- University Hall 4121
- 973 655-5497
- Not Available
- BS:Hungarian University of Physical Eduaction (Hungary)
- MA:Montclair State University
- EdD:University of Massachusetts
- Download vCard File
Associate Professor, Exercise Science and Physical Education
Most recently, based on over 20 years of teaching experience, Dr. Gubacs-Collins has changed her focus to understanding the potential negative factors that inhibit teachers from implementing change. Among such inhibiting factors she hypothesized that limiting beliefs developed through life and work place anxieties may be significant contributors to practitioners' lack of actual performance. This research has led Dr. Gubacs-Collins to the study of Meridian Based Therapies such as EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) and to Kinesiology Muscle Testing. To advance her studies Dr. Gubacs-Collins has received several certificates in the above mentioned areas and is using her knowledge of the past years to develop a research line and course of study in the effectiveness of Meridian Based Therapies and Kinesiology Muscle Testing. In addition, Dr. Gubacs-Collins is working with athletes to reduce performance anxiety in athletic competition. She, herself, also loves to play sports and many of the sports she teaches she played and/or coached on a competitive level at one time or another. Her latest adventure is Golf (that should last a lifetime).
The overall objective of this project is to reduce personal, social but most importantly academic stress and achievement anxiety in Physical Education, Exercise Science and Athletic Training students. This will be done through the use of the Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT, Craig 2010) to apprehend self-limiting beliefs in the process of becoming effective teachers and change agents in the field.
What constitutes Appropriate Practice in physical education? NASPE suggests that the outcome of a physical education program should be that adolescents have gained the skills and knowledge to be physically active for a lifetime. Furthermore a physically educated person is one who consistently demonstrates responsible personal and social behavior in physical activity settings. The question thus becomes, how do we accommodate all of these aspects of appropriate practice into a single unified integrated system that includes equal emphasis on the physical, cognitive, and affective aspects of physical education? My contention is that the answer lies in what I shall refer to as the Socratic Gymnasium. The main pillars of the Socratic Gymnasium are the combined utilization of a Tactical Games Approach (TGA), Sport Education (SE), and Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR), all of which are constructivist instructional models.