Ang Chen, Ph.D.

Welcome

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).

Dr. Chen’s research encompasses children/adolescent motivation for physical activity, learning in physical education, physical activity and physical skill assessment, and program evaluation. His recent research has been focused on cognition- and motivation-based intervention on physical activity behavior change in children and adolescents. The goal of this research has been on examining and applying interest-based and value-based motivation theories in developing innovative physical education curricula to enhance children’s and adolescents’ knowledge of and motivation for physically active and healthful living. Dr. Chen has been a principal researcher in several large-scale, multi-year physical education curriculum intervention studies involving dozens of public schools and thousands of students. He has published 40 research articles and delivered over 60 research presentations at national and international conferences.

Dr. Chen has taught many undergraduate and graduate courses in the areas of physical activity programming and assessment and offered workshops to researchers and practitioners. Dr. Chen’s graduate students have won AAHPERD (add link: http://www.aahperd.org/) Young Scholar Award, Graduate Research Award from Research on Learning and Instruction in Physical Education Special Interest Group (SIG-PE) of the American Education Research Association (AERA), and Exemplary Paper Award from AERA SIG-PE. Dr. Chen has been the Chair of Curriculum and Instruction Academy (2005-06) of National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) and the Chair of AERA SIG-PE (2007-08).

Dr. Chen is a Fellow of the Research Consortium of AAHPERD. He has received G. Arthur Broten Young Scholar Award (1998, Western College Physical Education Society), the Exemplary Paper Award (2002, SIG-PE, AERA), Simon McNeeley Award (2005, Maryland AHPERD), and the Murial Sloan Communitarian Award (2005, College of Health and Human Performance, University of Maryland). He is the current Pedagogy Section Editor for Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport and an editorial board member for Contemporary Educational Psychology, Quest, Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, and International Education. He has been a reviewer for other leading research journals such as American Educational Research Journal, Urban Education, Journal of Teaching in Physical education, Journal of Physical Activity and Health, and others.