Most important model for teaching physical education

The most important model for physical education in this century has been the developmental model, education through the physical. The idea that motor activities might be used as a means for reaching developmental educational goals is primarily a twentieth-century notion.

It is true that the seeds of this important model were planted toward the end of the nineteenth century; in terms of acceptance and implementation, however, education through the physical belongs to this century.

As the progressive education movement grew in the first part of the twentieth century, this basic premise was generally accepted as the cornerstone of physical-education theory, and a consensus of support for this idea thrived among members of the physical-education profession.

In 1910 Clark Hetherington presented his land mark paper entitled “Fundamental Education,” a thorough and succinct statement of the education-through-the -physical viewpoint, which earned for Hetherington the title “father of modern physical education.”

Hetherington’s four phases were to become the four primary objectives of the new physical education. Wherever education through the physical has been promoted and applied, chances are excellent that it has been explained and justified by reference to the fourfold objective proposed originally by Hetherington.

Twenty-three of thirty-three leaders interviewed in a 1959 study agreed completely with the original four objectives Hetherington Proposed. This model for physical education became so dominant and so widely accepted in professional physical education that it took on an almost “religious” significance for the profession. Few people disagreed with its basic tenets.

The model for education through the physical was thoroughly consistent with the goal of progressive education: to develop within young citizens the capacity for full living within a democracy.

Jesse Feiring Williams, perhaps the most eloquent of the early leaders, reflected this general thought when he wrote what became the most important slogan for this new approach:

The four goals original suggested by Hetherington began to shape the purposes of programs of physical education in schools, even to the extent that teachers were supposed to aim at some goal development in each phase during each lesson.

Although the goals have been defined somewhat differently by different leaders, these differences are minimal. Bucher’s definitions for the four goals came nearly- half a century after Hetherington’s but were remarkably similar to the original concepts:

1. Physical development objective:

The objective of physical development deals with the program of activities that builds physical power in an individual through the development of the various organic systems of the body.

2. Motor development objective:

The motor development objective is concerned with making physical movement useful and with as little expenditure of energy as possible and being proficient, graceful, and aesthetic in this movement.

3. Mental development objective:

The mental development objective deals with the accumulation of a body of knowledge and the ability to think and to interpret this knowledge.

4. Social development objective:

The social development objective is concerned with helping an individual in making personal adjustments, group adjustments, and adjustment as a member of society.

A typical physical-education lesson included fitness, skill development, knowledge, and social development. Lesson plans organized around the four objectives quickly became the standard in the physical-education curriculum in schools.

It is easy to see the influence of this tradition in many physical-education lessons even today. An opening period of calisthenics is thought to be necessary because of the fitness objective. Skill drills are organized to meet the motor-development objective.

Rules tests are often given. Group activities are thought to contribute to social development. To evaluate student performance in physical education, teachers administered a fitness assessment, a sills test, and a know ledge test, and gave a subjective grade on social behaviour and sportsmanship.

A corollary feature of this development model for physical education was the establishment of the multiplicative-program approach to program design. For full development to be ensured, people believed each child had to experience a variety of activities.

Because physical education sought a diversity of physical, mental, and social goals, and because each child was unique in her or his own development, a wide variety of activities was needed to fulfill the promise of this developmental model; team sports, individual sports, adventure activities, fitness activities, and dance all found acceptance within the multi activity framework.

The multi activity feature of education through the physical was “officially” sanctioned a national Committee on Curriculum Research, sponsored in 1927 by the College Physical Education Association and chaired by William Ralph La Porte.

In 1938 this committee produced a monograph titled “The Physical Education Curriculum.” This popular monograph was revised many times and continued through seven editions. It came as close to a national curriculum for physical education as we have ever come.

The main feature of this curriculum was a block or unit approach to curriculum design. The ideal model proposed in the La Porte curriculum was units of instruction lasting for several weeks. Across a complete school year, students would experience a fairly large number of these activity units.

The unit model with a multi activity approach became the main distinguishing programmatic feature of education through the physical and today remains the dominant characteristic of physical education.

In 1971 AAHPER launched the Physical Education Public Information (PEPI) project, designed to inform the public about the goals of physical education. PEFI’s primary concepts showed that Hetherington’s four objectives were alive and well in Physical education:

1. A physically educated person is one who has knowledge and skill concerning her or his body and how it works.

2. Physical education is health insurance.

3. Physical education can contribute to academic achievement.

4. A sound physical-education program contributes to development of a positive self-concept.

5. A sound physical-education program helps an individual to attain social skills.

In the 1990s the National Association for Sport and Physical Education a main affiliate of AAHPERD, published its report on outcomes in physical education, based on the characteristics of the physically educated person.

This set of outcomes substantially extends and refines the profession’s historic commitment to a set of broadly based goals and is likely to be a dominant force in school physical- education curriculum development for the future.