User:EllaJoseph1/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Physical education

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I have chosen this article because it addresses educational pedagogy in Physical Education. As a Physical Educator myself, I value the physical, social, and emotional benefits that a quality Physical Education program provides to K-12 students. I believe it is important to share his knowledge and provide research evidence that supports the work that Physical Educators do each day. The article I chose is rated as a Start-Class article on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. In addition, the "Talk" section is active with suggestions for editing the article to improve its contents. My preliminary impression of the article is congruent with the assessment rating it received. There is substantial information included in the article; however, some citations are missing or no longer accessible and the overall content could be made stronger with editing. I think that improvements to this article would make a positive contribution to the educational content in Wikipedia.

Evaluate the article
The lead section of this article does not provide a clear overview of what the article is about. The introductory sentence provides a concise statement about the topic: Physical Education (PE). However, the term "personal education" is used as an alternate name for Physical Education class. There is no reference provided to confirm or validate the use of this term as a replacement. The lead section of this article lacks some descriptions about its' major sections. On the contrary, some information described in the lead section was not strongly addressed later in the article. For example, the lead section describes Health Education as part of Physical Education class, but leaves no citation to support this claim anywhere in the article. The lead section also explains that physical education is a program taught around the world, but evidence to support this is limited.

The content contained in this article is relevant to the topic of physical education. The article includes information about pedagogy, the use of technology in PE, and the health-enhancing effects of physical education. The article includes limited content about PE based on global location. The article hyper-focuses on Physical Education programs in the United States. Physical Education has greatly evolved over time and quality programs may look different based on global location, resources, accessibility of equipment, support, etc. Inputing additional sections to organize historical information and global, geographic, and cultural differences in PE programs around the world will add to the quality of this article. The content in this article is out of date and references need to be updated throughout to support the statements. Research is constantly changing, therefore some important citations need to be revised to improve the accuracy of the content as well.

The article speaks from a neutral point of view, expressing tone throughout each section. The article does not attempt to persuade the reader in any direction and only aims to inform the reader about the topic. The article does, however, provide an unbalanced view of Physical Education in the US compared to other countries. The information gap is evident when reading the article and should be addressed during the revision process. The reference page is evidence of this knowledge gap.

The article cites many sources to back up the statements and facts it provides, but the sources are mostly out-of-date or no longer available to access. Some sources have inactive links that no longer contain access to published works. These sources need to be replaced with new and current links. In evaluating the references provided, many of the publications are from reliable sources such as professional organizations, and national and global agencies in support of health and wellness. Some citations do not fit this criteria and should be replaced with more reliable sources. The reference page shows a list of published works that address both elementary and secondary physical education settings, as well as marginalized groups including students with disabilities. Limited sources discuss demographics outside of the United States. Greater diversity of references is needed to improve the overall quality of this educational article.

The structure and organization of this article is not professionally written. The writing is clear, but the content is not structured to allow for best understanding of the topic. Some major sections are missing from the article. Likewise, some sections have an abundance of information and should be divided into multiple sections. The article contains few spelling errors and includes professional language related to the topic. This is a topic of discussion in the "Talks" pages of this article.

The images provided in this article help to illustrate what Physical Education classes look like around the world. While the images provide a general understanding of Physical Education activities, the images do not connect to specific sections of the article. Therefore the images complement the article, but do not necessarily enhance and elaborate on content provided. The captions also vary in description, some being less detailed than others. The images also adhere to copyright regulations on Wikipedia.

The article is included within the category of Education for WikiProjects. The article's "Talk" page is active with ideas on how to edit and revise the article, and includes a "To-do" list. Editors suggest that the article should be organized and edited to clean language inconsistencies and grammatical nuances, such as the use of consistent abbreviations throughout the writing. In addition, Editors also noticed the view point of the article being primarily written from a United States perspective, with other countries being a last minute addition. More research about world-wide physical education experiences would improve the article. The most recent topic brought up in the "Talk" pages is the merging of an article titled "Lack of Physical Education".

The Wikipedia content assessment scale rates this article as a Start-Class article. The article attempts to provide knowledge about Physical Education around the world, but fails to include a balanced amount of information regarding teaching practices in global PE programs. The article includes evidence that supports the implementation of quality PE programs in educational institutions. That evidence should be assessed and improved by adding current sources of information. Overall, the article includes relevant and meaning information to the topic; but needs structural reorganization of the main information and increased knowledge of physical education practice around the world.