Short essay on the Objectives of Physical Education

The objectives of physical education are often more specific than the goal, or aim, and purpose and are comprised of particular outcomes. Usually plural, in combination they result in the achievement of a purpose and an aim.

Professional colleagues and the general public often learn about physical education’s worth through an examination of its objectives and their fulfilment.

Dudley Sargent, a recognized leader in physical education for college students in the late 1800s and early 1900s, was an authority in teacher training and in anthropocentric measurements of the positive effects of exercise on the body.

He suggested that physical education achieved hygienic, educative, recreative, and remedial objectives. Outcomes that he noted in his programs included improved health, fun, remediation of illness and injury, one of the “new physical educators,” helped lead in the transition from exercising methodically to developing the entire person.

In 1910, he recommended that physical education programs seek organic, psychomotor, character, and intellectual objective.

In 1934, Physical Education Association’s Committee on objectives listed physical fitness, mental health and efficiency, social-moral character, emotional expression and control, and appreciations as the desired objectives.

In 1950, these were restated by the profession: to develop and to maintain maximum physical efficiency, to develop useful skills, to conduct oneself in socially useful ways, and to enjoy wholesome recreation.

In 1965, the Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation stated five major objectives:

1. To help children move in a skilful and effective manner in all the selected activities in which they engage, in the physical education program, and also in those situation that they will experience during their lifetime.

2. To develop an understanding, and appreciation of movement in children and youth so that their lives will become more meaningful propulsive, and productive.

3. To develop an understanding and appreciation of certain scientific principles concerned with movement that relate to such factors as time, space, force, and mass-energy relationships.

4. To develop through the medium of games and sports better interpersonal relationships.

5. To develop the various organic systems of the body so they will respond in a healthful way to the increased demands placed on them.

Before examining physical education’s objectives in greater detail, it is essential to understand how they relate to those of education.

In 1918, the Educational Policies Commission stated seven objectives of education: health, command of fundamental processes, worthy home membership, vocation, citizenship, worthy use of leisure time, and ethical character.

In 1938, these were consolidated to self- realization, human relationship, economic efficiency, and civic responsibility. Through both statements, educational leaders showed a desire to develop the child as a whole. Justification for any education program was based on what contribution it could make.

Physical education has demonstrated that its alignment with Benjamin Bloom’s taxonomy of cognitive, affective, and psychomotor objectives has verified its value as a school subject. These same objectives are achievable in physical education programs outside the schools.

Cognitive objectives focus on the acquisition, comprehension, analysis, synthesis, application, and evaluation of knowledge.

Minimal preparation in physical education course work includes the body structure and function, health, first aid, history and principles, growth and development, organization and administration, motor learning, and exercise physiology.

Regardless of the setting, information from these courses is essential for instructors to understand and disseminate and for program participants to comprehend and apply.

Increased cognitive involvement usually leads to better execution of skills and always leads to a better understanding of the activity. Physical educators need to explain not only how, but especially why, so individuals may participate on their own. They also must emphasize learning sport rules, strategies and skills, safety principles, and proper etiquette.

One additional point is that often physical activity enhances one’s cognitive development. Reading, math, language, and other subjects may be enhanced through participation in certain physical activities.

Mental fatigue from studying or working can be reduced through exercise, so that a subsequent session of either is more productive. Stress can impede cognitive processes, but activity can reduce stress and enhance productivity.

The emphasis of the affective domain is on the development of attitudes, appreciations, and values and contains both social and emotional dimension. In the social realm, both individual and group needs are met while positive characteristics are developed.

Learning self- confidence, courtesy, fair play, sportsmanship, and how to make value judgments benefits the individual directly.

From a group perspective, decision-making abilities, communication skills, and affiliation needs are enhanced. Individual’s values and attitudes toward involvement in physical activity are solidified, as are appreciations for participation and performance.

Developing and improving fundamental movement skills and game skills are the foci of the psychomotor objective, as sport, aquatic, and dance skills begin with learning basic and efficient movement patterns. Children need to explore their bodies’ capabilities, including learning to walk, run, or jump independently or in conjunction with others or using apparatus.

Similar principles can apply as individuals experiment with solving movement challenges. Manipulative skills are developed by exploring the potential of a practice with hoops, ropes, balls, rackets, bats, and other implements.

Perceptual-motor skills, such as the eye-hand coordination needed to strike a ball with a racket or the reaction time needed to judge how quickly a partner’s thrown ball will reach one, are also important skills.

Once these abilities are mastered independently and in combination at each person’s developmental level, then game skills,, such as catching, throwing, and batting, can be incorporated into lead-up games and mini-sport situations.

Although they are not listed specifically, dance, aquatic, and other specific sport skills are outcomes of the psychomotor objective.

Physical fitness, a second outcome of the psychomotor domain, comprises cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength and endurance, and flexibility. Physicians increasingly state that a healthy heart and respiratory system may reduce the risk of disease and certainly may improve the quality of life; they encourage cardiovascular exercises.

The ability to exert maximal force and to sustain this effort describes muscular strength and endurance, a second component of fitness. Flexibility gained by statistically stretching the muscle improves the range of motion in the joints.

Other motoric factors that result from physical fitness include agility, balance, coordination, speed, and power.

It is essential that these three objectives interrelate rather than, exist singularly. For example, while learning to hit tennis balls, people not only enhance their eve-hand coordination, but also learn proper body position for a level swing and cooperation with those with whom they take turns tossing the ball Three additional examples follow; not that each objective is worded so that results can be measured.