Dr. Mary Rudisill, head of the Department of Kinesiology in the College of Education, will travel with other international motor development scholars to China during the last half of October to promote motor development as an academic discipline.

Rudisill, who is also a Wayne T. Smith distinguished professor, has focused much of her research on motivating people of all ages—especially children from birth to age 8—to learn to move and engage in physical activity.  This emphasis on motor development at all levels of education is a staple in American schools, but is not a discipline widely taught in Chinese schools.

"Quality physical education programs in the U.S. engage students by allowing them to make choices about what type of physical activities they participate in.  Learning outcomes are defined by the teacher, but students have some involvement into the educational process," Rudisill said.  "The climate for Chinese physical education is vastly teacher-driven and structured, which can result in students being disinterested and less engaged in physical activities."

Along with promoting the academic discipline of human motor development, Rudisill and her colleagues will be introducing the textbook, An Introduction to Human Motor Development, to current and future teachers and higher education faculty.  The textbook, to be released in November, will be the first academic textbook on human motor development in China. 

Expertise among the team of textbook authors, which includes Rudisill, involves motor development applications from the prenatal through elderly stages of life. The textbook focuses on what influences human development, how our environments affect development, and the effects of health concerns on development.

"It is important that we promote the motor development discipline globally in attending to the concerns we all share about children's health and physical development," Rudisill noted.  "Issues like childhood obesity are becoming worldwide epidemics. The same health concerns we have for the future of our children in Alabama are the same shared by parents and educators worldwide."

During her two-week visit, Rudisill will make presentations at Beijing Normal University, Beijing Institute of Education, the University of Hong Kong and Shenyang Institute of Physical Education, as well as at the People's Education Press National Motor Development Workshop.  She will also present to more than 4,000 Chinese physical educators at the Eighth China National Sport Science Convention at Beijing Sport University.

For more than three years, Rudisill has researched Chinese culture and early childhood education in China—including work in developing a bilingual preschool curriculum in concert with other College of Education faculty members and their Chinese partners.  She is a researcher in AU's Motor Behavior Center and serves as director of a research program designed to create and investigate model physical play programs for infants and young children.  She and her colleagues are developing motivational climate physical play curricular materials for implementation in early childhood settings. Her research goal is to transform physical education and play programs for young children into highly motivating experiences that promote lifelong physical engagement and healthy lifestyles.