value influenced elemen...
Prior knowledge determines interest in learning in physical education: A structural growth model perspective 2016 2420 Research has shown that interest in knowledge facilitates students' academic achievement in learning. Because individual interest is often based on how much one knows, in other words existing or prior knowledge, studying adolescents' interest in heal...
Refining the Value Orientation Inventory 1997 1707 Educational value orientations reflect teachers' philosophical beliefs about schooling and serveas the basis on which teachers make their decisions. Five value orientations have been identifiedempirically among physical educators: disciplinary master...
Relationship between motivation and learning in physical education and after-school physical activity 2014 1961 Purpose: A primary goal of physical education is to develop physically literate individuals with the knowledge, skills, and confidence necessary for a physically active lifestyle. Guided by the expectancy-value and interest motivation theories, the p...
Remembering Cathy Ennis: The mentor 2018 1001 I worked with Cathy for 28 years. She was my mentor of doctoral studies and my colleague at the University of Maryland–College Park and University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG). I can attest that all of her students share the same sentiment:...
Revisiting the Assumptions for Inferential Statistical Analyses: A Conceptual Guide 2001 5289 Trustworthiness of results from statistical analyses relies on the fulfillment of a set of assumptions made about data. A survey of published pedagogy studies in physical education revealed that examining the assumptions has been overlooked in dat...
The role of interest in physical education: A review of research evidence 2017 4370 This article focuses on the research on interest, especially situational interest, in physical education. Interest has been considered a powerful motivator for children and adolescents. Based on a conceptualization of individual and situational inter...
The role of value orientations in curricular decision making: A rationale for teachers' goals and expectations 1992 2345 This research examined the role of value orientations in curricular decision making from the perspective of high school physical education teachers and students. Educational value orientations served as the theoretical base for the research. Teachers...
School environment and its effects on physical activity 2015 3471 School is an environment where children and adolescents spend most of their time during the day. The environment is characterized by a sedentary culture necessary for academic learning. In this article, I present research evidence showing the effects...
Situational interest in physical education: A function of learning task design 2001 2809 Situational interest is the appealing effect of unique characteristics students recognize in a learning task during interaction with the task. It occurs when a learning task gives the learner a sense of novelty and challenge, demands high attention a...
Situational interest, cognitive engagement, and achievement in physical education 2009 5179 Students’ learning has been the center of schooling. This study examined the contribution of situational interest motivation and cognitive engagement in workbooks to student achievement in learning health-related fitness knowledge. Situational intere...
Situational interest, cognitive engagement, and achievement in physical education 2009 3863 Students’ learning has been the center of schooling. This study examined the contribution of situational interest motivation and cognitive engagement in workbooks to student achievement in learning health-related fitness knowledge. Situational intere...
Student interest in activities in a secondary physical education curriculum: An analysis of student subjectivity 1996 1240 Situational interest is defined as a student's perception of interest inherent in an activity. Holding interest is conceptualized as a specific situational interest perceived by a student based on his or her subjective understanding of the activity's...
Task Values, Cost, and Choice Decisions in College Physical Education 2009 5021 The expectancy-value motivation theory postulates that motivation can be achieved when perceived values in an activity override perceived cost of the activity derived from the effort of achieving. This study was designed to examine types of perceiv...
Teachers’ value orientations in urban and rural school settings 1995 2546 The purpose of this research was to describe physical educators' value orientations for curricular decision making in urban and rural teaching settings. The revised Value Orientation Inventory (Ennis & Chen, 1993) was used to collect data from 495 ph...
Teaching Value-Laden Curricula in Physical Education 1996 10050 Research on physical educators' value orientations has identified five orientations: disciplinary mastery, learning process, self-actualization, social responsibility, and ecological integration. An interpretive research design was used to compare ...
A Theoretical Conceptualization for Motivation Research in Physical Education: An Integrated Perspective 2001 14468 This paper is intended to conceptualize motivation research in physical education from an integrated perspective in that the motivation research and its findings are situated in the dynamics of teaching and learning. Major motivation theories and ...
Top 10 questions related to children physical activity motivation 2013 314 Physical activity is critical to healthy development of children. It is well documented that helping children develop and sustain a physically active lifestyle requires children to become motivated. Many studies have been conducted in the past 2.5 de...
Using Achievement Goals and Interest to Predict Learning in Physical Education 2007 3831 On the basis of an integrated theoretical approach to achievement motivation, the authors designed this study to investigate the potential influence of mastery goal, performance-approach and avoidance-approach goals, individual interest, and situatio...
Value Orientation Inventory: Development, application, and contributions 2018 2572 This paper provides an overview of the long and vigorous efforts made in the development, applications, and contributions of the Value Orientation Inventory (VOI) by Dr. Catherine D. Ennis, her students, and her colleagues. After a brief review of th...
A web of achieving in physical education: Goals, interest, outside-school activity and learning 2004 2907 Achievement goals and interests are recognized as primary motivators for learning in physical education. The study examined the dynamics of the motivators as associated with organized outside-school physical activity experiences and learning outcomes...
What Constitutes Situational Interest? Validating a Construct in Physical Education 1999 10972 Situational interest has been theoretically articulated as a multidimensional construct that derives from person—activity interaction. This 4-stage study empirically examined the multidimensionality of situational interest in physical education, usin...
Young Children’s Intuitive Interestin Physical Activity:Personal, School, and Home Factors 2005 2337 Background: A physically active or inactive lifestyle begins with intuitive interest at a very young age. This study examined the impact of selected personal, school, and home variables on young children’s intuitive interests in physical and sedentar...