Juha Valtonen

University of Helsinki | HY · Department of Teacher Education

Purpose and problem statement: Sports clubs have a positive impact on many children and adolescents, yet teenagers are increasingly quitting their sports club participation when they reach adolescence. The drop-out phenomenon has been widely studied. Conversely, the factors supporting the continuation of the sports club participation have been exam...

Physical literacy precedes and influences the physically active lifestyle, which is a key element of physical education. Especially, primary school physical education has an important task in the formation of the physically active lifestyle because it reaches all age cohorts. Classroom teachers are mainly in charge of implementing the curriculum in...

Purpose To examine the associations between muscular fitness (MF) and body composition. Method MF was assessed with three tests of FitnessGram test battery. Total body fat percentage (BF%), abdominal fat percentage (AF%) and fat-free mass (FFM) were measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). The IOTF body mass index (BMI) cut-offs were us...

Background: The role of early childhood education and care (ECEC) is crucial in the implementation of the physical activity recommendations during long ECEC days. Young children should engage in 180 minutes of physical activity spread throughout the day, including 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). To attain the goal more...

Problem statement: Previous research has focused on the multiple effects of physical activity and sedentary behavior. However, the associations between physical activity and sedentary behavior need more research. Recreational screen time, a part of children's sedentary behavior, has increased rapidly during the last few decades,and threatens to con...

The role of early childhood education (ECE) is significant in children’s physical activity. Young children should engage in moderate- to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) for at least 60 minutes per day, which – according to the recommendations – should be spread throughout the day, including the ECE days. The purposes of this study were to explore...

We explored 10–11 year-old children’s moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) to describe how it is distributed within weekdays, weekend days, the segments of a schoolday and how it meets the global recommendation of ≥ 60 min daily MVPA. Participants were from two fourth classes (N = 33; 20 boys, 13 girls) in the city of Vantaa, capitol area...

The main task of this teacher educational study is to explore the relationships between the pre-teacher-education socialization environments and class teacher students beliefs of quality physical education and their perceived strengths in teaching physical education in the primary school. This study focuses on gender, success in physical education,...

We studied if and how gender, the histories of physical activity (PA = activity level and social form of physical activity) and success in physical education (PE) are related to pre-service class teachers’ (PCTs) perceived strengths in teaching PE (PSTPEs). Various backgrounds were considered to be environments of teacher socialization. The six dat...

The purpose of the study was to investigate the dynamics of physical activity (PA) in day care and preschool. The participants were 823 Finnish 1–7-year-old children from 50 day care centres and preschools. The research methods were systematic observation, evaluation of children’s skills and interviews with children. Altogether 18,366 observations...

The aim of this study was to determine the reliability of a device in measuring physical activity. Another purpose of this article was to determine the daily amount of physical activity of a 10-year-old boy measured with this device. The study was carried out as a quantitative case study, and the material collection was performed with the help of a...

This study aimed to explore if various backgrounds in leisure time physical activity and success in physical education (PE) are manifested as various kinds of conceptions of good physical education. The participants (341 women, 71 men) consisted of the first year pre-service class teachers at the University of Helsinki in Finland, during the academ...

Yhteyshenkilö: Juha Valtonen, Helsingin yliopisto, opettajankoulutuslaitos, PL 8, 00014 Helsingin yliopisto. Puh. 09-1912 9756. Sähköposti: juha.valtonen@helsinki.fi rovaikutustilanteet liikunnanopettajien ja luokkatovereiden kanssa. Liikuntatoiminnan mielekkyys on merkityksellistä henkilökohtais-ten kokemusten syntymisessä, ja nämä taas vaikuttava...

This study examines the background of the leisure time physical activity (PA) of pre-service class teachers before formal teacher education, and then at the beginning of their studies, and looks at the changes in PA caused by their beginning teacher training. Leisure time PA is an interesting factor in teacher development and therefore important to...