Solving the Teaching Skills vs. Getting Students Active Conundrum

PE Teacher: Should our focus in physical education be on teaching skills or getting students physically active?

PE Philosopher: Yes

I recently listened to America’s PE and sport philosopher-laureate Scott Kretchmar and just as intended it made me think. To the delight of our diminishing but indispensible cadre of PE philosophers, the seemingly frustrating and unresolvable conundrum that physical education teachers face is in fact answerable: Well at least from a philosopher’s world view!

Last month, Mike Metzler eloquently and persuasively described the HOPE curriculum model in which he advocated the promotion of physical activity as the way to move our profession forward into the 21st century. This month pelinks4u also includes an article by Martin Donahue supporting the HOPE message.

But in It’s all about Student Learning! National Standards and Grade-Level Outcomes for K – 12 Physical Education, Lynn Couturier former NASPE President and lead writer for the recently released new NASPE Standards and Outcomes, sees the world differently. For a wide variety of research-supported reasons, Lynn points to the importance of physical educators focusing first and foremost on helping students to develop motor skills. It’s a view difficult to argue against.

What’s a teacher to do? Well, our philosopher friends would likely encourage us to stop seeing the question in either-or terms. A continuum might fit better. And for those of us more comfortable thinking of things from a “what-does-it look-like-in-practice?” perspective, this view works.

If you think about it, some students simply enjoy being physically active and aren’t much interested in physical activities that require high skill competence or encourage competition. In contrast, others seek out competition. They’re motivated to be physically active to compete against others in situations that demand high-level skills. We see these different attitudes toward movement not just in children but also in adults.

I’m not going to risk reader wrath by attempting to label or categorize specific activities or sports, but rather simply point out that people are different and that it’s a mistake for us to teach physical education with a “one size fits all” mentality. Devoting the time needed to become competent in a skill motivates some and bores others. And even then, attitudes will differ between the types of skills being taught.

What this means to me is that we’d probably do much better to stop seeing different approaches to teaching physical education as polemic opposites and think more about how best to meet individual student needs and motivations: A challenging enough task with one person, let alone a class of 30 or more!

Adding to the discussion, former AAHPERD President Ron Feingold offers his own take on what the purpose of physical education should be. As the title, Adult Behaviors Should Guide Physical Education suggests, Ron thinks we should plan backwards from our ultimate goal. He suggests that asking ourselves what physical activity behaviors we’d like to see among adults can help us make the best decisions about what to teach our school-aged children.

In addition to essays challenging us to think about the purpose of physical education, pelinks4u this month has much more including an essay from Craig Buschner, another former NASPE President, who is concerned about the explosive growth of physical education classes being delivered online. Everyone excited or frustrated with the way in which technology is affecting physical education will enjoy Craig’s essay.

Paul Clinton completes his three-part series on advocacy with an article this month entitled Advocating for our profession; Crafting Your Message. Then Laura Zavatto and Isobel Kleinman in two separate articles describe some activities they use to promote heart health – particularly appropriate in Heart Month.

pelinks4u is also proud to feature two special submissions that remember two professional leaders who passed away at the end of 2013. Seymour (Sy) Kleinman and John Massengale were both physical education visionaries in very different ways. We appreciate John Kilbourne and Steve Estes remembering their mentors, colleagues, and friends in these personal tributes.

Please be sure to share these essays and articles with your colleagues and students via email and Facebook. Also, remember to look at the News columns for what’s happening professionally around the country and in different parts of the world. Finally, we’d also be delighted to hear your thoughts and suggestions. Enjoy. More thought-provoking contributions promised next month too! Have a great Heart Month.