GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Dr. Charles Williams, senior associate dean in the College of Health and Human Performance received two awards for his text book, Personal Fitness: Looking Good, Feeling Good, at the 2005 Text and Academic Authors Association Convention held on June 24, 2005 in Las Vegas, Nev.
The first award William’s received is the Textbook Excellence Award, or “Texty,” which recognizes excellence in current textbooks and learning materials. The second award is the McGuffey longevity award, named after William Holmes McGuffey, whose reading books were in print for nearly a century and helped to improve national literacy rates. The McGuffey award recognizes sustained excellence in textbooks and learning materials that have been in print for at least 15 years and are currently selling.
Each award requires a nomination from the book’s publishing company and a $200 nomination fee. It is then classified into one of eight subject categories for either elementary and high school texts or college texts. Judges then review each book based on four criteria including teachability, relativity, organization of material and interest generated by information. Judges must be veteran authors in the appropriate subject areas.
Both awards received record numbers of nominations in 2005. Personal Fitness: Looking Good, Feeling Good was the only book to receive both competitive awards.
It is “highly unusual for one textbook to receive both honors in the same year,” said Richard T. Hull, executive director of TAA.
Judges at the TAA conference also were very impressed with Williams’ book.
“This fifth edition color textbook is motivating and creative in its presentation,” said a TAA judge. “It is well written and well organized. I highly recommend this textbook and workbook for the 2005 Texty Award for Excellence.”
Personal Fitness: Looking Good, Feeling Good is much more than just a textbook. It is a comprehensive health promotion program for high school students. The program includes a student edition, teacher edition, student activity handbook, teacher CD, test bank CD and DVD of videos.
Personal Fitness has been in use for 20 years and is in its fifth edition. Because of its novelty, this program throughout the U.S. and was the first physical education program to be assumed and implemented at a statewide level. It is currently in use in all 50 states and has been adopted by the Department of Defense for their school systems in Europe and Asia.
Williams said that the concept of his textbook originated in 1981 when Governor Bob Graham created a Governor’s Commission on Secondary Schools. The purpose of this commission was to create a minimum standard of curriculum required for high school graduation. Previously, this task was under the control of the local school districts.
A task force was appointed in order to focus specifically on the physical education requirement. Williams, at the time served as Physical Education Vice President Elect, and was appointed chairman of this task force. It was recognized that although the proposed ½ semester requirement for physical education was inadequate, the recommendation of a two-year requirement, which continues to be the recommendation of the group, had no chance of passing legislation.
Therefore, the task force, which included Dr. Jill Varnes, interim dean for the College of Health and Human Performance, switched their focus to creating continuity in the physical education curriculum that was taught with in this half-semester. It was determined that the most important aspect of physical education was personal fitness. From this, the specificity recommended and eventually passed in legislation for all physical education classes in the State of Florida was the “assessment, attainment and maintenance of personal physical fitness.”
It was with this purpose that Williams designed the Personal Fitness program. William said that since students would have such limited exposure to physical fitness curriculum in their high school career, it was his hope that this program would teach students the vital information that they would need to engage in healthy lifestyle choices and continue this practice throughout their lifetime.
Williams explains one of the ways that his book is different from other physical education textbooks.
“Most textbooks focus on the psychomotor aspects of physical education,” Williams said. “In order to make these activities long term, a cognitive aspect must be included to increase personal understanding of why the activities are beneficial.”
Williams’ book includes not only exercise principles but also nutrition recommendations, weight management guidelines and stress management techniques. The title of the book reflects the personal focus of the program to the individual.
Williams clarifies that prior to this time, the term physical fitness was utilized exclusively and was associated with a negative connotation of intense, regimented physical activity. It was the task force that came up with the phrase “personal fitness,” focusing on the individual’s unique needs towards fitness. Williams explains that an elite athlete’s fitness needs are much different from that of a construction worker, and those are different from an attorney.
The TAA was established in 1987 with the purpose of developing and publishing educational materials. It is committed to improving the quality of these materials, as well. In addition, TAA represents text and academic authors in matters such as taxes, copyrights and workers appreciation in academe.