Physical Education Content Specialty Certification Exam – Study Guide (Comprehensive
Review, Practice Questions & Answers)
In dance and personal performance sports (e.g., martial arts), the development of skilled
performance depends in large part on a participant's ability to use kinesthetic awareness to
move body parts through space efficiently and elegantly. Kinesthetic awareness is derived
primarily from sensory information received from:
A. visual clues noticed by the participant while moving.
B. receptors in the participant's muscles, tendons, and joints.
C. auditory signals heard by the participant while moving.
D. mental imagery committed to memory by the participant - ✔✔B. receptors in the
participant's muscles, tendons, and joints.
This item requires examinees to identify principles and components of perceptual-motor
abilities (i.e., visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic) and their development and relationship to
motor movement. When the human body moves, nerve endings in the muscles, tendons, and
joints transmit sensory input to the brain, which provides awareness of body position and
where the body and body parts are in space. This physical sense, called kinesthetic awareness,
enables safe, efficient, and confident movement.
In the typical sequence of motor development, students acquire and refine gross-motor skills as
their balance and coordination improves. Which skill is the most start advanced gross-motor
skill that six-year-old students could be expected to demonstrate?
a. kicking a stationary ball to a peer
b. jumping rope individually
c. changing pathways while running
d. throwing a ball underhand - ✔✔b. jumping rope individually
,Correct Response: B. This item requires examinees to analyze critical elements and sequencing
of motor skills development. Jumping rope is a complex motor skill that requires children to
coordinate and synchronize two gross-motor movement patterns—one in the upper body and
one in the lower body—in a continuous skill. This ability to swing the rope rhythmically and
jump at the appropriate time and height tends to develop later in childhood than the abilities
required for the other skills listed. By the age of five or six, children can usually turn a jump rope
and jump several times in a row.
3. Which strategy best illustrates an appropriate application of the fitness training principle of
progressive overload in the context of a student's goal of improving cardiorespiratory
endurance?
A. The student warms up the same muscle groups that will be used in the main endurance
workout with a brief, low-intensity activity.
B. Before beginning endurance training workouts, the student engages in dynamic stretching of
major muscles to promote enhanced joint range of motion.
C. The student periodically varies the type of endurance training performed, and increases the
duration and intensity of workouts in small increments over time.
D.The student goes well beyond a comfortable level during endurance training to produce
physical discomfort, and then adjusts the workout to minimize the discomfort. - ✔✔C. The
student periodically varies the type of endurance training performed, and increases the
duration and intensity of workouts in small increments over time.
Correct Response: C. This item requires examinees to apply principles of physical condition and
training (e.g., frequency, intensity, type, duration, progressive overload, specificity) and types of
training approaches and conditioning programs. The principle of overload states that, to
improve fitness levels, a body system must be stressed beyond the level of work that it is
accustomed to by increasing the duration or intensity of regular workouts. Consistent stress, or
overload, causes a physiological adaptation to occur in the body that is expressed as an
,increased level of cardiorespiratory fitness and/or strength. Increases in stress loads should be
small and progressive to avoid physical discomfort and possible injury, and to ensure safety
4. In general, adolescent students who are physically active on a regular basis derive
physiological health benefits that adolescent students who are sedentary do not. Moderate to
vigorous physical activity allows the active adolescents to more readily:
A. develop and grow new muscle fibers.
B. eliminate the buildup of lactic acid around muscle tissues.
C. expend fat stores in addition to glycogen to fuel muscle actions.
D. reduce the need to store glycogen in muscles for later energy demands - ✔✔C. expend fat
stores in addition to glycogen to fuel muscle actions.
Correct Response: C. This item requires examinees to describe the role of body systems in
producing movement and the physiological changes that result from physical activity. Energy
derived from dietary fat helps fuel low- to moderate-intensity activity as students build up to
greater levels of intensity. During exercise, carbohydrates such as sugars and starches are
broken down quickly into glucose, the body's main energy source. But as the duration of
exercise increases, intensity decreases, and fat becomes an important fuel source, sparing
glycogen reserves. Stored fat is broken down and transported through the bloodstream to
muscles, allowing carbohydrates to be used at a slower rate, which extends physical endurance
and delays the onset of fatigue.
In a first-grade physical education class, students participate in an obstacle course activity that
incorporates animal walks and movements. As students travel through the course, the teacher
emphasizes relevant vocabulary words. For instance, the teacher asks students to crawl start
under a low bench like a lizard, climb start over a pile of mats like a mountain goat, jump a start
zigzag pattern like a rabbit, and walk start quickly like a lemur start across a balance beam on
the floor. Which student learning outcome is this physical education activity most likely
designed to elicit?
A. Demonstrate variations in movement with directional, spatial, and temporal awareness.
B. Apply an understanding of rules and directions for an active class.
, c. Identify major body parts, muscles, and bones used to move and support the body.
d.Exhibit cooperative play with children of differing abilities under a variety of conditions. -
✔✔A. Demonstrate variations in movement with directional, spatial, and temporal awareness.
Correct Response: A. This item requires examinees to promote understanding of movement
concepts related to relationships; spatial, directional, and temporal awareness; qualities of
movement; and movement concepts (e.g., self-space, general space, direction, level, pathway,
flow, speed). As students use locomotor skills to travel through the obstacle course and move
under, over, and across objects, they develop awareness of directional concepts, spatial
concepts, and relationships concepts (e.g., relationships to physical education equipment,
relationships of body parts working together). Varying their speed contributes to an awareness
of the use of time, or temporal awareness, and a variation in effort. Jumping in a zigzag pattern
requires a variation in pathways, and climbing and crawling over and under equipment requires
variations in levels. In this activity, students demonstrate use of the movement concepts of
effort, speed, levels, and pathways with directional, spatial, and temporal awareness
The students in this physical education class are practicing dribbling skills. Which instructional
prompt would be most effective for helping the students improve their dribbling technique?
A. "Bounce the ball just in front of the toes of your lead foot."
B. "Let the ball bounce up and off of the palm of your hand."
C. "Keep your wrist straight and contact the ball at about chest level."
D. "Use the pads of your fingers and thumb to push the ball down." - ✔✔D. "Use the pads of
your fingers and thumb to push the ball down."
Correct Response: D. This item requires examinees to demonstrate understanding of
techniques, skills, skills progressions, offensive and defensive strategies, safety practices, rules,
and types and uses of equipment for team passing sports. In team passing/invasion/territorial
sports such as basketball, dribbling is essential for advancing the ball. Students should keep the
dominant hand over the ball, spread the fingers, and use the fingertips or finger pads and
thumb to feel and manipulate the ball. Maintaining this technique while pushing the ball
Review, Practice Questions & Answers)
In dance and personal performance sports (e.g., martial arts), the development of skilled
performance depends in large part on a participant's ability to use kinesthetic awareness to
move body parts through space efficiently and elegantly. Kinesthetic awareness is derived
primarily from sensory information received from:
A. visual clues noticed by the participant while moving.
B. receptors in the participant's muscles, tendons, and joints.
C. auditory signals heard by the participant while moving.
D. mental imagery committed to memory by the participant - ✔✔B. receptors in the
participant's muscles, tendons, and joints.
This item requires examinees to identify principles and components of perceptual-motor
abilities (i.e., visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic) and their development and relationship to
motor movement. When the human body moves, nerve endings in the muscles, tendons, and
joints transmit sensory input to the brain, which provides awareness of body position and
where the body and body parts are in space. This physical sense, called kinesthetic awareness,
enables safe, efficient, and confident movement.
In the typical sequence of motor development, students acquire and refine gross-motor skills as
their balance and coordination improves. Which skill is the most start advanced gross-motor
skill that six-year-old students could be expected to demonstrate?
a. kicking a stationary ball to a peer
b. jumping rope individually
c. changing pathways while running
d. throwing a ball underhand - ✔✔b. jumping rope individually
,Correct Response: B. This item requires examinees to analyze critical elements and sequencing
of motor skills development. Jumping rope is a complex motor skill that requires children to
coordinate and synchronize two gross-motor movement patterns—one in the upper body and
one in the lower body—in a continuous skill. This ability to swing the rope rhythmically and
jump at the appropriate time and height tends to develop later in childhood than the abilities
required for the other skills listed. By the age of five or six, children can usually turn a jump rope
and jump several times in a row.
3. Which strategy best illustrates an appropriate application of the fitness training principle of
progressive overload in the context of a student's goal of improving cardiorespiratory
endurance?
A. The student warms up the same muscle groups that will be used in the main endurance
workout with a brief, low-intensity activity.
B. Before beginning endurance training workouts, the student engages in dynamic stretching of
major muscles to promote enhanced joint range of motion.
C. The student periodically varies the type of endurance training performed, and increases the
duration and intensity of workouts in small increments over time.
D.The student goes well beyond a comfortable level during endurance training to produce
physical discomfort, and then adjusts the workout to minimize the discomfort. - ✔✔C. The
student periodically varies the type of endurance training performed, and increases the
duration and intensity of workouts in small increments over time.
Correct Response: C. This item requires examinees to apply principles of physical condition and
training (e.g., frequency, intensity, type, duration, progressive overload, specificity) and types of
training approaches and conditioning programs. The principle of overload states that, to
improve fitness levels, a body system must be stressed beyond the level of work that it is
accustomed to by increasing the duration or intensity of regular workouts. Consistent stress, or
overload, causes a physiological adaptation to occur in the body that is expressed as an
,increased level of cardiorespiratory fitness and/or strength. Increases in stress loads should be
small and progressive to avoid physical discomfort and possible injury, and to ensure safety
4. In general, adolescent students who are physically active on a regular basis derive
physiological health benefits that adolescent students who are sedentary do not. Moderate to
vigorous physical activity allows the active adolescents to more readily:
A. develop and grow new muscle fibers.
B. eliminate the buildup of lactic acid around muscle tissues.
C. expend fat stores in addition to glycogen to fuel muscle actions.
D. reduce the need to store glycogen in muscles for later energy demands - ✔✔C. expend fat
stores in addition to glycogen to fuel muscle actions.
Correct Response: C. This item requires examinees to describe the role of body systems in
producing movement and the physiological changes that result from physical activity. Energy
derived from dietary fat helps fuel low- to moderate-intensity activity as students build up to
greater levels of intensity. During exercise, carbohydrates such as sugars and starches are
broken down quickly into glucose, the body's main energy source. But as the duration of
exercise increases, intensity decreases, and fat becomes an important fuel source, sparing
glycogen reserves. Stored fat is broken down and transported through the bloodstream to
muscles, allowing carbohydrates to be used at a slower rate, which extends physical endurance
and delays the onset of fatigue.
In a first-grade physical education class, students participate in an obstacle course activity that
incorporates animal walks and movements. As students travel through the course, the teacher
emphasizes relevant vocabulary words. For instance, the teacher asks students to crawl start
under a low bench like a lizard, climb start over a pile of mats like a mountain goat, jump a start
zigzag pattern like a rabbit, and walk start quickly like a lemur start across a balance beam on
the floor. Which student learning outcome is this physical education activity most likely
designed to elicit?
A. Demonstrate variations in movement with directional, spatial, and temporal awareness.
B. Apply an understanding of rules and directions for an active class.
, c. Identify major body parts, muscles, and bones used to move and support the body.
d.Exhibit cooperative play with children of differing abilities under a variety of conditions. -
✔✔A. Demonstrate variations in movement with directional, spatial, and temporal awareness.
Correct Response: A. This item requires examinees to promote understanding of movement
concepts related to relationships; spatial, directional, and temporal awareness; qualities of
movement; and movement concepts (e.g., self-space, general space, direction, level, pathway,
flow, speed). As students use locomotor skills to travel through the obstacle course and move
under, over, and across objects, they develop awareness of directional concepts, spatial
concepts, and relationships concepts (e.g., relationships to physical education equipment,
relationships of body parts working together). Varying their speed contributes to an awareness
of the use of time, or temporal awareness, and a variation in effort. Jumping in a zigzag pattern
requires a variation in pathways, and climbing and crawling over and under equipment requires
variations in levels. In this activity, students demonstrate use of the movement concepts of
effort, speed, levels, and pathways with directional, spatial, and temporal awareness
The students in this physical education class are practicing dribbling skills. Which instructional
prompt would be most effective for helping the students improve their dribbling technique?
A. "Bounce the ball just in front of the toes of your lead foot."
B. "Let the ball bounce up and off of the palm of your hand."
C. "Keep your wrist straight and contact the ball at about chest level."
D. "Use the pads of your fingers and thumb to push the ball down." - ✔✔D. "Use the pads of
your fingers and thumb to push the ball down."
Correct Response: D. This item requires examinees to demonstrate understanding of
techniques, skills, skills progressions, offensive and defensive strategies, safety practices, rules,
and types and uses of equipment for team passing sports. In team passing/invasion/territorial
sports such as basketball, dribbling is essential for advancing the ball. Students should keep the
dominant hand over the ball, spread the fingers, and use the fingertips or finger pads and
thumb to feel and manipulate the ball. Maintaining this technique while pushing the ball
