West Visayas State University

HIMAMAYLAN CITY CAMPUS

Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental

DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

TEACHING PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND HEALTH

IN THE ELEMENTARY
2nd Semester A.Y. 2019-2020

Table of Contents

Topic 1: WHOLE-SCHOOL APPROACHES TO PROMOTING HEALTH

- Health Promotion: A Component of Health Delivery
- The Health of Filipinos
- Whole-school Approach to Health
- Health Promoting Schools
Topic 2: PLANNING FOR DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE LEARNING
- Health Benefits of Physical Activity for Primary School-Aged Children
- Child Development
- The Phases of Motor Development
- Stages of Learning
- Considerations for Designing Developmentally Appropriate Activities for Learners at Different Stages
- Strategies for Fostering Physical Activity Opportunities in Schools
Topic 3: MOVING FOR PURPOSE: SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE AND VALUES
- What are Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS)?
- Models-based Practice in Physical Education
- Exploring the Context and Culture of Sport Using the Sport Education Model
- Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility Through Physical Activity (TPSR)
Topic 4: MOVING FOR LIFE: EXPERIENCE AND EXPRESSION
- Experiential Learning Theory in Physical Education and Health
- Exploring Rhythmic and Expressive Movement
- Outdoor and Adventure Education in Physical Education and Health
 West Visayas State University
HIMAMAYLAN CITY CAMPUS
Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental

DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

WHOLE-SCHOOL APPROACHES TO PROMOTING HEALTH

Once you have read this chapter, you should have:

1. identified what health promotion is and develop an understanding of local health-promotion strategies,
2. developed skills to assess the local environment, and identified ways to connect children and schools to their
communities,
3. understood whole-school approaches to addressing health issues in schools, including the Health Promoting
Schools Framework,
4. identified the diverse nature of communities and learned ways in which they can assist their children to celebrate
the diverse nature of their school and community.

OVERVIEW
In this chapter you may develop your knowledge and understanding of health promotion, whole-school
approaches and health promoting schools. The main focus are on gaining an understanding of how these strategies are
used, locally further as internationally; the way they're employed to show children a way to locate and access health
providers; and the way they assist children to create partnerships and have an healthy impact on their community.
Examples are given to permit for greater understanding and to get ideas for schools and communities. The
chapter will cover the talents needed to critically engage with local communities and access information regarding local
needs. While reflecting on their own skills, teachers can develop pedagogies to create their students’ skills in accessing
and promoting local health initiatives.

HEALTH PROMOTION: A COMPONENT OF HEALTH DELIVERY

Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. To reach
a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, an individual or group must be able to identify and to realize
aspirations, to satisfy needs, and to change or cope with the environment. Health is, therefore, seen as a resource for
everyday life, not the objective of living. Health is a positive concept emphasizing social and personal resources, as well
as physical capacities. Therefore, health promotion is not just the responsibility of the health sector, but goes beyond
healthy life-styles to wellbeing.
The fundamental conditions and resources for health are:
• peace
• shelter
• education
• food
• income
• a stable eco-system
• sustainable resources
• social justice, and equity.
Improvement in health requires a secure foundation in these basic prerequisites. (WHO, 2017)

Many of us likely take for granted the fundamental conditions listed by the World Health Organization (WHO)
above. But consider children in countries that are at war who cannot attend school; or where only children of rich families
are afforded an education; or Filipino children who sleep in someone’s house as workers and do not eat breakfast before
they go to school. How can these children be truly healthy? In addition to the WHO’s list, we can consider Maslow’s
(1943) hierarchy of needs, in which physiological needs such as air, water, food and shelter form the base of the pyramid
of need. Maslow contends that unless the lowest group of needs is met, one cannot progress to the next levels of the
pyramid. Above physiological needs, these are, in order, needs for safety, love and belonging, esteem and, finally, self-
actualisation. Again: think about your future students. If they have not had breakfast or did not have safe place to sleep,
how can they be expected to attain the level of self-actualisation that we demand in schools?
Health promotion is a way of helping individuals and groups to meet these needs. It is a strategic process that
builds capacity in students. Although it is complex, in terms of its cost to the population it is possibly the cheapest stage of
health delivery for achieving good health, and is therefore highly encouraged by governments.
Health promotion is the first stage of health delivery. It attempts to up-skill individuals and build capacity in
communities as a way of enabling people to look after their own health. It is a method of empowering people to look after
themselves and others and to achieve a better quality of life.
The second stage of health delivery is the prevention of illness, disease and incapacity. You may frequently
hear the adage, ‘Prevention is better than cure.’ This is correct, because it costs the health system far less to attempt to
prevent an illness than it does to cure it. Prevention takes the form of healthcare, including specialists, and the taking of
days off work when required for health reasons, as sick leave.
 West Visayas State University
HIMAMAYLAN CITY CAMPUS
Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental

DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

The next stage of health delivery is early intervention. This refers to when a health concern has arisen – for
example, a single high blood pressure recording – and steps need to be taken to reduce the risk of it becoming worse; a
doctor might ‘keep an eye on it’. The fourth stage is treatment, where a healthcare professional needs to be involved in
treating a condition; this could include short-, medium- or long-term treatment. The final stage of health delivery is
rehabilitation, where the patient needs to progressively improve in order to be able to return to a better quality of life.
Health promotion as a concept has been around for a very long time, but was not always a coordinated effort. In
the 1980s the WHO began the process of compiling strategies used and put forward recommendations for the future.

HEALTH PROMOTION IN THE PHILIPPINES

Health is one in every of the foremost important concerns among Filipinos as each folks strongly values our
health and well-being. However, many folks have paid no attention to the countless choices confronting us about the way
we live, work and play that may potentially damage our bodies and our minds, or maybe cost our lives. Oftentimes, it's
only we are sick, injured, disabled or faced with the potential loss of productivity, wellbeing, or life itself that we truly
recognize the importance of health. But health care isn't without personal cost, especially in an exceedingly health system
just like the Philippines where the means of paying health services is overwhelmingly through out-of-pocket expenditure.
Confronted with such situation, a major majority of our people address the govt. for support. But the fact is, health care,
specifically curative and rehabilitative care, requires tremendous resources and presents us with a critical dilemma on
how scarce resources are going to be invested in health and who will get to learn from those resources. Such condition
has brought us to major service gaps and poor access by an oversized segment of the population, leading to an ever
widening inequity in health. For this reason, health care consistently rate as a crucial political, economic, social and ethical
concern among our national and native leadership.

WHOLE SCHOOL APPROACHES TO HEALTH

A whole-school approach is one in which the entire community has input into the planning, development,
implementation and evaluation of – in this case – health and wellbeing strategies or initiatives. Everyone knows what is
going on, what to do and what to expect; everybody has a role.
Whole-school approaches have been found to be effective in addressing health and wellbeing issues in schools.
They take a great deal of planning and commitment, but results can be rewarding for the entire school community (i.e.
students, teachers, other staff members, leadership teams, parents and guardians, and the local community). Each
involved party has a vested interest in having the approach work. If we use truancy as an example, we might ask: if
students are truant, where will they be during the day? They might be hanging out with their friends in local shopping
malls or parks, be on public transportation or be in other public places. Do shopkeepers, parents and carers with small
children or other visitors want truants hanging around these places? The answer is likely no, and so these parties have an
interest in keeping those students at school. Whole-school approaches consider schools to be a part of the community, in
which all members look out for one another.
By utilizing whole-school approaches that your state or territory government has set up, you are supporting your
state’s or territory’s directions in health promotion, and in linking with outside organizations to support the work that you do
in schools, you are strengthening the community for your students.
The following ‘Teaching practice’ box gives an example of a proactive, whole-school approach to health
promotion. It demonstrates how community members – in this case, parents and guardians – can get involved in their
children’s learning, as well as their health education.
The kitchen-garden example could be extended by having volunteers from the community come to do gardening
and interact with the students, teaching, telling stories and building relationships. An article in the school newsletter or a
‘recipe of the week’ could also be regular occurrences. Parents could learn about seasonality and about the types of
vegetables to grow at certain times of the year. There could be information evenings and community displays; the
opportunities for learning and building partnerships are endless. In primary schools, parents are welcomed to participate
in their child’s education. This is encouraged in many forms, such as reading with children at home, school-council
membership, helping on excursions, parent/guardian information evenings, parent/guardian–teacher (and sometimes
student) interviews, and so on. Students who see their parents showing interest in their schooling often place more
importance on their education, because they see that it is valued. Parents have every right to have a say in how schools
are run, and schools should encourage this. Whole-school approaches value input from parents and guardian and
continued partnerships that allow for working together to provide the appropriate education for every child. Building
relationships with each parent is an important element of a teacher’s role. There will be parents/guardians who involve
themselves and others who do not. But ensuring that every parent/guardian is given the opportunity to play a role is vital
to the whole-school approach.

HEALTH PROMOTING SCHOOLS

A health promoting school is one that constantly strengthens its capacity as a healthy setting for living, learning
and working.
The concept of a health promoting school – a component of the whole-school approach – is one specifically
designed to address health issues within the whole school community. It is an approach that considers the school as a
learning environment, as a workplace and as a community space. In a health promoting school, all members of the school
and local communities are welcome – indeed, encouraged – to work towards improved health and wellbeing for all.
 West Visayas State University
HIMAMAYLAN CITY CAMPUS
Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental

DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Health Promoting Schools Framework

The Health Promoting Schools Framework, developed by the WHO, is based on the Ottawa Charter for Health
Promotion. It outlines a whole-school approach that addresses health topics. The school that takes on the challenge of
adopting this approach will be continuously building its capacity to be a healthy place to live, work, learn and play. The
effects of being a health promoting school are felt within the school grounds, at home and in the local community, and
have the ability to spread further. All members of the school community are invited to be involved in this approach and
play a role in the success of its implementation.
In offering some guiding principles, a health promoting school:
1. promotes the health and wellbeing of students
2. enhances the learning outcomes of students
3. upholds social justice and equity concepts
4. provides a safe and supportive environment
5. involves student participation and empowerment
6. links health and education issues and systems
7. addresses the health and wellbeing issues of all school staff
8. collaborates with parents and the local community
9. integrates health into the school’s ongoing activities, curriculum and assessment standards
10. sets realistic goals built on accurate data and sound scientific evidence
11. seeks continuous improvement through ongoing monitoring and evaluation.
The Framework utilizes a whole-school approach to implementing strategies across three areas, or components:
curriculum and pedagogy; school organization, ethos and environment; and partnerships and services. These interact to
create a school that comprehensively addresses the health of the entire school community.

CURRICULUM AND PEDAGOGY

The curriculum and pedagogy component addresses the curriculum and how it is taught and assessed. This
includes considering of the learning styles and needs of all students; addressing key local issues; developing,
implementing and evaluating the curriculum; and the resources that are required to effectively address the specific needs
of the school (WAHPSA, 2014).
Following is a list of some teaching and learning strategies that can be implemented in curricula,
 Integrate learning across the curriculum
 Gather the input of students
 Make use of peer role models
 Display student work
 Utilize curricula developed by the Department of Education
 Provide or source teaching materials and professional learning opportunities.

SCHOOL ORGANISATION, ETHOS AND ENVIRONMENT

The school organization, ethos and environment component addresses the school’s support for the building of
capacity across the school community. This requires support from all involved parties, including the school’s leadership
team. Policies and procedures are developed or rewritten to build safe, supportive environments where everyone knows
what is expected. Also considered is the physical environment of the school – that is, the grounds, including, for example,
the canteen, equipment, quiet spaces and access for students with disabilities (WAHPSA, 2014). The following is a list of
some strategies that are useful in the implementation of this component:
 Write or review school health policies
 Use student, teacher and parent feedback
 Use inclusive posters displayed around the school
 Provide student wellbeing staff members
 Provide healthy programs for staff members
 Organize a health education week with activities
 Celebrate diversity in the school community

PARTNERSHIPS AND SERVICES

The partnership and services component involves getting members of the local community engaged to support
the health-promoting schools concept. Links are made with parents and guardians, families, local organizations, other
local education facilities, local services, volunteers, and local, state or federal health-promotion organizations. This
community support is invaluable for schools, since it provides help for students at home, at school and in their local
community. The community may provide support in many ways; for example, by:
 keeping watch over the school during the school holidays
 giving financial support (e.g. donations)
 acting as guest speakers
 being involved in community programs
 West Visayas State University
HIMAMAYLAN CITY CAMPUS
Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental

DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

 providing help with field trips

 offering professional learning for teachers
The list above could go on and on. Following are some strategies that are useful in implementing this component:
 Send homework for parents/guardians and students to complete together
 Conduct parent-information nights based on need
 Display student work in community organizations, local shopping centers, etc.
 Organize health conferences with other schools or universities
 Encourage local health providers to attend school functions and talk about their services
 Promote health-related activities in the school paper
 West Visayas State University
HIMAMAYLAN CITY CAMPUS
Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental

DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

REFLECTION
In the context of your local community, how could you support your students to celebrate the diversity of the community?
How could you modify some of the strategies described in this chapter to deal with other health issues?
 West Visayas State University
HIMAMAYLAN CITY CAMPUS
Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental

DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. What is the whole-school approach? Provide an example.
2. Why is it so important for students to have access to the services in their community? Provide examples.
3. What are the three components of the Health Promoting schools Framework?
 West Visayas State University
HIMAMAYLAN CITY CAMPUS
Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental

DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

PLANNING FOR DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE LEARNING

Once you have read this chapter, you should have:

1. outlined a range of health benefits of physical activity for primary school-aged children
2. understood several theories of children’s cognitive, social and motor development
3. described physical development and consider its implications for teaching physical education
4. given an overview of the stages of learning
5. designed a range of developmentally appropriate activities
6. outlined a range of physical-activity opportunities to enhance students’ health

OVERVIEW
In this chapter we'll examine a spread of physical, social, psychological and emotional benefits to teens that come
from being active. Some strategies and processes for linking curriculum, pedagogy and assessment with the wants of
learners, and the way these are accustomed inform planning frameworks, are outlined. We’ll also discuss characteristics
of learners in several developmental stages, explore the implications of those for teachers and consider strategies to be
implemented. We’ll study brain development, neural wiring and plasticity, and therefore the importance of movement and
‘brain-break’ activities. The chapter will examine different stages of learning and discuss their implications for you as a
lecturer working with students in several stages. We’ll study the essential notion of skill development and consider the
importance of learning fundamental movement skills (FMS), additionally as how these relate to learning more-advanced,
sports-specific skills. We’ll describe the importance of making developmentally appropriate learning activities and
description considerations that are relevant for learners at different stages. We’ll consider a spread of differentiated
learning opportunities for modifying activities to cater for a various range of skill levels, backgrounds and skills. Finally,
we'll explore a spread of potential strategies that you simply could implement in your school to encourage students to be
physically active.

HEALTH BENEFITS OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY FOR PRIMARY SCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN

Numerous health and other benefits to young people are associated with regular physical activity. These include
physical, mental and social benefits, in addition to potential academic, financial and career advantages, as are
documented in the literature. The photo below uses the example of twins to compare the lives of an active child and a
sedentary child, outlining the effects of their respective activity levels on their health during childhood. Ultimately, a
sedentary lifestyle is associated with not only a lower quality of life but also a shorter life expectancy.
 West Visayas State University
HIMAMAYLAN CITY CAMPUS
Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental

DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

As species, we were designed to move. Sadly, as a human race we have evolved over time to live our lives in a
largely sedentary way, expending low amounts of energy while sitting for prolonged periods (see photo below). Most
children are innately active as preschoolers, and want to constantly move, bounce, chase and climb as they explore and
make sense of the world around them and their relationships. Upon commencement of primary school, children are forced
to be sedentary for long periods of time. During a typical school day, children are required to spend many hours sitting
while reading, writing, working on an electronic device, listening or doing collaborative tasks. This is not a healthy
environment for children, and many schools of the future will no doubt invest in standing desks and place more emphasis
on giving students opportunities to move throughout the school day, rather than just in Health and PE class or during
recess and lunch breaks.

THE BENEFITS OF MOVEMENT FOR THE BRAIN

Movement has numerous benefits for the brain. These benefits include improved brain function, alertness and
motivation; increased blood supply, neural wiring and plasticity; and improved mood, attention, processing capacity and
memory. Movement is incredibly important for the developing child, and it significantly enhances learning outcomes. Let’s
take a closer look at the effect of movement on the neural wiring of the brain.
The nervous system is made up of cells that develop into a sophisticated and complex set of branches and
interconnected pathways, and these link together to send and receive information. Exercise prompts the brain to send out
growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). BDNF has been described as ‘Miracle-Gro
[fertilizer] for your brain’, because it enhances the environment in which neurons can flourish, and so the formation of new
connection between brain cell is also enhanced (Ratey & Hagerman, 2008).
Exercise increases the release of neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin and noradrenaline. These are
all important, because they regulate signaling in the brain. They are the same neurotransmitters that are acted upon by
medications prescribed for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depression. Therefore, taking your students
out of the classroom for a ‘run around’ for 20 to 30 minutes is the equivalent of the students taking calming medications, in
terms of calming then down. Movement not only boosts endorphins but also increases blood flow to the brain, allowing it
to work more effectively. Movement has the power to calm children as well as sharpen their levels of alertness: ‘Exercise
increases oxygen flow into the brain, which reduces brain-bound free radicals . . . an increase in oxygen is always
accompanied by an uptick in mental sharpness’ (Medina, 2008).
Rather than considering the mind and body separately, neuroscientists have outlined compelling biological
relationships among the body, the brain and the mind. Exercise creates the ‘building blocks’ of the brain, affects mood,
anxiety and attention, and guards against stress. All the benefits to the brain associated with movement were already
mentioned above.
So what does all this mean for you as an educator? There is compelling evidence for the importance of physical
activity, in relation to its physical and social benefits (Clemes et al., 2015) as well as its benefits for the brain. Activities
designed to activate the brain are often referred to as brain breaks. You need to get your students up and moving at least
once every hour. Sitting passively for prolonged periods is unnatural and not conducive to effective learning and
development or good health for your students. Prior to introducing a new topic in which you want children to brainstorm,
 West Visayas State University
HIMAMAYLAN CITY CAMPUS
Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental

DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

create or problem solve, you need to get them moving: go for walk or run around, or even bounce on the spot to ‘get those
endorphins going.

BRAIN BREAKS
The aim of brain breaks is to use any form of movement during class time to:
 assist in re-oxygenating the brain
 invigorate and train the vestibular system, vision and proprioception (provides information on body
positioning; if a person is blindfolded, they know, through proprioception, if, for example, their arm is
above the head or hanging by the side of the body)
 stimulate both hemispheres of the brain, thereby including the right-hemispheric creative processes

BONE DEVELOPMENT
Participating in regular physical activity that is weight-bearing and/or high-impact is essential for both the
development and the maintenance of strong bones. Childhood and adolescence are key periods for developing bone
density. Engagement in activities (during childhood in particular) such as skipping, jumping, hopping, running and
gymnastics is the ideal way to maximize the mineral deposits that are responsible for bone strength. Poor bone-mineral
density can result in a condition known as osteoporosis, which can lead to fractures, particularly in older people.

TAILORING CURRICULA AND INSTRUCTION TO LEARNERS’ NEEDS

In this section, we will describe a range of theories that underpin child development in relation to cognitive,
physical and social development and the stages of learning. As you work through these sections, I will provide you with
examples and activities to encourage you to think about how you can apply this knowledge and the theoretical models to
your teaching through the medium of movement. Here are some strategies to assist you with thinking about this process:
 Think about what these concepts might mean in terms of planning units, lessons and learning
experiences.
 Of course, the most complex challenge for any teacher is the fact that every child will be at a different
stage and level in relation to their development. Learning to provide differentiated learning experiences
that are tailored to individual needs is the ultimate challenge (and is more commonly implemented by an
experienced teacher).
 As part of your continuous reflection on both student progress and your own teaching, consider which
strategies could be implemented to cater for learners at different stages of development.
 As a teacher, it is important to understand the level that a child is operating at, so that you can aim to
teach them at the next, more advanced level.
 Think about ways you that can construct the environment in such a way as to engage children, keep them
moving and encourage active exploration. This can be done by modifying the equipment, the surrounds,
tasks and facilities so as to foster the construction of knowledge about movement.
 In this chapter you will learn about students developing schemas. Learning is maximized when the
environment around the child does not match the child’s schemas. This incongruity develops children’s
problem-solving skills, and allows them to explore, experiment and ‘get things wrong’.
 Design learning activities that foster social development, require students to work collaboratively and
discourage egocentric behavior. In HPE, students need to work as a team, encourage each other and
share equipment via constant social interaction.
 When designing a particular learning activity to address a specific strand, sub-strand, key idea, focus
area or content descriptor, consider how you could apply the theoretical models described in this chapter.
 Be mindful that children need time to develop fundamental movement skills (FMS) in your classroom, and
so FMS classes need to be regular – at least weekly, and preferably on several days per week. Children
need plenty of time to practice FMS during class, during breaks (in the form of free play) and via the
provision of active homework.
 Classrooms must create a positive emotional environment in which children feel safe to try, fail and
succeed while free from undue surveillance from peers, or embarrassment, humiliation or ridicule from
their teacher or their peers.
 Programming needs to be sequential and developmentally appropriate, and to enable high rates of
success and tailoring to the needs of individual students based on previous movement experiences,
fitness and skill levels, age and body size, and based on best practices.

CHILD DEVELOPMENT
When planning, designing and implementing HPE programs, units and lessons, an educator must carefully
consider the characteristics of the learner in relation to the latter’s developmental stage in life. In an ideal world, we would
teach a homogenous cohort of learners who all had similar interests, backgrounds, needs and abilities. But we are far
more likely to teach in our classes more heterogeneous groups who have a huge diversity of needs, interests and abilities
– and this makes our job far more complex. Of course, the developmental stage that a child is in significantly influences
 West Visayas State University
HIMAMAYLAN CITY CAMPUS
Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental

DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

their capacity to learn. A child’s physical, cognitive and psychosocial maturation will determine their readiness to learn at
any given point. There is an old proverb that ‘you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink’; the same can be
said of any learner: their readiness to learn is entirely dependent on the growth and development of the individual, and
their willingness to learn and take feedback during instructional opportunities. In other words, we cannot force a child to
learn. In this chapter, we want to reinforce that an age-based reference to specific criteria for the categorization of
learners (particularly when based on chronological age) is not always a suitable predictor of learning ability (Vander
Zanden, Crandell & Cramdell, 2007). There is a huge variation, at any given age, in the acquisition of abilities relating to
the three major domains of development; namely: physical (biological) maturation, cognitive maturation, and psychosocial
(emotional–social) maturation.
As mentioned above, the approximate age ranges provided in this chapter are just a guide. Maturation and the
child’s interactions within their environment, in addition to their background, physical and emotional health status,
personal motivation and support systems, significantly influence the child’s growth, development and readiness to learn.

DEVELOPMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS
When considering the teaching–learning process, it is essential that we consider the developmental phases that
occur as children progress from infancy to adulthood. For the purposes of this chapter, we will focus on toddlerhood to
late childhood in relation to behavioral changes that occur in the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains. We
mentioned earlier that we cannot force a child to learn – they will only learn when they are ready and receptive to learning.
As educators, our ultimate role is to support learners to move from being totally dependent on an adult to provide direction
to learn how to be lifelong independent learners. The process described by Covey (1990) involves moving along a
maturity continuum, which comprises three major phases:
1. DEPENDENCE: Many young children you will work with in primary schools will be totally dependent on
you as their teacher (and other adults) to provide direction, support and nurturing from a cognitive,
emotional and physical perspective. Some people progress further along the continuum very young, while
others become seemingly permanently stuck in this stage even as adults, displaying behaviors such as
an inability to listen or to accept responsibility for their own actions, instead blaming others and being
generally manipulative. (Now that you understand this concept, you may notice these behaviors in other
people.)
2. INDEPENDENCE: During this stage, the child has more control over their own decision making, learning
and self-care. The child develops the ability – cognitively, emotionally and physically – to take
responsibility for their own learning.
3. INTERDEPENDENCE: In this stage, an individual has become self-reliant, developed a sense of self-
esteem and matured enough to demonstrate respect for others. During this advanced stage, people
develop an ability to give and receive. Being able to receive feedback is critical to progress in learning.
Cognitive, emotional and physical development are interrelated; however, when a person reaches
physical maturity, this is not necessarily accompanied by cognitive and emotional maturity. So what does
this mean for you as a primary teacher? Considering that you are likely to have students in each of these
stages within any given class, you can deliberately mix groups based on maturity levels. For example,
learners within the interdependence stage may be able to assist a peer who is still within the dependence
stage. Students within the independence stage could either be paired up with each other or be paired with
a peer within the interdependence stage.

THE DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES OF CHILDHOOD

Developmental theorists and educational psychologists characterize different stages of childhood based on
specific patterns of observable behavior that are associated with different phases of growth and development.
The biggest challenge for an educator is not only to determine when is the most opportune time or ‘window’
during which to teach the learner but also to create opportunities for children to enhance their readiness to learn. The
ability to do this successfully requires an understanding of:
 each learner’s needs
 each learner’s interests
 the stages of development
 each learner’s knowledge and skill base to begin with
It also requires an ability to:
 assess each child’s readiness to learn
 determine if prerequisite knowledge and skills have been mastered
 match teaching and learning opportunities to the development level of the learner (Leifer & Hartson, 2004;
Santrock, 2006)

VYGOTSKY’S SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT THEORY

Vygotsky’s social development theory was developed by Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934), a Russian psychologist.
Vygotsky (1978) described the development of children from infancy to adolescence as a series of fairly long periods (of
one to four years) interspersed with shorter periods of crisis. He believed that children learn actively, through hands-on
experiences. Vygotsky’s theory underpinned the early foundations of constructivism. Constructivist teaching approaches
 West Visayas State University
HIMAMAYLAN CITY CAMPUS
Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental

DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

are based on the notion that learners should be actively engaged within the learning process in order to make meaning
and knowledge through their lived experienced, as opposed to simply passively receiving information. Vygotsky’s theory
consists of three major themes:
1. Vygotsky believed social interaction plays a critical role in the process of cognitive development, and that
social learning must precede development.
He stated: Every function in the child’s cultural development appears twice: first, on the social
level and later on the individual level; first, between people (interpsychological) and then inside
the child (intrapsychological).
2. Vygotsky believed that the presence of the more knowledgeable other (or MKO) is a key influence on a
learner. An MKO can be a teacher, a coach, an older adult, a peer, a young person or even a computer.
An MKO is simply anyone who has a greater level of knowledge, understanding, skill or ability than the
learner in relation to a given task.
3. The zone of proximal development (or ZPD) refers to the distance between a student’s ability to perform a
task with adult support and guidance and/or peer collaboration, and the learner’s ability to solve problems
independently. There is a plethora of information available relating to Vygotsky’s broader social
development theory; however, for the purposes of this chapter, we will focus on ZPD.

ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT (ZPD)

According to Vygotsky, the ZPD changes as teachers and students transition through the different levels of
development towards new areas of knowledge. It relates to:
the distance between the actual development levels as determined by independent problem solving and
the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance, or in
collaboration with more capable peers.
Vygotsky holds that ‘what the child is able to do in collaboration today [s/] he will be able to do independently
tomorrow’ (Vygotsky, 1978: 86, cited in Schunk, 2008: 245). The ZPD places a focus on the relationship between
instruction and development. Vygotsky considered interactions with peers to be a powerful medium through which skills
and strategies could be explored and experimented with. Cooperative learning experiences are particularly useful when
placing less competent children with their more competent peers, as long as the less skillful learner is within the ZPD. If a
student is within the ZPD, Vygotsky was of the belief that, via the provision of appropriate assistance (or scaffolding), this
would enhance the learner’s chances of succeeding at the task. Scaffolding can include modelling a skill, providing hints
or cues and adapting material or activity (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009). Scaffolding refers to ‘those elements of the task
that are initially beyond the learner’s capacity, thus permitting him [or her] to concentrate upon and complete only those
elements that are within his [or her] range of competence’ (Wood et al., 1976: 90). Eventually, once the learner has
mastered the task, the scaffolding can be removed, the student can be removed and the student can capably complete
the task again independently.

Tips to aid effective scaffolding:

 Assess the learner’s current level of skill or knowledge and experience in relation to the academic
content.
 Relate the content to what learners already know or can do.
 Gain and maintain the learner’s interest in the task.
 Make the task simple
 Break the task into smaller, more manageable tasks that provide opportunities for intermittent feedback.
 Emphasize certain aspects that will help with the solution using verbal cues and prompts to assist
students.
 Control the student’s level of frustration.
 Demonstrate the task.

A key role of a teacher is to mediate students’ learning as you interact with them. Scaffolding is an important
strategy, and can include giving a demonstration (i.e. modelling a skill), providing teaching cues and
modifying materials or an activity (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009).
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DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

How does ZDP affect you as a teacher?

Vygotsky’s theories relate directly to collaborative learning approaches, wherein mixed-ability groupings mean
that more advanced peers can assist less advanced group members to learn within the ZPD.

PIAGET’S STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Jean Piaget (1896–1980), a psychologist, studied his own family members during infancy, toddlerhood and
childhood, which helped him to learn about basic categories of thinking. His work had a profound impact on both
psychology and education. Piaget concluded that children’s minds were not simply miniature versions of adult minds. He
believed that intelligence develops in sequential stages, and is dependent on biological maturation, experience with the
physical environment, experience with the social environment and equilibration (Gallahue & Ozmun, 1998). Equilibration
‘refers to a biological drive to produce an optimal state of equilibrium (or adaptation) between cognitive structures and the
environment’ (Duncan & Duncan, 1995, cited in Schunk, 2008: 337) and therefore continues to drive the process along.
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development describes a systematic restructure of cognitive processes as a result of
experiences within the environment and biological maturation. Ultimately, children foster the capacity to develop
hypotheses, use reason, understand the world around them and seek answers from their environment to discover what
they do not know.
Piaget’s cognitive theory is composed of three components:
1. Schemas (building blocks of knowledge)
2. Adaptation processes (equilibrium, assimilation and accommodation)
3. Stages of development:
- Sensorimotor
- Preoperational
- Concrete operational
- Formal operational
These four stages will be explained in the following sections.

SCHEMAS
For Piaget, cognitive models are composed of schemas, the basic foundations or ‘building blocks’ that form a
person’s mental perception of the world. Schemas are simply ways of organizing knowledge as ‘units’ of knowledge, and
a means of interpreting that information. Each unit relates to an aspect of the world, such as objects, actions or abstract
(i.e. theoretical) concepts. Schemas act like index cards that instruct the brain how to react to incoming information. A
schema can consist of a set of linked mental representations of the world. We draw on schemas as needed. For example,
a child might have a schema for playing hopscotch which is only retrieved from the brain when playing this game during
recess.
So what does this mean for you if you are teaching young children? Here are some examples of schemas used
by young children to make sense of the world around them:
 Enclosure: You often see children surround themselves with building blocks, walls made of boxes, Lego
blocks or branches while pretending to be animals in a cage, cave or kennel, or building homemade
‘castles’ or cubby houses. Be sure to provide materials in your classroom, such as cardboard boxes, that
children can use to create enclosures during free-play and class activities.
 Enveloping: Enveloping refers to wrapping toys or objects with fabrics, such as students dressing up
dolls or each other.
 Connection: The connection schema involves joining things together, such as chain links, Lego blocks,
jigsaws, puzzles and train carriages.
 Core and radial schema: This schema involves drawing circles, such as the sun.
 Rotation: The rotation schema involves spinning log rolls, running in circles and playing with cars or toys
with wheels. Ensure that you build into your classes a range of activities that involve rotation, such as
spinning in a circle or spinning tops or hoops. These activities are effective for the development of the
vestibular system, which is responsible for monitoring and adjusting the body’s sense of balance and
orientation to the world. This sense is what keeps us body-upright while standing, sitting or walking, and
is primarily located in the inner ear.
 Trajectory: Trajectory refers to propelling toys, balls or objects via throwing, kicking or launching, or
through the pouring of fluids. In your HPE classes, ensure that students spend lots of time propelling a
range of objects.
 Positioning: The positioning schema involves children lining up food, toys or other objects – for example,
parking small cars in a sequence, or putting Lego blocks in a particular order.
 Transporting: Children – particularly those aged two to three years, but also primary school-aged
children – love playing with objects that are moveable from one place to another and relocating objects as
part of imaginative and collaborative play. Build into your lessons opportunities for children to move
around equipment and transport objects within free play, or in more structured minor games, circuits or
even relay formats where they must pass a baton, ball or object.
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DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

ASSIMILATION AND ACCOMMODATION

Assimilation, according to Piaget, is a method by which a person responds to new experiences by using existing
schema (in other words, existing concepts and knowledge) to interpret new ideas and experiences (Hoffnung et al., 2010).
For example, a learner kicks a stationary ball based on observing an adult kick a ball. As learners, we get frustrated if
learning does not fit with our existing schema (assimilation). Therefore, the brain forces the learning process forwards
(disequilibration) in an attempt to restore balance by mastering the new task (accommodation). Equilibration continues to
move the development along. A new challenge (e.g. the learner is passed a moving ball and encouraged to kick it)
generally upsets our equilibrium, because the information does not fit into existing schemas. Via frustration (e.g. the
learner misses the ball several times), the mind attempts to restore balance by mastering the new challenge (e.g. a
teacher might demonstrate how to trap the moving ball before passing it). Accommodation is where a new schema is
developed by the learner, and used and stored for future reference.

STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
Although the timing of the four stages may vary from person to person, the hierarchical nature and sequence of
the stages do not. The stages are universally generalizable to all, and are not culturally specific. The following section
describes each stage of Piaget’s stages of cognitive development, which are summarized below, and outlines potential
strategies you can implement for learners in each stage.

CONCRETE FORMAL
SENSORIMOTOR PREOPERATIONAL
OPERATION OPERATIONS
Age Birth to 2 years 2 to 7 years (toddler 7 to 12 (primary– 12 to Adulthood
(Infancy) –early childhood) early adolescence)
Description  Actions and  Child begins to  Child can reason  This stage brings
spontaneous classify the world logically about cognition to the
attempts to with language and concrete events form in which it
understand the symbolism beyond and classify objects uses more
world through just sensory into different sets sophisticated
sensory information and  Understands cognitive processes
experiences (e.g. physical actions conservation of  The adolescent
seeing, feeling,  Use of imagination mass, number and reasons in more
sucking) is more obvious volume abstract, idealistic
 Child focuses on  Child uses symbols  Child develops an and logical ways
the sensation and to represent objects ability to think  Logical reasoning
movement in each  Language abstractly and to processes can be
moment development is make rational applied to abstract
 A further division sequential judgements about concepts in addition
into three sub-  Children can recall concrete and to concrete objects
categories, primary, and discuss things observable and situations
secondary and beyond their phenomena (capabilities
tertiary circular immediate  Egocentric thinking essential for
reactions, can be experiences occurs advanced
made  Imaginative play  Approximately one- reasoning in
 Symbolic thought features third of secondary science and
develops towards  Egocentrism school students mathematics)
the end of the present reach this stage  Able to plan actions
sensorimotor stage  As an example, if in advance
 Schemas are based you pour a set  Can develop and
on behaviors and volume of water use strategy
perceptions from a short, fat  Egocentric thinking
 Reactions to glass into a tall, diminishes
sensory stimuli skinny glass which  Greater ability to
occur via the holds the same evaluate
reflexes and other amount, a younger hypotheses, re-
responses infants child will think the evaluate and use
develop new volume has higher-order
intellectual and increased, whereas thinking
language skills a child in the
concrete–
operational stage
realizes there is no
change in volume
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DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

CONCRETE FORMAL
SENSORIMOTOR PREOPERATIONAL
OPERATION OPERATIONS
Limitations  Children only think  Start to reason in  Has trouble  None beyond the
about things logical, adult-like reasoning about occasional
immediately in front ways abstract concepts irrationalities of all
of them  Lacks certain and hypothetical human thought
 Child cannot operations (e.g. situations
comprehend object reversibility mental  Children will be
permanence in the processes) inconsistent in their
early part of this  Does not ability to apply
stage understand the concepts of time,
 Experiences notion of space, quantity and
‘stranger anxiety’ conservation volume to new
 Focuses on situations
different concepts
one at a time (e.g.
height or width), but
not simultaneously
 Has difficulty
contrasting and
distinguishing
between
appearance and
reality
Strategies for  Child needs  Play imaginary  Provide concrete  Have student
Educators exposure to a games, such as analogies (e.g. to develop
diversity of pretending to be encourage a child hypotheses and
exploratory sensory animals, which to keep the ball of test them
experiences for all requires use of their foot on the  Develop and apply
senses imagination and ground as they strategies
 Encourage active language – use swing during a two-  Goal-setting
play with parents animal-like noises handed strike you  Encourage student
 Play ‘Peek-a-boo’ and movements to could tell them to to consider different
to establish the develop locomotor squash the bug) perspectives
permanence of patterns (e.g.  Perform  It is more effective
objects so that gallop and neigh mathematical to explain things
infants understand like a horse, transformations/ verbally or use
the object (i.e. you) bounce like a operations symbolism to help
are still behind your kangaroo)  Provide the child children master
hands, even though  Visual with opportunities to concepts or
they cannot see demonstrations ask questions principles
your face and touching  Provide the child  Encourage
things are more opportunities to imagination
effective for explain concepts
learning than back to you to allow
verbal them to mentally
explanations process the
information
 Classifying
activities (e.g.
sorting foods into
food groups)

THE PHASES OF MOTOR DEVELOPMENT

Motor development is a continuous process that occurs throughout the lifespan. Changes to our movement
behaviour, regardless of our age, are influenced by an interaction between: (a) individual factors (e.g. biology); (b)
environmental factors (experience); and (c) the task itself (physical/ mechanical) (Gallahue & Ozmun, 1998). In our daily
lives, the world’s constant changes influence how we move and learn to move. We will soon explore the three main
classifications for movement behaviour (locomotor, stability and manipulative); but first, let’s consider the phases of motor
development, which are sequential across the lifespan. Keep in mind that the control and competence that each person
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DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

develops is context- and skill-specific. In other words, you might be an excellent swimmer, but this does not necessarily
mean that you are a competent tennis player.

Phase Description
Reflexive Movement  This stage includes first reflexive movements of the foetus.
Phase (in utero to 4  Reflexes (i.e. involuntary movements) are the result of a reaction to touch, sound, light or
months old; 4 months to pressure.
1 year old)  Example movements, known as primitive reflexes , relate to information-gathering,
nourishment-seeking (e.g. sucking) and protective responses.
 From the foetal period until about four months, these reflexive movements are known as
the information encoding stage.
 After about month four, the sensorimotor activity controlled by the lower brain centres is
taken over by the information-decoding stage controlled by the motor area of the cerebral
cortex. An infant’s perceptual–motor ability is based on their voluntary control of skeletal
movement. Within this stage, children do not simply react to stimuli, but rather start to
process sensory stimuli with information stored in their brains (gallahue & ozmun, 1998).
 The stepping, crawling and palm-grasping reflex all closely resemble the voluntary
movements of walking, crawling and grasping (developed later).
Rudimentary  These movements are determined by maturation and appear in a set sequence. the rate
Movement Phase (birth at which each child exhibits and performs each ability varies among individuals,
to 1 year old; 1 to 2 depending on the biological, environment and task factors afforded to them.
years old)  These movements are voluntary and fundamental for survival.
 Movements include manipulative tasks such as reaching, grasping and releasing.
 Stability movements include head, neck and trunk control.
 Locomotor movements include creeping, crawling and walking. • this stage is further
divided into two stages: –
- Reflex Inhibition Stage: during this stage there is a transition where two reflexive
movements are superseded by voluntary movements. Voluntary movements are
deliberate, have a purpose but appear uncontrolled and lack control.
- Pre-control Stage: this is the beginning of more precise voluntary movements:
 Children can engage in whole tasks and start to gain and maintain their
equilibrium.
 In this stage, children manipulate objects and locomote far more
competently. the maturational process during this stage is rapid.
Fundamental  Children start to explore and explore the movement potential of their rapidly growing
Movement Phase (2 to bodies.
3 years old; 4 to 5 years  They further develop stabilising, locomotor and manipulative movements.
old; 6 to 7 years old)  Children initially experiment with these skills in isolation, and then combine them.
 This stage is characterised by increased control of movements and the development of
FMS such as running, jumping, kicking, throwing and walking along a balance beam.
 These skills are not developed automatically via maturation, but instead are a result of
opportunities to practise, instruction, encouragement and the environment itself.
 This stage can be further subdivided into three stages (note that these stages can overlap
with one another):
- Initial stage: Characterised by missing or improperly sequenced parts, lack of
control, flow and coordination sometimes appearing exaggerated
- Elementary stage: Associated with greater control, flow and coordination.
temporal and spatial components are more synchronised. many people (even
adults) never progress past this stage in many FMS.
- Mature stage: Characterised with more efficient, controlled and coordinated
performance. the manipulative skills that require the eyes tracking and/or
intercepting moving objects (e.g. catching, striking) are the last to be mastered,
since the eyes are not fully developed (i.e. the myelin surrounding the nerves
supplying the eyes, which are responsible for tracking, are not fully myelinated
until the child is over 10 years of age). Children will not automatically reach this
stage without hours of opportunity to practise these skills.
Specialized Movement  Involves the application of FmS into more complex and sophisticated movement activities
Phase (7 to 10 years for daily living, and locomotor and manipulative skills.
old; 11 to 13 years old;  Integration of multiple skills is required; for example, the basic overhand throw can be
14 years old and up) applied to more sport-specific skills such as the overhand clear in badminton, the serve in
volleyball, the javelin throw or the overarm throw performed by a cricketer at the stumps to
run out a batter.
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DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

 This phase can be further subdivided into three stages:

- Transitional stage:
 during this stage, individuals start to integrate and apply FMS to more
specialised sport-specific contexts or recreational settings.
 the FMS are more accurate, controlled, refined and can be applied to
game-like or game situations/performances. » it is very important at this
stage not to insist a child specialises in only one or two particular sports.
- Application stage:
 the individual is able to draw on a more advanced cognitive ability and a
broadened experience base to process information and make decisions
under a wide range of circumstances (gallahue & ozmun, 1998).
 decision making is influenced by the nature of the task, the individual and
the environment and whether participation in the task will enhance
enjoyment and lead to success. emphasis for you as the teacher should
be on refining skills, application via lead up games, selected sports.
- Lifelong utilization stage:
 in this stage, interests, competencies and choices made in the previous
stages are built upon, further developed and applied to lifelong
participation in physical activities within the contexts of daily living,
recreation and organised sports.
 this is the pinnacle of motor development and ultimately contributes to an
individual’s happiness, health and social benefits.

As an educator, it is essential to keep in mind that children are not merely miniature adults. Children should not
specialise in one or two skill areas, since this will limit their opportunities to develop their abilities in and appreciation for
other areas (Gallahue & Ozmun, 1998).

MOTOR LEARNING
‘Motor’, as used in the phrase motor learning, refers to any neurological impulse (e.g. a thought or reflex) that is
generated and transmitted via neural pathways to the working muscles to cause movement. Our neural pathways are
complex and intricate networks that continuously develop through our sensory experiences. We maximise our learning by
doing (this makes sense when you think about babies – this is the only way that they can learn). The more that children
move and explore their world through movement, the more their neural pathways will develop and become effective.

STAGES OF LEARNING
Even if an individual has a genetic predisposition that suits them to a particular physical activity or sport, unless
they also have both the opportunity and the motivation to develop their skills, they will not reach a high level of
performance. As a teacher, it is important to have an understanding of the developmental needs of beginners compared
with more advanced performers, in order to enable differentiated teaching strategies, instructional approaches and types
of feedback, so that these can be tailored more specifically to enhance the learning process. While there are numerous
models that categorise motor-skill learning into distinct stages, one that is regularly used in HPE is that proposed by Paul
Fitts and Michael Posner. Fitts and Posner (1967) proposed that learning could be sequentially classified into three
distinct stages
 Cognitive (beginner)
 Associative (intermediate)
 Autonomous (advanced/elite).
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COGNITIVE STAGE
During the cognitive stage, beginners try to mentally comprehend and process the requirements of the motor skill
to be performed. Within this stage, beginners often need the opportunity to ask questions and be supported within an
environment that is encouraging and allows for many successful experiences. Production of movement during the
cognitive stage is often inconsistent, jerky, stiff, unrefined and unsuccessful in terms of the final product of the
performance.
Learners within the cognitive stage are often aware of what is wrong without knowing how to correct the problem,
because they are yet to develop their error-detection and correction abilities. Although individuals in this stage may lack
confidence, they generally exhibit rapid improvement when provided with ample opportunities to practise and achieve
success, supported by developmentally appropriate feedback.
In primary HPE, it is important to incorporate plentiful learning opportunities for children to practise new skills (e.g.
blocked practice) in a similar, predictable and stable environment. There are considerable cognitive demands for children
during this stage, so you should keep your directions and teaching cues short and simple.

ASSOCIATIVE STAGE
In the associative stage, sometimes referred to as the practice stage, the learner starts to develop and refine the
efficiency and effectiveness of the technique they use and their movement patterns, resulting in enhanced consistency
and a reduced error rate. The cognitive demands of performing movement patterns are reduced, allowing the learner
more time to focus on external stimuli (e.g. the trajectory of a ball or the positioning of the opposition’s defence). The
learner is capable not only of detecting errors but also of developing effective strategies to reduce the number of errors
being made.
As consistency increases, the rate of improvement slows down to a more gradual level. The learner is more
capable of focusing on how to perform the particular movement skill and more capable of coping with more sophisticated
practical applications of the skill learnt – for example, during a game situation, throwing the ball to second base to throw a
base runner out. Some learners, though, will never advance through this stage to the autonomous stage.

AUTONOMOUS STAGE
The final stage is the pinnacle of an individual’s learning, and their movement behaviour within this stage is now
largely automatic; the performer no longer has to consciously think about how to perform the skill. By this stage, an
individual can focus on other considerations, such as employing a tactical move (e.g. an elite basketball player calling
plays while dribbling up the court).
In the autonomous stage, individuals have developed a high level of anticipation for a range of possible scenarios
that could potentially occur, and the consistency level in performing skills is high. Individuals are able to detect their own
errors and have an understanding of how to correct them. As a primary teacher, it will be rare to teach children who are at
this level, unless they are also regularly participating in a particular physical activity outside of school. When working with
children at this level, offering precise feedback is still essential.

THE SKILL-LEARNING CONTINUUM

Consistent with other skill learning models, it should be noted that it is not possible to determine precisely when
an individual student moves from one stage to the next. Fitts and Posner’s three-stage model should be viewed as a skill-
learning continuum. Learners can be at different stages of learning for different movement skills; for example, although a
child might be at the associative stage for kicking a soccer ball, they may be within the cognitive stage for performing a set
shot in basketball. Additionally, it is important to understand that it is possible to be in different stages for even the same
skill, if the skill is to be performed within different contexts. For example, you might be at the autonomous stage for
freestyle in a heated, 25-metre indoor swimming pool with no one else in your lane, but at the associative stage while
performing freestyle in open water around large waves during a crowded swimming race (you may simply be
concentrating on catching a breath).
So what does this all mean for you as an educator? We have talked about the characteristics of learners who are
in each stage of learning, based on the Fitts and Posner model of stages of learning. To improve their skills, learners need
different things within different stages of learning. The table below outlines a range of strategies that you can employ while
working with individuals in each of the three stages of learning.
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To improve their skills, learners in the cognitive stage need:

 Only two simple instructions at a time to focus on
 Plenty of demonstrations (live and digital) to give them a visual (i.e. a mental picture of the task)
 Complex skills to be broken down into smaller parts
 A focus on simple FMS
 Their motivation to be kept high
 Positional and constructive feedback.
Example: in tennis, a learner needs to concentrate on standing side-on and keeping the racquet head parallel to the
ground.
To improve their skills, learners in the associative stage need:
 Regular feedback to refine skills and reduce the chance of poor habits developing
 Opportunities to practice with increased variability.
Example: in tennis, the person can hit the ball over the net but not always at the desired accuracy and speed; corrective
technical feedback should be given.
To improve their skills, learners in the autonomous stage need:
 Practice, using game-like situations to focus on, for example, tactics and shot selection
 Psychological-skills training for coping under pressure
 Practice opportunities with a high level of variability
 Practice that challenges them to use higher-order thinking via a range of problem-based learning scenarios.
Example: in tennis, practice a return passing shot against a left-hander using a kick serve.

CONSIDERATIONS FOR DESIGNING DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE ACTIVITIES FOR

LEARNERS AT DIFFERENT STAGES
Learners are either ready or not ready to achieve success, depending on a range of physical, cognitive, emotional
and psychological factors. For example, children under the age of 10 generally find it difficult to track an object in a vertical
plane, such as when catching a ball. This is because physically, the myelin (the sheath surrounding the nerves supplying
each eye) is not fully developed until around the age of 11. This is one of the major reasons for the need to use modified
equipment, such as softer balls, when appropriate, to maximize safety. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon to see untrained
teachers, coaches and well-meaning parents throwing tennis balls for young children, who miss the ball and get hit in the
face or head, causing injury – or, at the very least, an aversion to catching objects.
One of the key challenges for any teacher is the selection and design of learning activities that are
developmentally appropriate for each learner. HPE teachers are no exception, and in any given classroom, student
abilities can span multiple achievement levels. For every learning activity, think about how you could modify it to ensure
that it is inclusive and caters for a range of ability levels and backgrounds.

STRATEGIES FOR FOSTERING PHYSICAL-ACTIVITY OPPORTUNITIES IN SCHOOLS

As an educator, there are a range of strategies that you can incorporate, into both curricular time and non-
curricular opportunities, to get children moving. It is important to provide students with a wide range of physical activities
beyond traditional individual and team sports. Physical activities should encourage movement across all domains: at
school, through active transport, and in domestic and recreational activity. Here are a range of strategies that you could
incorporate into your school:
 Set active homework, such as taking your dog for a walk, going for a walk with your siblings or parents or
going to the local park to throw a Frisbee or play in the playground.
 Set students an assessment task that involves the collection of data about their activity level (e.g. a diary
or a physical activity log).
 Provide physical-activity equipment for use during break times (e.g. skipping ropes, balls, bats, flying
discs).
 Install line markings to foster play (e.g. ball games) and other prompts for throwing, such as painted
targets.
 Provide non-traditional sporting equipment, including moveable materials, for use during breaks, such as
boxes, hoops, tires and buckets.
 Schedule active breaks or brain-break activities during classroom time.
 Provide standing desks (at least three to five in every classroom, to give students the opportunity to rotate
to a standing desk at some point during each day).
 Establish walking or cycling groups, in order to encourage activity during lunch breaks.
 Encourage staff members to be active role models during break times and during class time by joining in
with physical activities with their students (even if it is just throwing a ball or playing a game of handball).
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Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental

DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

 Integrate movement opportunities across the entire curriculum (e.g. integrate movement when teaching
literacy and numeracy).
 Develop peer programs whereby older year levels facilitate programs for younger year levels (e.g. taking
on coaching or officiating roles, or simply running informal activity opportunities, such as jump-rope, etc.)
 Organize a staff–student competition in a range of sports (e.g. ball games, racket sports).
 Have regular walk-/ride-to-school days.
 Organize a ‘walk-a-thon’ as a fundraiser.
 Ensure that all students have access to participation in sport, not just students who compete in inter-
school competitions.
 Connect students with local sporting clubs via visits by and introductions to local coaches.
 Stage a showcase of the physical activities that students participate in at home.
 Get students to design a fitness circuit using school playground equipment.
 Encourage students to create a game that they could play at home using household items (e.g. buckets,
blankets, tarps and brooms)
 Avoid activities that involve elimination or exclusion of any kind (e.g. musical chairs), or modify these to
ensure that no child is excluded.
 Use smaller versions of games rather than their full versions (e.g. three on three or two on two soccer,
rather than 11 on 11) when encouraging students to play sport.
 Use lots of equipment – preferably providing one ball per student, where possible – rather than having
whole-class games that use one ball and leave large numbers of students waiting for a turn and
disengaged
 Organize for a sports star from your local community to visit the school to talk about the effect that
participating in sport has had on their life.
 Organize a trip to a local physical-activity facility or setting. Have students participate in the activity and
record a range of information about it in a physical-activity journal about the benefits of the activity and
how it made them feel.
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DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

REFLECTION
Reflect on a school where you have spent time. Discuss the range of strategies that were implemented there to
promote physical activity among students.
1. Was there a good balance between opportunities considered to be lifelong physical activities (e.g.
walking, jogging, running, etc. and traditional team sports (e.g. volleyball, basketball, etc.)?
2. Of the strategies outlined in this chapter, which would you want to implement in your school?
 West Visayas State University
HIMAMAYLAN CITY CAMPUS
Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental

DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

BRAIN BREAK ACTIVITY

The brain works far more efficiently and effectively if it is energized regularly. There are three basic ways to energize the
brain: exercise, meditation and brain breaks. A classroom teacher can provide one or, preferably, a combination of these
to maximize the learning of their students. It is often possible to observe that attention drops dramatically after 10 minutes
of class time. As a teacher, you need to aim to change the activity – both in the classroom and outdoors – every 10
minutes (e.g. by telling a story, showing a video, completing an activity, playing a game). Think about how you could
incorporate movement and physical activity into learning activities as a brain break in a way that relates to an integrated
topic area you are working on or could teach in the future. For example, if you were talking, in Science, about the solar
system and the movement of the planets in relation to the moon and sun, you could have students pretend to be rocket
ships, orbiting the earth or blasting through the solar system and calling out the planets as they pass by. Using the
curriculum guide introduced by the previous reporters, think of how you might incorporate movement into a lesson plan for
an activity involving drama. Use the format below. (separate paper)

I. OBJECTIVES: At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to:

II. LEARNING A. Subject Matter:

TASK: B. Reference:
C. Materials:
D. Value Focus:
III. DEVELOPMENTAL TASK:
TEACHER’S ACTIVITY STUDENT’S ACTIVITY
A. Pre-Activity:
1. Review:
Guide Questions:

2. Motivation:

3. Presentation:
Today’s lesson will help you understand…….

B. Activity Activity:
Proper:

C. Analysis/
Discussion:

Guide Questions:
1.

D. Abstraction: Guide Question:

1.
E. Application: Activity:
IV. FORMATIVE TEST
EVALUATION:
V.
ASSIGNMENT:
 West Visayas State University
HIMAMAYLAN CITY CAMPUS
Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental

DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

REFLECTION
Consider the maturity continuum described by Covey (1990), which moves from dependence to independence
and interdependence.
1. Can you think of at least one person in your life who could be classified in each of these three stages?
2. How might having learners in each of the three stages in the same classroom at the same time influence
your teaching?
 West Visayas State University
HIMAMAYLAN CITY CAMPUS
Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental

DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

REFLECTION
Consider the example schemas for children’s play described above.
1. Think about two of these schemas in terms of how you could encourage children to engage in them
during: (a) physical education; and (b) free play.
2. Brainstorm an activity involving rotation that you could use to develop children’s vestibular systems.
3. Discuss why the vestibular system is important to children’s development.
 West Visayas State University
HIMAMAYLAN CITY CAMPUS
Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental

DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

REFLECTION
Consider the phases of motor development, in particular, the fundamental movement phase and the specialized
movement phase.
1. Reflect on which of the focus areas within the Health and PE Curriculum of the Philipines relate to these
phases.
2. Consider what the implications of these would mean for you as an educator when working with learners
within each stage.
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HIMAMAYLAN CITY CAMPUS
Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental

DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Describe the effects of exercise on the brain, and reflect on how these inform your teaching, including the
need to incorporate ‘brain breaks’ during class time.
2. Explain what Piaget meant by the notions of assimilation and accommodation, and provide an example of
each of these.
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HIMAMAYLAN CITY CAMPUS
Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental

DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

MOVING FOR PURPOSE: SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE AND VALUES

Once you have read this chapter, you should have:
1. critiqued and implemented quality learning experiences that enhance a student’s fundamental movement skills
(FMS)
2. applied the basic principles of at least three popular models used in the teaching of HPE curricula
3. understood what it takes to create a ‘thinking’ student in your HPE classes
4. understood the type of learning environment that is needed to allow students to explore the context and culture of
sport
5. discovered opportunities for teaching personal and social responsibility through HPE

OVERVIEW
The purpose of this chapter is to challenge teachers in primary schools to create active, creative learners in their
classes and to re-conceptualize the notion of teaching HPE for educative purposes. To achieve this aim, the chapter
focuses on applying outcomes-based education in the teaching of fundamental movement skills (FMS), exploring the idea
of developing thinking, culturally aware and socially responsible players. It does this by exploring some of the more
dominant and evidence-based models of practice that are employed by teachers in primary schools. These models often
require deep pedagogical knowledge and continuous refinement in order to make them effective in your own physical
education practice.

INTRODUCTION
This chapter deals exclusively with the physical education component of HPE. Evidence of what it takes to create
effective physical education programs in primary schools is controversial (Dudley et al., 2011). Primary classroom
teachers frequently focus on ‘playing games’. While children usually enjoy these activities, these ‘games’ lessons are
often conducted in an ad hoc manner, with little planning for the necessary long-term educational objectives beyond
enjoyment and involvement in regular physical activity. This may be perceived as being an admirable outcome, but many
would claim that it is educationally insufficient.

WHAT ARE FUNDAMENTAL MOVEMENT SKILLS (FMS)?

Traditional models of motor learning and development categorize movement skills as being either phylogenetic
or orthogenetic movement sequences (Magill, 2011). Simply put, phylogenetic movement sequences develop without
instruction, because they are essential for human survival (e.g. crawling, walking, running). On the other hand,
orthogenetic movement sequences are not required in order to function in normal everyday activity, and are socially
driven. Therefore, they are more likely to be affected by practice (e.g. a tennis serve, kicking a football) (Magill, 2011).
However, it becomes hard to distinguish between the two types of skills once a child reaches around three years of age.
In educative settings, this thinking brought about the notion of fundamental movement skills (FMS).
FMS might be defined as those skills that are required for most people to live and function as ‘normal’ human
beings. They are often characterized as being the physical skill sets possessed by adults that are employed when
participating in leisure, recreation and sport-specific settings. There is a very compelling argument that without a learned
set of FMS and a perceived competence in their execution, individuals will be predisposed to engage in less physical
activity, and will therefore have poorer health in later life. The learning of FMS contains three components; namely, the
acquisition of the following:
 Locomotor skills: Moving the body from one place to another or propelling the body upward (e.g. running,
jumping, skipping, galloping)
 Stability skills: Performed, without appreciable movement, when moving from place to place (e.g.
balancing, bending, stretching, twisting, turning)
 Manipulative/object-control skills: Involve manipulation of an object (e.g. kicking, striking, catching,
throwing)

APPLYING OUTCOMES AND STANDARDS WHEN TEACHING FMS

In recent times, we have seen numerous educational bureaucracies advocating an outcomes- and standards-
based focus on curriculum design, teaching and assessment (Killen, 2005). To understand how these approaches
influence the teaching, programming and assessment of FMS, we should be guided by four simple questions:
1. Why do we want students to learn FMS?
2. Which FMS do we want students to learn?
3. How can we best help students to learn these FMS?
4. How will we know when students have learned FMS? These questions will be explored in detail in the
following sections.
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Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental

DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Why do we want students to learn FMS?

A predominant feature of the majority of HPE curricula in most developed nations is that they help students to
acquire the FMS needed to access a wide range of physical activities across their lifespan (Jess & Collins, 2003; Welk,
1999). Without this foundation, children find it difficult to pass through the proficiency barrier that exists between simple
activities and the more complex activities and games of later adolescence and adulthood (Seefeldt, 1979).
This notion is supported by Barnett et al. (2009), who found, in one of the few longitudinal studies published on
the topic, that FMS proficiency developed in the primary-school years has a significant impact on physical activity in
adolescence and adulthood. Furthermore, object-control skills, rather than locomotor skills, appear to be more crucial to
total activity time, as well as to activity of a higher intensity and the types of activity undertaken in later life.
Therefore, we should want our students to learn FMS, because there is an increasing body of evidence (much of
which will be cited throughout this chapter) to suggest that having these skill sets will contribute to their growth,
development and health. Further, this evidence should have influenced the development of the curriculum to which you
are expected to teach, thereby providing a clear set of broader skill outcomes and expectations.

Which FMS do we want our students to learn?

The question of which FMS we want students to learn is requires us to unpack our individual HPE curriculum
documents and search for the answer. We will need to know a few things before we can find these answers, though.
These questions include:
 Who are my students (e.g. age, level of development, special needs)?
 What does the curriculum say that they should be able to do?
The reason we ask the first question is that children do not learn FMS at the same rate, and nor do they start from
the same point of learning. It is therefore important to make the curriculum fit the student’s needs, rather than force the
student to fit the needs of the curriculum. By having a picture of who your students are, you can then ‘enter’ a curriculum
and, with a critical eye, see what it expects in terms of FMS development throughout the primary years.

How can we best help students to learn these FMS?

Traditional physical education lessons take on a ‘skill, drill and game’ format. This lesson model typically relies
upon the direct teaching of new skills in isolation, followed by a drill to practice the new skill via repetition, and then
concludes with a game (or modification thereof) to apply the skill in context. This form of PE instruction largely revolves
around direct-instruction teaching strategies. Unfortunately, many pre-service and experienced teachers consider direct
instruction to be a ‘poor’ teaching approach, as opposed to ‘good’ constructivist teaching approaches. The evidence is,
however, quite to the contrary. Hattie’s (2009) synthesis of meta-analyses found that direct instruction (done well) is one
of the most effective teaching strategies, and is associated with improved student achievement. The use of direct
instruction as a teaching strategy in physical education is no exception. In fact, some of the most evidence-based physical
education curricula have been based on direct-instruction teaching methods, and controlled trial studies of these have
demonstrated improved FMS within primary schools (Dudley et al., 2011).
According to Hattie (2009), direct instruction is frequently and incorrectly confused with teacher-led ‘talking from
the front of the class’-style teaching, whereas, in contrast, it can in fact be used to create a very powerful physical
education lesson that will improve movement-skill development in your students. Direct instruction involves seven major
components, as follows:
1. Before the lesson, be prepared and have a clear focus on what the learning intentions or lesson
outcomes are. These should match both student and curricular needs, as discussed above.
2. The teacher needs to know what the success criteria of FMS proficiency are, and how people learn. The
success criteria should be communicated to your students.
3. There is a need to build in a ‘hook’ to capture students’ attention and commitment. The aim here is to put
your students in a receptive frame of mind while also focusing their attention on the lesson, and, as a
teacher, to be able to share your learning intentions and lesson outcomes with students. (Note that this
requires more than simply playing a game at the end of class. In these cases, the game at the end of the
lesson is quite often a sort of ‘bribe’ to control student behavior throughout what is an otherwise didactic
PE lesson.)
4. There are aspects of best practice that relate to direct instruction. These include inputs, modelling and
checking for understanding:
 Input is the method of providing information. It is essentially the medium used to teach your
students to gain the FMS. This might include pictures, video or diagrams.
 Modelling refers to when the teacher (or a student who is proficient) shows the class examples of
what is expected. Many classroom primary teachers are reluctant to demonstrate these skills if
they are not proficient in them themselves. If this is the case, identifying other students, parents
or staff members to assist in modelling is perfectly acceptable. The important aspect, from a
teaching point of view, is that the critical aspects of the skill are labelled (using appropriate meta-
language), categorized (e.g. locomotor, stability, manipulative/object-control) and compared with
examples and non-examples of proficient movement.
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DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

 Checking for understanding is the teacher continuously validating that students are learning what
is being taught while it is being taught. It provides the teacher the chance to move learning
forward based on student responses throughout the learning process.
5. Direct instruction will also involve a ‘drill’ or session of guided practice. This provides an opportunity for
students to demonstrate their proficiency of the FMS under the direct supervision of the teacher. It should
involve the teacher ascertaining levels of proficiency, giving positive and meaningful feedback, and
identifying those who require additional assistance or instruction. Remember that the adage ‘practice
makes perfect’ is untrue; only ‘perfect practice makes perfect’.
6. Following a drill or session of guided practice, most physical education lessons conclude with a game (or
modification thereof). This is a time of independent and cooperative practice, and it can be done once
students have started to master the skill. The game becomes an important way to apply learnt skills in
context. The teacher should grasp the need for these games to cover enough different sporting contexts
that the skill may be applied to any relevant situation. The game(s) should never be limited to the situation
in which the skill was originally learnt.
7. All physical education lessons need closure and a means whereby the teacher can demonstrate or make
statements to bring the lesson to a conclusion. Students are thereby helped in bringing together in their
own minds what they have learned. Concluding a lesson with a simple ‘Are there any questions?’ will not
provide closure to the lesson. Lesson closure involves reviewing the key learning points and tying them
together in a relevant context related to the following questions:
 What skills were learnt?
 How were they applied?
 Why are they important?

The message from the evidence on direct instruction is that its efficacy is based on its strategy of stating the
success criteria, and then moving students towards these. Teachers need to invite their students to learn while
concurrently providing numerous opportunities for the learning of skills, as well as lots of teacher and student modelling,
deliberate practice and appropriate feedback (Hattie, 2009).

How will we know when students have learned FMS?

There are numerous ways of assessing proficiency in FMS. FMS assessments will generally be one of two types:
1. process-orientated: a sliding measure score is given according to the level of proficiency achieved within
a descriptive criterion
2. product-orientated: pass/fail, based on descriptive criteria
Obviously, process-orientated assessments of FMS are preferable to product-orientated assessments, because
the former are more accurate in identifying specific topographical aspects of movement patterns (Ulrich, 1987). However,
process-orientated assessments may also be over-prescriptive in describing what constitutes skill proficiency, regardless
of whether skill execution is indeed successful in context.
Assessing FMS should be conducted throughout (i.e. before, during and after) your HPE program, and not simply
at its conclusion. Only by conducting pre-program assessment can teachers identify specific FMS learning needs. By
frequently interweaving further assessments into the program, they able to receive the feedback necessary to inform
future teaching instruction decisions for any particular student. The need to be continuously (both formative and
summative) assessing FMS cannot be overstated if one is seeking to truly capture the level of FMS proficiency and the
level of development achieved.

THE LIMITATIONS IN ASSESSING FMS

The debate over what constitutes a fundamental movement skill, or even the execution of one, is not surprising
given the sheer number of FMS tests available and the diverse criteria on which these are based. There may also be
differences in the ability of different genders to perform certain tasks within any given test; this has been demonstrated in
studies showing that girls typically perform better in balancing and rhythmic tasks, while boys more typically excel in tasks
that involve running, jumping, kicking and throwing (Gabbard, 2004; Garcia, 1994).
Furthermore, many FMS assessments involve skills being performed in isolation – that is, outside the context of
the game or sport in which they will later be executed. This creates a ‘test-tube’ environment in which FMS have been
performed, but this may not necessarily be indicative of the actual level of FMS competence needed to achieve success in
a competitive or recreational environment.
However, the weight of evidence linking FMS to lifelong physical activity behavior cannot be ignored (see Barnett
et al., 2009; Wrotniak et al., 2006). A focus on FMS is a persistent theme in all of the other physical education models that
we review in this chapter, and FMS should not be excluded or undervalued. The models we describe will demonstrate
some of the encouraging teaching strategies and pedagogical models that may be employed when you are teaching so as
to make FMS meaningful, relevant and achievable.
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HIMAMAYLAN CITY CAMPUS
Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental

DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

CONCLUSIONS ON TEACHING FMS USING A TRADITIONAL PHYSICAL EDUCATION

INSTRUCTION MODEL
As demonstrated in the discussion so far, the traditional physical education instruction model can be highly
effective in developing FMS when it is implemented using proven direct-instruction techniques. However, probably the
strongest aspect of this model is the amount of control it affords a teacher in controlling classroom behavior. According to
Mawer (1995), a regimented structure gives the teacher of a physical education lesson sufficient control and discipline of
the class. Control and discipline are seen as essential foundations of teaching physical education, and only when they
have been established can a teacher move on to teaching and enjoyment; without these two foundations, there can only
be chaos and potential danger (Mawer, 1995). Furthermore, most practicing teachers will also recall this teaching strategy
as the predominant physical education discourse during their own years of formative education, and therefore often resort
to it due to its familiarity.
Focusing on skills and drills in isolation in this way, and only finishing a lesson with a game is an approach at
odds with supporters who advocate that it is important to use play as a means of attending to the interests of children
during a physical education class (Quay & Peters, 2008). As highlighted in the models of play described in the seminal
work of Csikszentmihalyi and Bennett (1971), gameplay holds greater meaning (both psychological and social) than
involvement in skill and drills sessions. It can inculcate not only the physical skill but also many cognitive and affective
aspects of learning. While a FMS- or skills-driven session requires an individual to perform in relation to particular skill
benchmarks, games are largely social practices (Quay & Peters, 2008). Therefore, the individually focused situations of
skill-based physical education lessons may actually marginalize students, even going so far as to blatantly rank them in
‘can’ and ‘cannot’ groups which seem, for many students, to have little connection with life beyond the lesson.

MODELS-BASED PRACTICE IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION

A models-based approach has been proposed as a means of overcoming some of the limitations and concerns of
traditional approaches to physical education (Kirk, 2013). One of the difficulties of models-based approaches is that they
are considered to be pedagogically difficult, and to require a high degree of discipline and theoretical knowledge in
teachers if they are to be enacted effectively (Dudley & Baxter, 2009, 2013; Randall, 2003). Teachers have also sought to
use models-based approaches to achieve diverse, and sometimes competing, educational benefits (Kirk, 2013).
Effective models-based approaches can be incorporated into teaching practices more effectively by limiting the
range of learning outcomes, subject matter and teaching strategies to those that are appropriate to each pedagogical
model (Kirk, 2013). This section examines two well-established pedagogical models: teaching games for understanding,
or TGFU (or games-centered approaches) and sport education. Although the information provided will furnish a teacher
with sufficient information to use the models, as you read, you should ask yourself some important questions:
1. What are my students’ learning needs at this time?
2. Does the model I am using cater to those needs?
3. How do I make modifications to my teaching and use of pedagogical models based on evaluation of the
effect that my teaching is having?
Keep these in mind as you undertake the learning tasks in the following section.

TEACHING THINKING PLAYERS: USING GAMES-CENTERED APPROACHES

Some of the earliest research to be critical of the tradition of direct-instruction models in physical education was
conducted by British researchers David Bunker and Rod Thorpe in 1982. They discovered that physical education lessons
generally consisted of extremely organized and overly structured lessons that relied far too heavily on the teaching of
techniques in isolation. In worst-case scenarios, many physical education lessons relied on students to sustain their own
interest in the game. It was the belief of Bunker and Thorpe that these approaches to physical education have led to:
 very little individual student success due to an overemphasis on performance (i.e. ‘just doing stuff’)
 very few students leaving their physical education curriculum experiences ‘knowing’ about the games
they have participated in
 students with very little plasticity in terms of technique and who possess poor decision-making skills
 students who are very dependent on their teachers in order to learn
As we saw earlier in this chapter, a significant amount of time is spent playing games within a primary HPE
program; it is therefore startling that little attention is given to the many possible ways in which games can be taught.
According to Bunker and Thorpe (1982), traditional physical education pedagogy tended to focus on specific FMS
responses (i.e. techniques), and therefore failed to accommodate the contextual and cognitive challenges presented in
games, such as ‘what to do’ and ‘how it is done’. An example of the contrast between games-centered approaches and
traditional approaches to physical education is that it is usual to teach a proposed reaction before students have
understood the importance of the skill. Take the serve in tennis, for example. It is used to commence play and move the
opponent out of position on the court. But many students are excluded from playing, because the skill is one of the most
complicated to execute in sport. Teachers’ inclination is often to teach the ‘how’ before teaching the ‘why’. It is the belief of
Bunker and Thorpe that if the focus shifts to the decisions or tactical considerations that need to be made in a game,
students will appreciate that games can be stimulating, and therefore enjoyable. In their later articulation of the TGFU
model, Bunker and Thorpe (1986) stated that the goal is to teach your students to make correct decisions based on
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DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

tactical awareness of the game in context. Your students should then start to see the relevance of specific skills and
sequences of skills as they are required in specific game situations. This is in stark contrast to the classic reaction to a
physical education lesson based on the teaching of techniques, which could be described as, ‘When can we play a
game?’ This approach should instead produce the response, ‘How can we do it?’ Hence, students will understand the
tactical necessity of improving their specific techniques, as required in particular game situations (Bunker & Thorpe,
1986).
Before we introduce in detail the games-centered approach to instruction, it is worthwhile to note that this model is
found in HPE curricula in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the US, but has been adapted into many different
forms across these countries; it may therefore also be known as any of the following:
 Games sense approach
 Play practice approach
 Games concept approach
 Games-centered learning
 Tactical strategy
The name given to this approach in your specific curriculum and literature is unimportant. What is important is that
all of these models – even though they may change slightly based upon specific interpretations, contexts and educative
agendas – are derivatives of the original TGFU model of Bunker and Thorpe (1982).

GAMES-CENTERED APPROACHES BASED ON THE TEACHING GAMES FOR

UNDERSTANDING (TGFU) CURRICULUM INSTRUCTION MODEL
According to Quay and Peters (2008), stimulating our students to find solutions to problems is an essential feature
of using a games-centered approach to physical education. Within a games-centered approach to physical education –
and the teaching games for understanding (TGFU) instruction model more specifically – students are confronted with
problems that relate to how to better their own and their team’s performance. Unlike in the traditional direct-instruction
approach, the tactical impetus and structure of gameplay is the pedagogical driver of learning. Bunker and Thorpe’s
(1982) TGFU model, which sparked the wider games-centered approach pedagogy, was constructed due to the authors’
identification with rising displeasure with technique-driven pedagogy.
In order to excel in a games-centered approach, students and teachers need to focus on broader questions than
those that may traditionally be explored in direct-instruction models. These questions may include, ‘What does the team
need to do, and what do I need to do in order to succeed in this game?’ (Bunker & Thorpe, 1982; 1986). Furthermore,
Bunker and Thorpe stress the notion of the ‘team’ and the ‘game’, but also the need to inspire students to think about their
team and individual tactics, and to reflect on the strategies they use in playing the game as a team. The concepts of
strategies (i.e. overall plan) and tactics (i.e. the means of achieving the objective) require investigation. It is important to
clarify for students the significance of these concepts and to present other opportunities to teach the meta-language of
games.
Bunker and Thorpe (1982) first described their substitute pedagogical model as an ‘understanding approach’ to
physical education, an expression that advanced into the pedagogical model we know today as TGFU. This label has
been the impetus for the wider games-centered approach. In order to properly understand the TGFU model, teachers
must first understand the six basic phases of the model. These are:
1. Game
2. Game appreciation
3. Tactical awareness
4. Making appropriate decisions
5. Skill execution
6. Performance
In the TGFU model, the learner is central to the model, and that their interaction is with the ‘game’, which forever
evolves as the instruction passes through its six steps. This is significant because in order to attend to the learning
interests of children, this approach emphasizes the ‘student-centeredness’ of this approach to learning.
Let’s now examine each of the steps in the TGFU model, bearing in mind that chronological progression through
the steps of the model is pedagogically critical:
 Step 1: The Game:
Participation in the full version of a particular sport can always remain a long-term goal and act as
a guideline for the teacher. However, in primary school especially, you need to introduce your students to
a wide range of game forms in each games classification category. In doing so, teachers can, and should,
pay careful consideration to the area of play, the numbers of students to be involved and the equipment
being used to present students with the problems involved in playing games (Bunker & Thorpe). As a
general rule, games-based activities should be started at as simple a level as possible.
 Step 2: Game Appreciation:
Giving students the rules of a game from the outset acts as the primary cognitive activator. The
importance of this step cannot be overstated. Teachers should immediately pose questions and highlight
limitations of the game for their students. Remember that it is the rules that give a game its shape. Rules
that we intentionally leave out will alter not only the game but also the questions and thinking that need to
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DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

take place in relation to it in order to achieve success (Bunker & Thorpe). When deciding on the rules of
the games that you teach, the following list can be used as a template to ensure that the game will have
the necessary structure for later cognitive and skill development to occur. The four considerations for
rules are:
1. The modalities of scoring: What is the game’s target, and what are the skills needed in order to
score?
2. The players’ rights: What offensive and defensive rights are players entitled to? (These are based
on the modalities of scoring, which define those rights with respect to the equality of chances to
score.)
3. The liberty of action: What rights do players have with the ball that give the game a specific
character?
4. The modalities of physical engagement: What rules ensure the respect of the three previous
rules? (Gréhaigne, Richard & Griffin, 2005: 4)
The rules of a game will additionally place constraints on the game’s time and space, state how points are
scored and, most importantly, determine the skill sets required to participate. It needs to be acknowledged,
therefore, that modifications to the rules of a game will have implications for team strategy, and hence for the
tactics that need to be employed to achieve success.
 Step 3: Tactical awareness:
Students should commence playing the game at this stage. After students have been given some
understanding of the rules (and even explored any flaws in them), it is necessary for students to consider
the tactics that they will choose to employ, and those that they could employ, in the game. The principles
of play, which are common to all games, form the basis for a tactical approach to the game. Some
examples of this include having students examine the ways and means of creating or denying space, or
asking them to think about ways to achieve more penetration as a result of practicing fast-break attacks.
There is always a need to have students understand that game plans do not always work, and their
tactics must therefore be changed to meet the needs of the game in the moment (Bunker & Thorpe,
1982).
It should be added that tactical awareness leads to students being able to recognize their
opponents’ weaknesses (e.g. a poor backhand, premature challenging for possession, a reluctance to
catch a high ball). However, this approach should not be allowed to destroy the game experience. If it is
observed, the teacher may see it as an indicator that a modification of the game is needed in order to
restore competitive balance. The reason for this is that healthy competition is essential for learning to
occur in all games-centered approaches to physical education.
 Stage 4: Making appropriate decisions:
This step involves using effective questioning to ‘drill down’ and establish deep understanding of
games. Depending on a student’s stage of learning, it may take them only a fraction of a second to make
a decision between the ‘what’ and the ‘how’. But these decisions are significant. In the games-centered
approach, a distinction is made between decisions that are based upon the questions of what to do and
decisions based upon the question of how to do it. The use of the following questions permits both
student and teacher to recognize, and to understand reasons for, the consequences of their decision-
making process:
a. ‘What to do?’ It is in the very nature of games for circumstances to continuously change.
Therefore, tactical awareness is necessary if a student is going to make successful decisions
during a game. In deciding ‘what to do’, each game condition has to be assessed; as such, as
teachers we are looking for a student’s ability to recognize critical game cues, and to predict, and
even anticipate, possible outcomes of the decisions they make. An example is if a student attacks
space near the goal in an invasion game, but fails to balance this with the increased risk of losing
possession. The cues for when the student should and should not attack space need to be
recognized in the first place.
b. ‘How to do it?’ The second half of this equation for students to solve is, ‘What is the best way to
do it?’ The selection and execution of an appropriate response is critical to the learning outcomes
in HPE. An example is when, in an invasion game, a large space has been made available by the
opposition, but the time available to exploit this is limited. In this instance, a quickly executed
response may be the most appropriate. In a contrary situation, when ample time is available and
accuracy is paramount, some element of controlled execution may be necessary (Bunker &
Thorpe, 1982).
 Stage 5: Skill execution:
During the skill execution stage, teaching movement skills remains significant. Skill execution
describes the necessary production of the movement skills required in the game, as foreseen by the
teacher. This needs to be seen in the context of the student, by recognizing the student’s own constraints.
Execution must be viewed as separate from performance. That does not preclude execution from
assessment, though. Bunker and Thorpe suggest that this may even include some quantitative or
qualitative determination of both the mechanical efficiency of the movement and its relevance to the
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DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

particular game situation. A good example is a student performing a drop shot in tennis. If there is
appropriate racquet-head speed and a good angle of contact to put the ball well in front of the student’s
opponent, this may be seen as an excellent shot even if the ball fails to reach the net of the full-sized
court due to a lack of strength and/or technical development. Skill execution is therefore always seen in
the context of the student and the game.
 Stage 6: Performance:
According to Bunker and Thorpe, performance is the observed learning outcome of all the earlier
processes, measured against criteria that are independent of the student. It is a mechanism through
which teachers determine whether a student is competent or not yet competent. This determination
largely depends on curricular outcomes, and there should be a measuring of appropriateness of response
as well as efficiency of technique.

To summarize, the games-centered approach, and the TGFU model more specifically, start, unlike traditional
physical education teaching models, with a game and its rules (Bunker & Thorpe, 1986). This sets the landscape for
progress in the cognitive domains of games, which include tactical awareness and decision making. These always come
in advance of the physical elements of skill execution and performance. Successful accomplishment of the steps outlined
above will require the teacher to again modify the game, as well as carry out a considered evaluation of the necessities of
any new game. The cycle then begins again. While students may be preoccupied with any one element of the model at
any given time, the games-centered approach will always occur in the context of a game, with the result that many
students will ultimately experience at least some of the pleasure associated with being a skillful player (Bunker & Thorpe,
1986).

CONCLUSIONS ON ADOPTING A GAMES-CENTRED APPROACH TO TEACHING

The original games-centered approach model (i.e. TGFU) not only considers strategy but also places an
emphasis on skill execution, attest Werner and Thorpe (1996: 29), ‘but only after a student sees the need for a particular
skill’. TGFU presents a more realistic view of what games are about – teamwork, communication, decision making, rules,
and so on – rather than focusing on the technical execution of skills in isolation from the context of a game, which is
where they find meaning. In the hands of a skilled teacher, this removes the clinical, ‘test-tube’ aspect of FMS instruction
and assessment, and creates an authentic and meaningful learning and assessment. The games-centered approach can
allow a teacher to take on the role of facilitator, so that players take on more responsibility for their own development and
learning. This develops critical-thinking players who can solve problems that arise in a game situation through tactical
awareness and understanding. Probably the strongest argument for adopting TGFU in your teaching practice is that it
allows your lessons to cater for variations in student ability. Proficient students will find even the simplest tactical or skilled
games engaging, and while they continue to play, you, as teacher, can target those students who need additional
instruction (Werner & Thorpe, 1996). TGFU is, however, a very difficult pedagogical process. Research has shown that
pre-service teachers struggle to comprehend and execute TGFU in practice and theory (Dudley & Baxter, 2009; Randall,
2003). This is also the case with the possession of deep conceptual understandings of TGFU: a study of 150 pre-service
teachers found less than eight per cent of them to be capable of dealing with more than one predominant concept of
TGFU at any given time. Furthermore, less than two per cent of respondents could synthesize the underpinning concepts
of TGFU, thereby exhibiting relational or formal understandings of the curriculum method (Dudley and Baxter, 2009). It is
therefore imperative that when using this model, adequate professional development and guided practice support your
teaching.

EXPLORING THE CONTEXT AND CULTURE OF SPORT USING THE SPORT EDUCATION
MODEL
There is a strong body of thought among scholars and teachers alike that participation in sports and games brings
more than just physical and health benefits. Schirato (2007) argues that sport played a central, civilizing role in every
culture on the planet, and it is safe to assume that sport is central to the culture and citizenship in every country to this
day. This is, at least in part, because sport embodies certain cultural values that particular cultures wish to transmit to
future generations. Furthermore, sport practices will, and must, evolve. Indeed, they are always evolving – and not
necessarily for the better. Sport practices can be as destructive as they are constructive, and can even contribute to the
demise of a culture through the spread of values that are hostile to a free, enlightened and progressive society.
You likely realize by now that there is a common fallacy related to sport and learning, one that says that children
will turn into great citizens if they experience significant exposure to sporting competition. Much of the ongoing
perpetuation of this fallacy can be attributed to the 19th- century headmaster of the elite Rugby School in England,
Thomas Arnold, who instigated the philosophy that if boys experienced sporting competition, it would (seemingly
automatically) give them the qualities of character needed to be honorable and righteous citizens (Elias, 2000).
But playing sport was not the only way to reap potential character rewards from it. As we know, sport evolved
from undisciplined, chaotic and violent games (Carter, 1985; Elias, 2000), and these are not the types of qualities that we
wish to perpetuate in our societies. Numerous other roles, such as those related to leadership, officiating and
administrative duties, need to be filled, and these can be equally, if not more, character-influencing experiences than
playing sport, and contribute to the culture of sporting pursuits. A properly conceived and conducted physical education
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DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

curriculum model can teach important qualities of character through sporting experiences, but these qualities do not come
automatically, and poorly conducted sport can also teach many negative qualities.

THE SPORT EDUCATION MODEL OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Sport education is a model of physical education that is designed to provide authentic, educationally rich sport
experiences for students. It was introduced by Daryl Siedentop in 1984, and has since been adapted and implemented
into countless physical education curricula and programs around the world. Essentially, it asks students to participate, as
members of teams, in ‘seasons’ that are longer than the usual physical education unit. They take an active role in their
own sporting experience by serving in a range of ‘real-world’ roles that we commonly see in sport settings. Teams develop
camaraderie through constructing their own team uniforms, names and team songs as they work together to learn and
develop their collective team skill, tactics and strategic play (Siedentop, 1994). It should be noted that sport education has
an important curriculum-planning implication, in that it cannot be fitted easily into a brief unit or multi-activity program.
Sport education also has important instructional implications, in that its purposes are best achieved through combinations
of other teaching strategies and models. These can include a combination of direct instruction, cooperative small-group
work and peer teaching. It does not survive on a total reliance on didactic and traditional skill- and drill-oriented teaching
methods. The sport education curriculum instruction model, therefore, has three primary goals: it seeks to help students to
become competent, literate, and enthusiastic sportspeople (Siedentop, 1994). These qualities are explained further below.
 Competent Sportspeople
Have sufficiently developed skills and games understanding and can execute strategies
appropriate to the complexity of play so as to be able to participate as a knowledgeable games player.
Much like TGFU, sport education emphasizes strategic play rather than isolated skill development. Small-
sided games are often used to teach gradually more complex skills and strategies concurrently.
 Literate Sportspeople
Understand the rules, rituals, and traditions of sport and value these through behaviors. Students
have learned to distinguish between good and bad sporting practices. Furthermore, they are developing
the inclination to act on that knowledge to improve their practice of sport. Such people are in short supply
in the larger adult sport culture, and this goal represents the most optimistic long-term outcome for
students who experience sport education.
 Enthusiastic Sportspeople
Participate in sport as part of a physically active lifestyle and act in ways that serve to preserve,
protect and enhance their sport culture to make sport more accessible to more individuals.

Supporters of sport education models are very fond of its student-centered approach to physical education.
Primary teachers using this model report producing better learning outcomes in the knowledge of game rules and
strategy, values and attitudes towards physical education, student–student cooperation and peer interaction among
students (Alexander & Luckman, 2001). These same teachers report that this model caters very well to highly skilled, less
active and female students. Furthermore, the adoption of the various sporting roles by students allows for the collection of
authentic assessment. Teachers report having enough time to conduct assessment and discuss with students the
success criteria used within the unit of work (Alexander & Luckman, 2001).
As with TGFU, limitations in the effectiveness of sport education as a curriculum instruction model in physical
education are evident. It is a difficult pedagogical process that many pre-service teachers struggle with conceptually
(Dudley & Baxter, 2009; Curtner-Smith & Sofo, 2004). Ennis (1996) also questions whether sport should be included in
any HPE curriculum, given that it is discriminatory based on gender and that female students generally do not receive
enough attention or instruction to make the teaching of sport meaningful.
Furthermore, as mentioned earlier in this chapter, FMS development still represents the major aim of HPE
curricula in most developed countries. According to Alexander and Luckman (2001), it appears that when primary
teachers use a sport education model in HPE programs, FMS are less achievable. However, skilled sport education
teachers have shown that if students are given significant amounts of time in gameplay, and if explicit skill instruction is
used within the sport education program, increases in FMS development are possible (Hastie, 1998; Hastie & Trost,
2001).
While advocates of sport education say that it caters for all students, it should be remembered that we do not
want to exclude more marginalized students in our physical education classes (i.e. less active and female students).
Some criticism of sport education points out that these students tend to fall into the less dominant and/or administrative
roles within the lessons (e.g. manager, score-keeper, statistician, equipment officer, publicist) as opposed to those roles
considered more dominant, like captain or coach (Hastie, 1998).

TEACHING PERSONAL AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY THROUGH PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

(TPSR)
This section explores the teaching personal and social responsibility through physical education (TPSR) model,
which was first proposed by Professor Don Hellison in 1983. The ultimate aim of this model is to help students to develop
themselves as people, learning to be responsible for the ways that they conduct themselves and treat other people.
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DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Physical activity is used as a vehicle for teaching students various life skills that they can practise in the HPE classroom
and then transfer into other settings, such as wider school, the local community and home life (Hellison, 2011).

What is the TPSR model?

TPSR is an empowerment-based physical education model that was developed through Hellison’s extensive
fieldwork with young people living in low socioeconomic areas in large urban centers. TPSR aims to teach students life
skills related to the themes of personal and social responsibility by using physical activity as the learning medium. The
core goals for students are to build respect for the rights and feelings of others, as well as build self-motivation, self-
direction and caring. The goal of the TPSR model is for a student to be able to transfer these other goals they have
achieved to areas of their lives outside the HPE classroom (Hellison, 2011).
At its core, TPSR aims to guide teachers in using physical activities to help their students to take more
responsibility for their wellbeing and be more sensitive and responsive to the wellbeing of others. According to Hellison
(2011), the four core values of the TPSR approach are encouraging:
 putting students first
 human decency
 holistic self-development
 a way of being

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
Physical-activity settings in schools often present a unique climate for character development because they are
emotional spaces that provide seemingly unlimited opportunities for intervention in social and moral dilemmas – not to
mention that, for many children, they are fun.
Despite this apparent opportunity for the development of character, many teachers, and the systems that serve
them, believe that personal and social attributes accrue automatically as a result of mere regular participation in these
activities. Worse still is if teachers or systems define students merely according to their ‘physical being’ – in other words,
suggesting that a student’s athletic ability alone warrants pass or failure, regardless of the process undertaken to achieve
that given state. It is common for students who are gifted athletes to be given social ‘exemptions’ for flaws in character
such as lack of humility or manners, as if their ‘physical being’ were the only thing worthy of judgement.
TPSR builds on the plethora of research associated with character development through physical activity and
sport. Following is a list of some terms that are commonly found in the educational literature pertaining to this field:
 Character development
 Moral development
 Cooperation
 Sportsmanship
 Social responsibility

SOCIAL PROBLEMS
There are two dominant perspectives in the field of social pathology: the social problems perspective and the
social responsibility perspective. These are similar in that they both detail different theories about social problems;
however, they vary greatly in the way in which they feel these problems have occurred. The social problems perspective
states that social problems are the result of society not providing enough assistance. On the other hand, the social
responsibility perspective states that each person is responsible for their own actions, and that the choices each person
make are made of their own free will, and so they are entirely responsible for their actions.
The TPSR model was developed as a means of teaching responsibility to students (Hellison, 2011). It does this
by giving students gradually increasing quantities of responsibility, and by judiciously shifting decision-making
responsibilities to students. It therefore emphasizes increasing levels of effort and self-direction as being crucial to the
attainment of personal wellbeing. Students are expected to be able to respect the rights of others, consider the feelings of
others and care about others. These elements are all vital to the realization of social wellbeing.
Having said that, even Hellison (2011) recognizes that TPSR is no silver bullet for the social problems faced in
today’s society. It is, however, intended to be one small part of larger societal response to these issues.

TEACHING VALUES AND ATTITUDES

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO, 2010), the values
and attitudes by which we live directly affect how we relate to other people and, by extension, how we relate to all our
activities in the lived environment. It is for this reason that our values and attitudes are a major influence on our prospects
for achieving a sustainable future for all of humanity.
Although they cannot be separated from an individual’s cognitive understanding, values and attitudes relate to the
affective learning domain of human behavior and development. While values and attitudes are similar in this regard, they
differ in several other important ways.
Values are generally considered to be long-term principles or benchmarks that are used to judge the worth of our
behavior or an idea. They provide the criteria by which we decide whether something is good or bad, right or wrong.
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DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Attitudes, on the other hand, influence us in the way that we respond to people and events. They are not as inculcated as
values, and as a result, they are prone to change as a result of our experience.
Physical activities present children and individuals with all manner of situations in which their values and attitudes
will be tested. A common example is the question of to what extent winning matters – to what lengths is an individual is
willing to go, and what social ramifications they are willing to accept, in the name of winning a game or an event? The
challenge for us as teachers is to develop pedagogical principles for dealing with values- and attitudes-laden issues in an
ethical and professionally responsible way. Our teaching should, therefore, aim to provide a positive and optimistic
approach to the pedagogy of these issues, and place an emphasis on the use of critical thinking skills (UNESCO, 2010).
Hellison (2011) states that cultivating this decision-making process needs to involve giving your students the
opportunity to share their beliefs and knowledge, and to test these ideas in the controlled medium of an HPE class.

THE TAXONOMY OF THE TPSR MODEL

Hellison (2011) places the attainment of the aforementioned outcomes in an evolution of levels, the goal of which
is to aid teachers and their students to become conscious of their behavior and concentrate their efforts as they move
towards desired learning and behavioral outcomes. Hellison (2011) encourages teachers to use these levels, which are
shown below, as a structure to assist in their planning, teaching and evaluation of student learning. The TPSR model is
best seen as a taxonomy that describes student behavior in physical education as moving from irresponsibility to
responsibility, and from respect for oneself to respect and concern for others (Hellison, 2011).

TEACHING STRATEGIES THAT CAN BE USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE TPSR MODEL
Six specific teaching strategies have been identified in the literature as contributing to the development of
responsibility: awareness, experience, choice, problem solving, self-reflection and counselling time (Hellison & Templin,
1991; Lavay, French & Henderson, 1997). Explicitly teaching an awareness of the goals within the TPSR model is
fundamental to the success of an HPE program that incorporates this approach. Teachers can leverage any available
opportunities to help students to learn about the model and its different levels. These may occur at the beginning of class
or during any other teachable moment. Teachers can plan explicit level-related activities and then ask their students to
share their understandings of each of the different levels.
Experiencing different levels of the model is also very important. Teachers can design opportunities by prudently
selecting activities that stimulate teamwork and inclusion (at Level 1) and by presenting a learning experience that helps
students to realize the connection between their effort and the relevant behavioral outcomes (at Level 2). At Level 3, using
different teaching techniques can offer prospects for students to work autonomously during class, or to make learning-
related choices about a task. At Level 4, we expect students to help others, in order to support the development of self
and group responsibility.
Structured choice is a vital component of each level. Students who impede the rights of others can choose to
either wait out the activity or change their behavior accordingly in Level 1. As students move to Level 2, they can be
permitted to select their own level of effort, providing their effort (or lack thereof) does not negatively affect the
participation and performance of other students during the lesson. Structured choices at Level 3 may include students
selecting to work on activities associated with their personal goals or partaking in teacher-directed activities. Level 4 offers
students the opportunity to choose to assist others in the class, and to learn about and participate in physical activities
(Hellison, 2011).
Knowledge application requires problem solving. Robert Marzano’s (1998) synthesis of research revealed that
problem solving had a large effect (d=0.54) on students’ understanding. Marzano demonstrated that problems should
require students to apply previously learned knowledge and skills; Hattie’s (2009) meta-analysis agrees. Hattie also
 West Visayas State University
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DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

emphasizes the importance of teaching students how to solve problems. Put simply, students first need to understand the
problem. They then need to come up with a plan of action to address it, then implement the plan and, finally, review the
results. Level 1 students may learn how to deal with name-calling behaviour or examine other types of conflict that arise in
the classroom that need to be negotiated. Level 2 students may grapple with issues of poor motivation, while at Level 3,
students may speak to difficulties they confront in trying to be self-directed learners. Level 4 students often find
themselves learning to dealing with peer pressure (Hellison, 2011).
The strategy of self-reflection is about encouraging students’ personal growth. Students can reflect on what they
did during a class and how it made them feel in relation to each of the levels. Reflection may also occur through writing a
journal, completing a checklist or participating in a discussion about an activity or about behaviors that were exhibited
during class.
Counselling time is needed to address specific problems with a teacher’s observation of students in relation to
levels. This needs to be done so that students can reflect on their behavior both within and outside the HPE setting. This
could be completed for some students during pre-class activities, while others may require more independent time, or
even counselling time outside of class.
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DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

REFLECTION
Imagine that you are back in the time when you were in elementary. Write a one-page reflection highlighting what you
remember from your PE lessons. Write about your feelings, how you were taught and the relevance of PE in your life at
that stage.
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DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. What are the three categories of fundamental movement skills (FMS)? Identify two skills that fall into each
category. Then write a list of key teaching points for each of these skills.
2. What are the hierarchical levels of the teaching personal and social responsibility (TPSR) model? Describe a
student behavior that you would expect to see in a student at each level of this model, based on a specific
physical activity context.
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Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental

DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

MOVING FOR LIFE: EXPERIENCE AND EXPRESSION

Once you have read this chapter, you should have:

1. explored opportunities for rhythmic and expressive movement that are taught through HPE
2. explored the experiential learning opportunities that HPE offers through outdoor and adventure experiences

OVERVIEW
This chapter challenges teachers to explore the wider educative purposes of physical education. To achieve this,
the chapter focuses on meaningful, expressive and lifelong movement experiences that can be gained through
gymnastics, dance, circus arts and outdoor adventure pursuits.
It explores the notion of experience-based education, first by examining gymnastics and dance. We then discuss
the circus arts, a popular hybrid of gymnastic and dance movements. Finally, an exploration of outdoor adventure pursuits
will introduce the stalwart educational philosophers from whom experience-based learning originated.

INTRODUCTION
Physical literacy has value because it fosters fundamental human movement ability. Broadly speaking, this is an
ability that has the potential to enhance and enrich the quality of our students’ lives. It is also a capability without which we
could not develop as human beings or use our other capabilities in concert (Almond, 2013). In this light, this chapter
explores a range of activities that can have great value in a child’s life and instill a commitment to a lifelong pursuit of
physical activity. Throughout the primary-school years, dance, circus arts and outdoor or adventure activities are
important education vehicles in your HPE program that allow children to extend their movement vocabulary, increase their
physical skills, improve and maintain all components of physical fitness, and learn about themselves and others. These
activities give children a strong sense of hand– eye coordination and physical confidence, while imparting lessons about
working with others. Dance, circus arts and adventure education are self-esteem boosters, and represent an amazing
opportunity to experience the wonders of physical activity beyond sporting contexts.

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING THEORY IN HPE

Experiential learning is a renowned model in education learning theory. Kolb defines experiential learning as: “the
process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience. Knowledge results from the
combination of grasping and transforming experience.”
Experiential learning is therefore both a philosophy and a methodology through which teachers purposefully
engage their students in direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase their students’ knowledge, skills and
values.
Kolb’s experiential learning theory presents a four-element learning cycle through which students need to pass.
The four elements of the cycle are as follows:
1. Concrete experience
2. Reflective observation
3. Abstract conceptualization
4. Active experimentation (Kolb, 1984).
Experiential learning has a long and important history in physical education, especially in outdoor education, and
so it makes sense to examine experiential learning in a HPE context. It begins with the learning experience, which is
always in the form of a movement. As the name suggests, students must first ‘experience’ movement before they can
learn from it. After the movement experience has occurred, students are afforded sufficient time (and even space) to
reflect on what the movement experience means. The goal of this process is for students to be able to draw deeper
meaning (even abstractly or metaphorically) from the movement experience. It is expected that this deeper understanding
and appreciation will further motivate the student to learn in this context. Because the model is cyclic, it involves concrete
components (steps 1 and 4) as well as conceptual components (steps 2 and 3). Each of these components requires
students to execute a variety of cognitive, social, physical and affective learning behaviors (Oxendine, Robinson &
Willson, 2010).
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EXPERIENCE-BASED LEARNING: ITS ESSENTIAL COMPONENTS AND WHY IT IS USED IN

PRIMARY SCHOOLS
According to Andersen, Boud and Cohen (2000), there should be a list of criteria that determine whether the
learning experience can be seen as having been experience-based learning. They state that for a learning experience to
be authentically experiential, the following features are required:
1. First, the objective of experience-based learning involves movement experiences that are personally
significant or meaningful to students.
2. Second, students are personally engaged.
3. Third, opportunities for reflective thought are available so that students can write about or discuss their
experiences. (This opportunity should be an ongoing process throughout the experiential learning
experience.)
4. Fourth, consistent with your understandings of constructed knowledge, the prior learning that a student
will bring to the process is considered.
5. Finally, teachers need to establish a sense of respect, trust and concern for the wellbeing of their
students (Anderson, Boud & Cohen, 2000).
Experiential learning is a powerful teaching tool. While classroom-based lessons can effectively address the
cognitive domain, experiential learning involves a whole-child-development mindset. This entails activating a child’s
cognitive, affective, social and physical learning domains (Oxendine, Robinson & Willson, 2010). The result is that
students can relate to the subject matter in a way that is meaningful to their own lives.
Furthermore, using experiential learning in your classroom offers an opportunity for transition from traditional
classroom practices and assessments, and it can activate learning for students with a variety of learning needs. Whether
students struggle or are high achievers within traditional classroom settings, most find themselves engaged by the wider
curriculum with the help of a project that draws from their own experiences.
Experiential learning tasks can help to build rapport between students and the teacher, because students are
sharing aspects of their own thoughts and decisions in a mutual learning environment. They are also incredibly effective at
inculcating a personal element of yourself, as the teacher, into the learning. This can be a valuable way for teachers to get
to know their students, and for students to collaborate with their teachers throughout their own individual learning
journeys.
The following sections explore rhythmic and expressive movement, along with outdoor and adventure activities,
all of which hold particularly strong links to experiential learning theory.

EXPLORING RHYTHMIC AND EXPRESSIVE MOVEMENT

This section examines how movement can be composed and performed in response to stimuli such as
equipment, beats and sounds, images, words and themes. Some of the activities within this context include creative
movements, styles of dance, and gymnastics. Primary-school children are expected to regularly engage in practical
learning experiences in each of these contexts during their primary education.

TEACHING DANCE
The teaching of dance in a primary-school context allows students to communicate through movement in a way
that strengthens their capacity to articulate and explore feelings through the physical self (Eisner, 1994; Koff, 2000;
McCutchen, 2006).
Contrary to the views of many, dance is not only for elite performers or available to children as an extra-curricular
pursuit. It is a misconception to view dance education as a method of professional training rather than as a learning area
of the HPE curriculum. In this context, dance becomes an experiential physical pursuit and art form that encompasses
artistic, aesthetic and cultural elements (Smith-Autard, 1994).

THE DEFINING CHARACTERISTICS OF DANCE EDUCATION

McCutchen (2006) identifies the defining characteristics of dance education as its being ‘comprehensive (broad in
scope), substantive (challenging and significant), sequential (ordered and incremental), aesthetically driven (seeking fine
quality), contextually coherent (relevant and related) and inquiry-based (participatory and investigative)’ (McCutchen,
2006: 8, cited in Stevens, 2010: 11).
These characteristics of dance, applied to a primary-school HPE program, are a way of enabling teachers to
explore the broad practice of dance with their students in challenging activities. These activities should allow your
students to associate, aesthetically and cognitively, with dance experiences. For dance to be an effective learning strategy
in HPE, students need to see its relevance (Hanna, 2008). One of the best ways to do this is to try to connect dance to the
social and cultural backgrounds of your students or link it to other areas of study (e.g. in History, to Philippine traditional
dances).
 West Visayas State University
HIMAMAYLAN CITY CAMPUS
Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental

DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

While dance has long been a part of physical education curricula in Australia, and is still included in the Australian
Curriculum: Health and Physical Education, critics might argue that curricula result in dance being taught with a
performance focus, meaning that students learn only set dances that are based on particular routines. But in an authentic
dance education program, this not need be the case.

TEACHING DANCE AUTHENTICALLY

Authentic learning tasks in dance require teachers to design meaningful activities that indicate a thoughtful
reflection of the physical and the artistic components of dance (Hagood, 2006; Hanna, 2008). These may include activities
that lead to the acquisition of meta-language associated with dance, which enables students to discuss and reflect on
their own dance experiences, and on those of their peers. Establishing a meta-language of dance is not only indicative of
quality teaching but also assists students to engage in inquiry-based learning, which adds depth to the conversations that
teachers and students have about dance experiences. Furthermore, this meta-language gives students the ability to read
dances that are common to their culture, as well as the capacity to meaningfully, substantively communicate their
understanding.

USING THE COMPOSITION ELEMENTS OF DANCE TO PLAN FOR DANCE EDUCATION

There are four elements of dance composition with which teachers should familiarize themselves in order to successfully
plan authentic dance education lessons: shape, timing, space and dynamics. These are discussed in the following
sections.
1. SHAPE
Shape is the structuring of the body and limbs into positions that change during the dance. (It should not be
confused with body type or figure.) Dance aims to teach the body to assume a range of different body shapes: straight,
curved or even angular contours.
Following are three concepts related to shape that you can explore with your students in dance:
 Levels: Dance movements are performed at different levels, and these are broadly described as being
high, middle or low (or vertical, horizontal or oblique). As the level of the dance changes, students need to
be able to support themselves using different parts of their body in order to create different dance effects.
 Symmetry: A symmetric body position is one that is matching on both sides of the body. It should look
and feel balanced and stable. A symmetric dance arrangement is one in which actions are mirrored. In an
asymmetric position or movement, on the other hand, the movement and position are different on the left-
and right-hand sides of the body.
 Scale: During a dance sequence, positions and movements can be performed on a scale ranging from
small to large. In small-scale dance movements, the arms, legs and torso are drawn inwards. These,
therefore, involve movements of contraction, flexion, folding and bending. In large-scale dance
movements, the body does the opposite, extending and stretching out to its fullest length (NAC, 2017).
2. TIMING
Timing refers to moving with the beats of music. However, having good timing means more than performing basic
steps in perfect time with musical beats. It takes a lot of practice for children (and adults, for that matter) to learn how the
mind and body actually feel the beats of the music. Again, here are three concepts that can be explored with your
students related to the concept of timing:
 Speed: Speed, or tempo, is generally explained with terms such as slow, medium or moderate, and fast
or high. It can also be described, in its musical form, as adagio (slow), moderato (moderate) and allegro
(fast). The tempo can also be described as being either steady or variable.
 Meter: In musical terminology, meter is the time signature. It refers to ‘the organization of beats into bars,
with strong accents on the downbeat followed by lighter accents’ (NAC, 2017). Basic time signatures and
metres include 2/4 (‘1, 2’), 3/4 (‘1, 2, 3’), 4/4 (‘1, 2, 3, 4’) and 6/8 (‘1 and a 2, and a … ’).
 Rhythm: Rhythm is the arrangement of sound according to duration and period for a specific musical
piece. It is essentially the alternation of strong and weak sound in the flow of the musical piece.
3. SPACE
Space refers to the patterns that the student follows in and through the designated performance area. Three
space concepts you can explore with your students are as follows:
 Geometric forms: These can range from the basic, such as straight lines or rows, to more interesting
shapes or paths, including zig-zag, square, curve, circle, figure-eight, in-out spiral, snake and even
random patterns (NAC, 2017). As well as the horizontal patterns conducted along the performance floor,
students can also explore vertical spaces through movements such as jumps and lifts.
 Symmetry: As discussed earlier, the body can be made to display degrees of symmetry or asymmetry, or
to evoke a sense of stability as opposed to imbalance. Students can be taught to manipulate this concept
to evoke dramatic effects.
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HIMAMAYLAN CITY CAMPUS
Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental

DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

 Scale: The scale of a dance can range from large to small. In order to determine this, students can make
use of the entire dance area or focus the activity in a relatively small area(s) (NAC, 2017).
4. DYNAMICS
Dynamics, or energy, is a multifaceted component of dance, in that it incorporates all the previously mentioned
elements. It is often described as the quality or aesthetic appeal of the dance. It is the ethereal factor, which adds
distinctiveness, abundance and power – the ‘X-factor’, if you will. Given the commentary earlier in this chapter about
authentic dance education, dynamics is also a critical component to be included when teaching dance to primary-school
children. Here are four concepts worth exploring when considering the dynamics or energy of dance:
 Weight: Weight reflects how the student actively uses the mass of their body. It is best understood by a
scale that moves from strong to light: ‘[a] strong action has the full mass of the body behind it. A light
action has the body moving in a lifted and rarefied way’ (NAC, 2017). Weight-related action words used in
dance curricula include force, power, delicacy and finesse.
 Time: This factor refers to the student’s attitude towards time on a continuum that moves from long and
sustained to rapid and sudden. This is not to be confused with time in the sense of chronology. It is
instead a sensation of having limitless time in which to complete a sustained dance movement or
experience, or a sense of an urgency to complete one all of a sudden. Time-related action words may
include terms like reveling versus rushing.
 Space: Space reflects how the student ‘moves in space on a continuum from direct to indirect’ (NAC,
2017). Direct actions take the shortest possible path between two points, whereas indirect actions detour
and meander en route (NAC, 2017). Space-related action terms may include unswerving and undeviating
versus round-about and circuitous.
 Flow: Flow is used to describe dance movements on a continuum that moves from free to bound. A
bound movement is ‘one of careful precision’; it is ‘highly controlled and can be stopped at any moment’
(NAC, 2017). A free movement proceeds as if it is unopposed and unrestrained. As a student’s flow
fluctuates in a dance, it produces oscillating movements, or vibratory-type motions. Flow-related action
terms may include constrained versus unconstrained and guarded versus uninhibited.

OUTDOOR AND ADVENTURE EDUCATION IN HPE

Outdoor education is often defined as experiential learning that is carried out in and about the outdoors. The term,
however, is more generally used to refer to a variety of organized activities that take place, in a range of ways, in mainly
outdoor environments. Outdoor education can also be referred to as adventure education, challenge education or
experiential education. The mark of outdoor education is its focus on the outdoor nature of the education.
The benefits of outdoor and adventure education are beginning to permeate evidence-based literature on the
topic. These include the development of interpersonal and intrapersonal skills through engagement in outdoor or
adventure activities. The benefits for the natural environment beyond individuals’ learning are less directly proven to date;
however, these could be stated as the development of more nurturing students and communities with an increased
environmental awareness and notion of environmental stewardship. The long-term effects of changing students’ mindsets
towards the environment are yet to be examined through longitudinal or causal research, but these benefits are evident in
the psychosocial, psychological and physical domains of learning. This is particularly the case with regard to the
development of self-efficacy, intellectual flexibility, personal skills and relationship-building skills. The benefits that result
from participating in outdoor or adventure activities are enabled through the provision of appropriate facilities and natural
resources, as well as through the design of programs that intentionally work towards particular learning objectives.
Physical education, and HPE more broadly, has historically prided itself on being a school subject in which the
goal is to educate the whole child. That is, HPE’s objectives pertain to a student’s mental, emotional and social wellbeing
as well as to their physical wellbeing. Holistic learning is at the very heart of outdoor education, and with this comes a
commitment to the natural environment and an awareness of the power that it can bring to the learning process (Boyes,
2000).
The use of outdoor and adventure learning experiences for education purposes has a long and rich history. Even
the works of Plato alluded to the value of outdoor learning experiences to the development of a healthy body and mind.
However, Plato considered that the aim of physical education was not primarily to enhance physical skills, but that it in
fact it had a much higher educational value, arguing that exercise and sport have a greater moral value than they do a
physical value (Casimir, 2013).

TYPES OF OUTDOOR AND ADVENTURE EDUCATION FOR PRIMARY-SCHOOL STUDENTS

While most teachers perceive that curricula-based outdoor and adventure education programming requires
direction from a government authority to provide curricula and syllabus guides, the most common forms of outdoor and
adventure education that occur in primary schools do not receive such direction. When outdoor and adventure education
does find its way into prescribed curricula, it is usually included in the HPE learning area.
 West Visayas State University
HIMAMAYLAN CITY CAMPUS
Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental

DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

However, this is not the only way in which outdoor and adventure education programs are undertaken in primary
schools. Other types of outdoor and adventure education programs are often classified as being supplemental or
integrated.
Supplemental outdoor or adventure education experiences require much less preparation and commitment
than integrated programs. They are considered a ‘one-off’ approach or activity designed to support a particular school
topic, and so can be considered less dependent on a curriculum. Many supplemental outdoor programs that are run in
schools may only loosely connect to the school’s curricular subjects. Examples include taking children on a camping
experience after studying a unit of work on the natural environment.
Integrated outdoor or adventure education programs exist as a much rarer form of school-based education.
The most fundamental element of integrated outdoor programming is that it incorporates the theme of outdoor education
as a teaching methodology that spans a number of existing subjects in the curriculum. According to Comishin and Potter
(2000), an integrated outdoor education curriculum is a one in which the students cannot tell the difference between
subjects, because the lessons in each individual subject are interconnected. True to the origins of experiential learning
theory, most of our learning is not compartmentalized into discrete disciplines of ‘knowing’.
The key feature of integrated outdoor education and adventure programs is that, because a theme-based
approach to learning is used, subject-specific curricular outcomes are present, but are no longer organized sequentially or
specifically separated into ‘subjects’. For example, in an integrated outdoor or adventure program, a teacher may have
students undertake a camping expedition. Although the students would be taught non-school-oriented content (e.g. the
technical skills involved in the outdoor activity), the integrated curriculum would be geared towards covering other school
subjects – for example, journal-writing for Literacy, analyzing a particular ecosystem for Science, or comparing the
technologies used for wilderness survival for Social Sciences. Each of these outcomes would no longer be isolated in a
separate activity, and so it would become difficult for students to distinguish which subject was being taught at any given
time. Again, the difference in this approach, compared to supplemental outdoor programming, is that this would not be a
‘one-off’ activity. As such, planning for how such an activity could become the primary source of learning for a subject
outcome is different from teaching it in a regular classroom and then using an outdoor theme to reinforce it. Here, the
outdoor classroom is the only avenue through which the concept is covered, and so a much greater focus on integration
with existing curricula becomes critical.
Horwood (2002) describes experiential learning as meaning that instruction places primary value on students
having early, first-hand experience of every aspect of the program. The experiential learning process refers to the
experience having a reasonably complete sequence of events and authenticity, and to the way that these experiences
make a solid connection and have relevance to the student’s real world. Horwood found that students faced greater
challenges in the experiential learning setting than in regular school settings, and that from this they developed a greater
sense of responsibility, to both their studies and their teacher. By utilizing experiential learning that provides challenges
and increases responsibility, a strong feeling of community develops in the classroom, making it possible for individual
learning to become common property (Horwood, 2002).

TEACHER PREPARATION FOR OUTDOOR AND ADVENTURE ACTIVITIES

Irrespective of whether outdoor and adventure education are used in a supplemental or integrated manner or in
an existing curricular approach, an effective outdoor learning experience begins with clear educational goals (Hattie,
2009). After setting goals, the teacher must select appropriate activities, curriculum materials and instructional strategies.
Priest and Gass (2005: 3–5) describe 12 key elements, or critical core competencies, that teachers need to develop in
order to be effective in teaching outdoor and adventure activities; these are:
 technical skills
 safety skills
 environmental skills
 organizational skills
 instructional skills
 facilitation skills
 flexible leadership style
 experience-based judgement
 problem-solving skills
 decision-making skills
 effective communication
 professional ethics
It is interesting that all but the first three of the 12 key elements or skills (technical, safety and environmental) are
supported by wider competencies that are, in turn, underpinned by theoretical and conceptual teaching models that you
likely would have been exposed to, or will be exposed to, in your generalist primary-school preparation teacher programs.
Therefore, committing yourself to professional learning in these first three elements should exponentially increase your
 West Visayas State University
HIMAMAYLAN CITY CAMPUS
Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental

DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

capacity to not only deliver authentic outdoor and adventure education experiences for your students but also enhance
your pedagogy in all facets of your teaching. The following section addresses some considerations for your professional
learning for the technical, safety and environmental skills needed for outdoor and adventure education programs.
1. TECHNICAL SKILLS
Technical skills are those that are needed for teachers to use equipment in the delivery of particular outdoor or
adventure activity. Pressures can arise between the development of meaningful relationships with the outdoors and the
need to learn technical skills in order to provide safe and worthwhile learning experiences.
Many teachers comment on the need to gain skills to safely lead and teach others in outdoor environments. This
goal, of developing a base for experiential learning experiences, demands that teachers spend considerable time and
energy in developing their own technical skills, often independent of any need to develop a closer relationship with
outdoor environments.
It could be suggested that teachers develop their technical skills and relationships with the outdoors precisely
because of the interest in participating in adventurous activities that they acquire. It might therefore be argued that outdoor
and adventure experiences may be one of the most effective pedagogies available for developing improved relationships
between humans and the environment, particularly when blended with the opportunities for reflection provided by
experiential learning theory.
2. SAFETY SKILLS
Safety is an area that is never to be compromised in a teacher’s qualifications in outdoor and adventure
education. Safety begins with prudent choices of activities and good common sense. Safety skills need to relate directly to
the particular activity planned.
Safety is a common goal of outdoor and adventure education programs. Risk identification, risk assessment and
risk reduction are all aspects of a process that all teachers need to follow as a matter of course, before and during an
outdoor or adventure education activity. Some teachers may be required to implement a formal process in order to comply
with their institution’s workplace health and safety (WHS) policies and safety or insurance requirements, as well to
implement additional informal precautions as part of any good teaching practice. The following section addresses three
key principles of safety which all teachers must consider, as described by the Tasmanian Outdoor Leadership Council
(1995): risk identification, risk assessment and risk reduction.
 RISK IDENTIFICATION
Risk identification is concerned with identifying dangers or hazards that increase risk, and that may, as a
result, cause an incident or accident. Three important aspects need to be studied in order to identify risks:
(1) the participants in an activity, (2) the equipment being used in the activity, and (3) the environment in
which the activity is being undertaken (Parkin & Blades, 1998). Consider, as an example, the risks
involved in a bushwalking education activity. There will be immediate risks that spring to mind, such as
inappropriate clothing and the size of the group. Other risks might include access to the site, vegetation
hazards, weather variability, type of footwear, and the age, skill level and knowledge of participants. In
addition, there will be less concrete hazards that need to be considered. These may relate to teachers’
and students’ state of mind or attitudes. Risks in this area may include overconfidence, peer pressure,
and poor management of stressful and distracting factors. If there is a potential for any of these hazards
to overlap or combine, then the likelihood of an incident or accident occurring will increase. Risk
identification should therefore incorporate and recognise all risk combinations that can realistically be
anticipated (i.e. all risk combinations related to participants, equipment and environment hazards, both
potential and likely). When you are asked to plan an outdoor or adventure activity, it is useful to record
every potential and likely hazard associated with it, and then categorise these as being related to either
students and teachers, equipment or environment (Parkin & Blades, 1998).
 RISK ASSESSMENT
Risk assessment involves calculating the amount of risk that is present and the probability of an incident
occurring. Assessing the amount of risk in an outdoor and adventure education program requires a
careful assessment of identified risks and hazards and the probability of an incident or accident taking
place. This determination will be reached by taking into account the practices and skills of the teacher,
knowledge of the site where the activity is to occur, the type of activity being undertaken, and participants’
confidence level and competence. Risk assessments are generally performed as a result of legal
requirements, in the sense that teachers and schools must consider the degree of competence needed
for participants to be safely involved in an activity. Processes of risk assessment, therefore, aim to strike a
balance between the level of competence required and an appropriate level of risk so as to attain desired
experiential learning outcomes. This process will ensure that students’ level of safety is optimized, while
allowing for a peak experience to occur. Peak experiences are considered to bring about the highest
possible degree of learning and fun for students. Importantly, when assessing the ratio of risk versus
competence, the student cohort for whom the activity is being designed should be taken into account. An
 West Visayas State University
HIMAMAYLAN CITY CAMPUS
Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental

DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

activity designed for special-needs students, for example, may involve higher levels of potential risk
(Parkin & Blades, 1998).
 RISK REDUCTION
Risk reduction is a process of implementing strategies that will reduce risks to an acceptable level in order
to prevent an incident or accident from occurring. There are a range of strategies that teachers can use
that are appropriate for reducing risks in outdoor and adventure education settings, including first
establishing a set of safety policies and guidelines. To do this, you must become familiar with your
school’s or department’s WHS guidelines, which will outline accepted codes of practice for the activity
being conducted. You must also include in your planning documentation a statement of the aims and
objectives of your outdoor or adventure program, as well as a summary of the risks involved and critical
incident management strategies. Secondly, you, as the teacher conducting the outdoor or adventure
activity, must disclose to the parents or guardians of your students the level of risk involved. To do this,
you should outline the nature of the activity to participants and their parents/guardians, inform students
and parents/guardians of their responsibilities and increase student knowledge about the activity prior to it
commencing. You can do this by familiarizing students with the type of equipment that they will be using,
describing the environment in which the activities will be conducted and making students aware of
potential dangers of the activities they will be undertaking. Teachers undertaking outdoor and adventure
education programs also need to know their students well enough to ensure that safety requirements can
be met. Incorporating ‘ice-breaker’ and trust activities into the program prior to undertaking the peak
experience will give you valuable behavioral insights into the group of students you will be working with.
Each of these strategies should be part of an established outdoor or adventure education program in your
school. They should also be a part of any supplementary program (as discussed earlier in this chapter).
The implementation of these procedures will reduce the likelihood of incidents and accidents occurring
while maintaining the maximum level of potential educational benefits for your students.
3. ENVIRONMENTAL SKILLS
Environmental skills help to prevent damage to the natural surroundings and provide a model for environmental
sustainability in your outdoor or adventure education program. Teachers of outdoor and adventure activities
should have the knowledge and skills they need to rouse an environmental appreciation in their students. Once
this appreciation is stimulated, students can often be motivated to take an active role in environmental protection.
Your environmental values as a teacher should transfer into your students’ willingness to recognize and choose
among differing perspectives associated with environmental problems and issues. Teachers should be able to
understand and communicate to their students how human activities influence the environment from an ecological
perspective. They should have a clear awareness of political, economic, geographic, social and ecological
interdependence in areas in which their outdoor or adventure activities are undertaken.
 West Visayas State University
HIMAMAYLAN CITY CAMPUS
Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental

DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

REVIEW QUESTIONS
Review the Curriculum Guide for Physical Education and Health and identify all the outdoor or adventure
education terminology that it uses. Make a list of these terms and their definitions.
1. What types of learning experiences does your curriculum suggest can be undertaken in this discipline?
2. What other outcomes in your curriculum, or in other subjects’ curricula, could be explored through outdoor
and adventure education?
 West Visayas State University
HIMAMAYLAN CITY CAMPUS
Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental

DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. How does dance as it is taught in primary schools differ from professional dance?
2. What are the nine key elements of outdoor and adventure education to which all teachers should be
exposed to throughout a generalist primary teacher education program? Briefly explain each.

Prepared and Designed by:

CHRISTIAN V. LOBERAS
Course Facilitator