Kinesiology and Leisure Science chair wins adapted Physical Education Resource Training grant

Grant will train and place PE teachers from the South Pacific and rural Hawaii to serve pupils with disabilities

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Contact:
Jennifer Beaulieu, 956-4388
College of Education
Posted: Feb 1, 2008

HONOLULU — Dr. Nathan M. Murata, chair of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Kinesiology and Leisure Science (KLS) department, was recently awarded a four-year $776,806 federal grant from the U.S. Department of Education‘s Office of Special Education Programs for Project Adapted Physical Education Resource Teacher (APERT), which will focus on personnel preparation in order to recruit, develop, graduate, place, and track physical education teachers from the South Pacific and rural Hawaiʻi to serve pupils with disabilities ages 3-21.

According to Murata, there are very few adapted physical education related personnel preparation grants awarded in any one year. "Since we compete with special education and related services, this is a major accomplishment and honor for the department to receive this grant," he said. "It‘s been some time since adapted physical education funding was received that impacted the south pacific."

From 2008—2011, seven teachers a year will be trained for a total of 28 teachers. Trainees, who are already certified in physical education, will graduate with a Master of Science degree in adapted physical education. This degree will, in turn, qualify them to take the Adapted Physical Education National Standards (APENS) Certification Examination.

This is the second personnel preparation grant in adapted physical education Murata has won. From 2000—2004, 42 students received their Master of Science degree in KLS statewide. "The State Department of Education would be happy to know that there is at least one certified adapted physical education teacher on each of the seven islands," Murata said. The current grant extends the efforts of the first to include physical education teachers from the South Pacific islands.