Position: Faculty Specialist I, Physical and Health Education Teacher Education
What song should we listen to while we learn more about you?
Dr. Jongho Moon
I would say BTS "Dynamite." It's one of my favorites, and it always gets me going. I've always enjoyed their performances and think they help my feelings and attitude, so you can keep this in mind as you read.
What’s your journey been professionally so far and how did you end up landing at WMU?
I truly love teaching, and it has been my life’s passion for the last ten years. I have over six years of experience teaching public elementary schools as both a physical/health education and a classroom teacher in South Korea. While there, I reorganized health and physical education curricula, developed physical activity programs for students at risk of obesity (during before and after-school programs), and created and implemented various sport club activities (team and individual sport). During that time, I decided I wanted to hone my craft and develop my profession more, so I decided to pursue my Ph.D. at the University of South Carolina (UofSC). As a graduate assistant at UofSC, I thoroughly enjoyed teaching at the university level because it allowed me to directly impact and shape the experiences of pre-service teachers and their future classrooms by combining my teaching experiences with my understanding of knowledge and theory. After finishing my Ph.D., I worked at the department of psychology as a postdoctoral fellow and intervention coordinator. I collaborated with multiple teams and gained more practical empirical research experience in K-12 schools with underserved communities. Throughout these experiences, I became inspired to join an academic community where I could best put my goals into action, and I believe WMU is that place because it shares my values and passions. I look forward to getting more opportunities to develop myself professionally at WMU and to grow as an educator and researcher.
So, you’ve been here for a month. What do you love about Western so far?
First and foremost, people in WMU are so friendly and supportive. They are willing to share their experiences and knowledge, and it guides me in adapting to the new environment smoothly. In addition, I really enjoy winter sports such as ice skating and skiing. My family and I would love to get more opportunities to enjoy those during the winter session. I also like to travel, and geographically, my family and I can travel to different nearby cities—Chicago, Detroit, and upper Michigan. Lastly, there is not much traffic, which is my favorite part!
Of course, with over half of our programs being teacher education we are also the heart of WMU, which began as a teacher’s college. Who was your favorite teacher and why?
My enthusiasm for teaching stems from my belief that teachers have a unique opportunity to help K–12 students develop as a whole person. In other words, I believe health and physical education need to connect with inner, emotional growth to effectively implement healthy lifestyles. I also strongly believe that teachers are crucial in having this positive impact on students. Each teacher has the opportunity to cultivate positive learning experiences and the potential to produce lifelong participators in physically active lifestyles. Personally, I met an amazing teacher named Myungjae Lee during my field experiences as a student teacher. Mr. Lee taught me that, "Everyone has had a bad experience in physical education; a teacher’s job is to give them a good one." I saw how much he inspired his K-12 students to be physically active, and I knew then that I wanted to be a teacher. I have always valued the role a health and physical education teacher can have on a student’s learning and life, and I want to help instill qualities in both students and other teachers that lead them to be highly competent and reflective, like Mr. Lee, through my teaching practices.
Where did your passion for your scholarship (i.e., research areas in physical fitness, physical activity, and movement integration) stem from?
As an educator and researcher, my scholarly interests focus on different contexts (physical education, general education classrooms, before and after school programs, home and community environments) and systems (curriculum and pre-service/in-service teacher education programs) that align with the Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program (CSPAP) framework. Through this approach, I explore youth physical activity experiences as a vehicle for health/physical education learning opportunities. Specifically, I am researching the CSPAP framework with a focus on extending physical activity experiences outside of in-person physical education to help achieve standards-based health and physical education outcomes (motor competence, social-emotional learning) and develop healthy, active lifestyles. Throughout my academic pathway, I have first-authored or coauthored a variety of publications on these topics, including a professional article conceptualizing a professional development framework for classroom movement integration, a theoretical article articulating the synergistic potential of different CSPAP components, and research studies spanning quantitative and qualitative methodologies to address multiple CSPAP-based questions. This is scholarship that I am excited to continue and expand at WMU.
What advice do you have for aspiring physical and health education teachers?
As a teacher educator, I believe it is imperative that physical and health education teachers’ attitudes, beliefs, and expectations—as well as their knowledge of how to incorporate the cultures, experiences, and needs of their K–12 students into their teaching—significantly influence both what students learn and the quality of their learning opportunities. That being said, I believe that physical and health teachers need to utilize diverse approaches in their curricula that respect students' different backgrounds and learning styles (inclusive lessons). I have strived to maintain knowledge, awareness, and sensitivity to the impact of race/ethnicity, sex/gender identity/sexual orientation, class/economic background, age and ability, and all diverse populations on health and physical education in my daily clinical teaching. Ultimately, I have committed to pursuing efforts to urge all my teacher candidates to develop acceptance of diverse values, attitudes, and beliefs as well as to promote empathy among all individuals.
