Descriptions: The SIG offers various awards to recognize members’ contributions to the field through research at their various stages of scholarship development. These awards include:

Lawrence F. Locke Graduate Student Research Award. This award is given to the graduate student who is the lead author of the paper which is accepted with the highest rating score for SIG presentation at the AERA annual meeting. Each year the SIG Program Chair identifies the graduate student author as the winner, whose paper, submitted for the annual meeting presentations, has received the highest rating scores from the reviewers.

Exemplary Paper Award. This annual award is given to the author(s) of a paper published in a refereed journal during the year prior to the annual meeting. The winning paper must be specific to educational research in physical education (e.g., research, synthesis, theory, methodology), represent high level of scholarship, and hold the potential to significantly impact physical education. Each year the SIG Chair-Elect will appoint a Selection Committee and issue a call for nomination. The Selection Committee will review and evaluate nominated papers and select the winning paper.

Catherine D. Ennis Outstanding Scholar. This award is designed to recognize an outstanding scholar in the field of learning and instruction in physical education. This person’s scholarship has made a significant and consistent impact on the field for at least ten years. This award was re-named for Dr. Catherine D. Ennis in 2018. Dr. Ennis was a longtime member and contributor to SIG 93, and one of the most highly respected scholars in the field of physical education. Dr. Ennis passed away in 2017, and the SIG membership wishes to honor her legacy posthumously.

2024: Jackie Beth Shilcutt (New Mexico State University) & Kimberly L. Oliver (New Mexico State University). 

Jackie Beth Shilcutt & Kimberly L. Oliver (2023) Getting ‘more and more comfortable’: using an Activist Approach in a dance PE content course, Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 28(4), 321-334.

2023: Korey Boyd (Springfield College), Mara Simon (Springfield College), and Cory Dixon (Rowan University). 

Boyd, K. L., Simon, M., & Dixon, C. E. (2021). Culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogies for and by Black and Latinx preservice physical education teachers. Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 41(2), 212-222.

2024: Hamid Amni

University of North Carolina-Greensboro

2023: Chaojie Shang

University of North Carolina-Greensboro

AERA SIG Scholar Lecture Award Recipients