Rate My Professor Michael Rosenberg

Professor Michael Rosenberg serves as Professor and Head of the School of Human Sciences within the Faculty of Science at the University of Western Australia. He earned his BAppSc, DipEd, MPH, and PhD from Curtin University. His research program centers on enhancing community physical activity and health outcomes. Key areas include foundational scientific inquiry, knowledge translation, children’s physical literacy development, leveraging technology for health measurement and promotion, and generating evidence for healthy public policies that foster positive health behaviors. A significant portion of his work involves assessing population-level health behavior prevalence and the effectiveness of interventions.

Rosenberg leads the KIDDO program, an evidence-based initiative launched in 2014 to equip educators, coaches, and parents with resources and training to build physical literacy in children aged 3-8 through fundamental movement skills, motivation, and confidence for lifelong activity. KIDDO has been adopted by 365 Western Australian schools, reaching over 10,000 students since 2018, with training delivered onsite to more than 250 schools and childcare centers. Evaluations show improvements such as 61% in over-arm throwing skills and 13% in general movement skills, alongside over 95% of educators reporting increased confidence in delivering physical activity. He has secured funding from Healthway for projects including KIDDO expansion to disadvantaged communities, physical literacy tools in schools, and capacity building in Northern Territory primary schools, as well as grants from Sport Australia and others, contributing to 67 projects overall. Key publications encompass "Aspiring athletes managing sport, education, social, and family life: A scoping review" (2026, Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport), "Improving sport opportunities, participation, and experiences for children in out-of-home care: A mixed-methods study" (2025, Child Abuse and Neglect), "Measuring delivery and impact in community-based health promotion initiatives: development and overview of the Healthway Evaluation Framework" (2025, Frontiers in Public Health), "Preliminary validity evidence for a rapid fundamental movement skill assessment tool for primary education settings" (2025, Frontiers in Sports and Active Living), and "The Implementation of the Digital Physical Literacy for Children Questionnaire in Primary Schools: A Mixed-Methods Study" (2025, Journal of Teaching in Physical Education). With over 200 research outputs, his work informs policy and practice in physical activity promotion.