How to Promote Positive Youth Development in Physical Education? The Experiences of a Physical Educator and Students Through the Delivery of Project SCORE!

Confidence, character, competence, and connection (i.e., the 4 Cs) have been acknowledged as desired characteristics of positive youth development (PYD)-basedprograms. Based on the 4 Cs framework, an online tool called Project SCORE! has been designed to help coaches, parents, or other stakeholders facilitate PYD through a specific set of strategies, objectives, and activities. However, research on PYD-focused teacher education programs, specifically using Project SCORE!, is still scarce. This case study analyzed the influence of a PYD-focused intervention based on Project SCORE! on a physical education (PE) teachers PYD behaviors and the PYD behaviors of his students. The participants were a PE teacher with extensive teaching and coaching experience and seven students involved in the teacher 's PE class. Data were collected through semistructured interviews, nonparticipant observations, reflexive journaling, and focus group interviews. Findings show how the PE teacher was able to transition from an unintentional approach toward PYD to an intentional one that resulted in more PYD outcomes reported by his students after the PYD-focused intervention. In addition, his coaching experience gave him a unique outlook on how to develop a PYD mandate in PE. Future research should focus on implementing Project SCORE! in a broad array of contexts and understand how parents may be involved in this online platform.