Weidong Li, center, was inducted as a Fellow into the National Academy of Kinesiology at the organization’s annual conference. Professor Samuel R. Hodge, right, his key nominator and past-president of the academy, and Leah Robinson, chair of the academy’s review committee, professor at the University of Michigan and an alum of the college’s Kinesiology Program, congratulate him at the event.
Professor Weidong Li is known for his pioneering research in and support of the next generation of experts in physical education teacher education and kinesiology. He is also recognized nationally and internationally with awards for his unwavering dedication to service and leadership in the field.
Now, he has achieved another career pinnacle — he was inducted as a Fellow into the prestigious National Academy of Kinesiology at the annual conference in late September.
The academy is the premier professional organization dedicated to encouraging and promoting the study and science of human movement and physical education.
This brings the number of the college’s faculty who are academy Fellows to nine, which is among the largest representation in any similarly sized university or college department in the country.
The academy currently ranks the college’s PhD in Kinesiology as No. 1 in the nation, adjusted for faculty size.
“Professor Li’s research focuses on curriculum, student motivation and learning in physical education. He also focuses on cardiovascular health and exercise,” said Samuel R. Hodge, professor of kinesiology with the college and Li’s key nominator for the honor. “He has over 155 journal articles, chapters in edited books and books, and nearly 200 presentations, including keynote speeches, seven of them invited in the United States and 73 invited in China.”
“Also noteworthy, Li is a Research Fellow of the Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE) America,” said Hodge, who also specializes in adapted physical education, “and he has served as president of the International Chinese Society for Physical Activity and Health. Currently, he chairs SHAPE America’s Research Council.” SHAPE is known as the voice of health and physical education teachers across the United States.
Li’s significant publications, research influence the field
Li’s most recent book, co-authored with two professors at other U.S. universities, Sports Skills Analysis from Taylor and Francis. It equips teachers and coaches with practical examples of how to conduct skills analysis, design teaching progressions for interventions and apply biomechanical principles.
In terms of research, he focuses on three interconnected areas: curriculum, student motivation and teacher content knowledge in physical education.
His first research area examines how the K-12 curriculum influences student motivation, cognition and learning in physical education. His publications address students' beliefs about their ability and effort (Li et al. 2005). His findings can equip teachers with effective instructional strategies to increase students' motivation.
His work in this area is also evidenced in a proposed curricular model of Situated Game Teaching through Set Plays (Li et al. 2018; Dervent et al. 2022). This work has made significant contributions to advance the game-centered approaches to teach and coach sports and is impacting the teaching practices in K-12 school physical education in China and Turkey.
His second focus area is the study of obesity bias, coping and teaching students who are overweight or obese in physical education. His contributions to the literature address the urgent need to equip physical education teachers with knowledge of experiences of students who are overweight or obese, as well as effective strategies to include them in physical education (Li and Rukavina 2013, Rukavina et al. 2015).
An emerging area of Li’s research focuses on the effects of teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge on student learning in physical education. In this work, he collaborates as a member of a research team led by his colleague Professor Phil Ward. Their study findings have made a significant impact on national policy.
“Our work was cited as supporting evidence for SHAPE America’s new physical education teacher education standards 1.1 and 1.2,” said Ward (Kim et al., 2015; Sinelnikov et al. 2015; Ward et al. 2012). “Colleges and universities that offer physical education teacher education programs must meet these standards to be accredited.”
Li has made conceptual and methodological contributions to this research inquiry using his expertise in content knowledge (Wu et al. 2023; Li et al. 2022) and statistical design and analysis (Li et al. 2017).
Guiding the next generation of leaders
Li is passionate about working with students to conduct impactful research using scientifically rigorous design and statistical approaches. He goes the extra mile to help students develop knowledge and skills to succeed professionally.
He has served on dissertation committees of doctoral students, helping them with their studies’ methodology and results analysis. For instance, he served as dissertation advisor for Yilin Li, ’16 MS, ’21 PhD, both kinesiology.
“Dr. Li's mentorship had a profound impact on the development of my research skills and professional growth,” said Li, who is now an assistant professor of kinesiology at the University of California - Bakersfield. “He not only held himself to high standards, but also expected the same from us as his students. His feedback was always thoughtful and constructive, pushing me to think critically and refine my work.”
“These experiences not only helped me publish high-quality research, but also equipped me with the skills and confidence needed to succeed in my career as a scholar,” she said. “Working alongside him, I gained invaluable insights into conducting rigorous research and navigating the academic world.”
During her graduate study at Ohio State, Yilin Li worked with Weidong Li to publish two review studies (LI et al. 2020; Li and Li 2020) with one as the leading author. Both review studies provide critical future research directions for intervention research and research on caring in the field of physical education.
Leadership and service to the profession
“Weidong had been a national and international expert scholar in sport pedagogy for many years,” said Hans Van Der Mars, professor emeritus of physical education of Arizona State University and another of Li’s nominators. “He has taken on numerous leadership positions in the field to support continuing research efforts to further our understanding of the teaching and learning processes in physical education and other related physical activity professions.”
Li has provided extensive professional service to SHAPE America across the years. He has served as chair of the grants committee and a grant reviewer. For 19 years, he served as an abstract reviewer for the annual SHAPE conference.
In international service, Li had served as president-elect, president and past president of the International Chinese Society for Physical Activity and Health from 2021 to 2024. During his time in the role, he secured funding from three American universities to start publishing a peer-reviewed scientific journal – the International Journal of Physical Activity and Health.
He continues to sit on the journal’s editorial board, which is published through the manuscript management system by Boise State University.
For four years, Li served as a co-editor of the Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, a highly regarded, tier-one journal in kinesiology. During his tenure, he instituted numerous improvements, among them the publication of special issues, shortening the review length, invited manuscripts, and improving the quality of manuscripts.
As a result, the impact factor of the journal more than doubled. His work laid a critical foundation for the journal’s status today.
