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Is quality PE fitness-based only?
YES
Ted Vaughn
It offers a lifetime of benefits
School physical education programs are undergoing changes. The “new” fitness-based programs are designed to produce graduates who view physical activity as a worthwhile, pleasurable and lifelong endeavor for students.
In this PE program, students discover where their physical activity interests and abilities lie. They know how to design and implement a personal health-related fitness plan that can be used during and beyond high school. A “fitness for fitness’ sake” program focuses on the process of having students assume progressively more responsibility for their own health, fitness and well-being. In short, fitness-based programs develop the skills, knowledge, attitudes and behaviors necessary to maintain lifelong physical activities and health.
The question that needs to be addressed here is whether physical education should be an avenue for teaching academics or for teaching the concepts and skills our children will need to remain healthier throughout their lifetimes. PE is defined by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) as having the unique role of developing the health-related fitness, physical competence and cognitive understanding about physical activity so that all students can adopt healthy and physically active lifestyles.
In other words, school PE can affect the length and the quality of our lives. Will teaching reading by being active in PE provide the skills our nation, which is in a health crisis (increased rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, etc.), needs? I think not.
Can PE be a vehicle for teaching academics? Yes. But at what cost? Lifelong participation in physical activity has a significant positive impact on people’s health and well-being. In turn, improved health and well-being have significant positive consequences both for individuals and for society as a whole. The best opportunity to prepare the majority of children to live physically active, healthy lives is through PE in schools. Perhaps the question to be asked is what physical activities can classroom teachers implement to teach the core academics? Research definitely indicates that when the teaching and learning of academics includes the kinesthetic mode, the results are highly effective.
Having the physical education class veer from its purposes is not in students’ best interest. Where else will our nation’s children learn the physical skills and gain the necessary knowledge to keep them healthy throughout their lives? Physical education is a core school program and must be retained on its own fundamental merits.
Ted Vaughn, a K-12 health and physical education coordinator at Olympic High School in Silverdale, Wash., was the National Association for Sport and Physical Education’s 2005 high school physical education teacher of the year.
NO
Charlene Darst
A balanced curriculum is key
Quality physical education programs should blend fitness-based activities and motor skills with knowledge and attitudes that promote a lifetime of physical activity. That means physical educators need to plan a balanced program—one with a specific emphasis on increasing the physical activity levels of all students in class.
By planning a yearly curriculum map around the National Association for Sport and Physical Education’s (NASPE) National Content Standards, teachers should be addressing the development of motor skills, and also be teaching a set of fitness/physical activity routines each time their students come to physical education class.
These NASPE standards extend well beyond what many of us remember from our own physical education experiences. Included are such goals as demonstrating understanding of movement concepts, principles, strategies and tactics as they apply to the learning and performance of physical activities, and exhibiting responsible personal and social behavior that respects self and others in physical activity settings. These are excellent opportunities for interdisciplinary learning— and the best physical education programs will make the most of them.
It’s also important to bear in mind that physical education class must always reflect its special role as the one area in schools where teachers have the opportunity to build the physical activity levels of their students.
But physical education also has a duty to promote a well-balanced curriculum, one that addresses the learning of motor skills as described in the NASPE standards. This can best be accomplished by providing each student with his or her own piece of equipment—and by providing developmentally appropriate activities that follow a progressive sequence for each grade level.
Fitness activities must also follow appropriate practices that provide success and challenge for all students. Emphasis should focus on learning the concepts of fitness development rather than the product.
A quality physical education lesson focusing on basketball might use an instant activity of dribble and pivot followed by a basketball fitness circuit that incorporates basketball skills and health-related fitness components. The major focus would be basketball skill work providing for high activity levels through partner or small group activities. Class would conclude with a small-group game, modified for the inclusion of all students and offering many opportunities to practice and refine basketball skills.
With a well-balanced curriculum taught using NASPE’s National Content Standards and Appropriate Practices documents, all students will be motivated to adopt a lifetime of physical activity and reach their full potential as active adults.
Charlene Darst has taught for 35 years, primarily at the elementary physical education level. She was selected as the 2001 NASPE elementary physical education teacher of the year.
