Kin 1.2 & 1.3
Fundamental Principles in Health and Physical Education
1. School, Family and Community Support
Health and physical education programs are most effective when:
Delivered in healthy schools.
Student learning is supported by school staff, families, and communities.
Validation and Reinforcement of Learning: Students' learning is validated and strengthened when concepts from health and physical education are reflected and reinforced through healthy-school policies and healthy practices within their families and communities.
Outcome: Increased likelihood of students adopting and maintaining healthy, active living practices throughout their lives.
2. Physical Activity As The Vehicle For Learning
Primary Learning Vehicle: Physical activity serves as the main vehicle for student learning in this subject.
Kinesthetic Learning: Health and physical education provides a unique opportunity for students to learn primarily by “doing,” which means through direct physical activity.
Benefits: Through movement, students:
Discover the joy of movement.
Learn about their bodies.
Develop physical and cognitive skills essential for lifelong health and well-being.
3. Physical And Emotional Safety
Precondition for Effective Learning: A physically and emotionally safe environment is crucial for students to learn effectively in health and physical education.
Learning Environment Challenges:
Learning new skills involves inherent physical risks.
Participation occurs in a public space where successes and mistakes are visible to others.
Discussions often involve personal health topics with significant implications for individual well-being.
Teacher's Critical Role: Teachers must ensure a physically and emotionally safe learning environment by:
Emphasizing the paramount importance of safety in physical activity.
Consistently treating all students with respect.
Being sensitive and responsive to individual differences among students.
Strictly adhering to all board safety guidelines and policies.
Providing an inclusive learning environment that acknowledges, respects, and accommodates the diversity, individual strengths, needs, and interests of all students.
4. Student-Centered, Skill-Based Learning
Historical Context of Sport:
Physical activity and sport have been integral to human culture since early times.
Their societal role has varied significantly beyond simple enjoyment, including factors such as:
Status and prestige (for both individuals and societies).
Military training purposes.
Building character and leadership skills in youth.
Monetary reward.
Learning Approach: Learning in health and physical education is specifically designed to be student-centered and skill-based.
Individualized Learning: Instruction must be directly connected to the unique needs and abilities of each student.
Age-Related vs. Age-Dependent: Curriculum expectations are related to age, but student readiness to learn is dependent on their individual physical and emotional development, not strictly age.
Focus: All learning strands concentrate on developing individual skills for healthy, active living, supported by a strong foundation of content knowledge and conceptual understanding.
Achieving Full Potential: To maximize student potential, learning requires:
Progressive instruction.
Constructive feedback.
Numerous opportunities for practice.
Opportunities for reflection.
Experiential learning, all within a safe environment.
5. Balanced, Integrated Learning With Relevance To Students' Lives
Balanced Approach
Health and physical education addresses a comprehensive range of student needs:
Physical needs.
Cognitive needs.
Psychological needs.
Social needs.
Teacher Responsibility: It is essential for teachers to allocate adequate time and resources to all aspects of the program, avoiding over-emphasis on any one area at the expense of others.
Integrated Learning
Connections: The program explicitly recognizes and highlights the connections between its various foundational elements:
Active living.
Movement competence.
Healthy living.
Living skills.
Foundation for Literacy and Well-being: Understanding these interconnected relationships forms the basis for developing health and physical literacy, fostering overall well-being, and promoting lifelong healthy, active living.
Relevance to Students' Lives
Modern World Context: Health and physical education is highly pertinent to students' current lives and future prospects in a world characterized by complexity, globalization, advanced technology, and rapid change.
Student Understanding: Students need to grasp this relevance to develop the necessary comprehension, commitment, and capacity to actively participate in and advocate for healthy, active living.
Inquiry-Based Learning
Introduction to Inquiry
Starting Point: Inquiry begins with a question or a “wondering.”
Challenge: Formulating effective inquiry questions can be difficult.
Brainstorming Tip: Using an image can aid brainstorming by prompting questions like: “What do I actually see?”, “What do I think about this?”, and “What do I wonder about when looking at this image?”
Six Components of Inquiry-Based Learning
Note on Process: The inquiry process is not strictly linear; students may need to revisit earlier stages (e.g., gathering more resources during evaluation) and reflection can occur at any point, not just at the end.
Formulate Questions:
Students develop questions or make predictions concerning concepts, strategies, or relationships between topics/skills.
They plan investigations to find answers to these questions.
Gather and Organize:
Students collect, organize, and record relevant data, evidence, and/or information.
Sources include appropriate primary or secondary materials.
They focus and clarify ideas, concepts, strategies, or relationships.
Interpret and Analyse:
Students interpret and assess gathered data, evidence, and/or information.
They analyze it to identify patterns, relationships, currency (timeliness), and potential biases.
The goal is to make connections and potentially construct new knowledge.
Evaluate and Draw Conclusions:
Students synthesize collected data, evidence, results, and/or information.
They make informed, critical judgments based on the reliability of the information.
They explain decisions, choices, goals, or solutions and their impact on themselves, others, and the wider world.
Communicate:
Students consolidate and effectively communicate their observations, decisions, conclusions, goals, choices, strategies, and/or solutions.
Communication is clear, logical, and uses correct terminology.
Methods include oral presentations, written reports, demonstrations, or performances tailored to the audience's needs.
Collaboration with others is encouraged to deepen learning.
Reflect:
Students reflect on their initial questions and what they have learned throughout the process.
They consider what else they could investigate or try, and what they might have done differently.
They transfer their learning to new situations and plan next steps for future inquiry.
Developing Inquiry Skills and Essential Questions
Scaffolding: Initially, inquiry may be more structured, with teachers providing questions or directing students to specific resources to build foundational skills.
Independence: With practice, students develop the ability to create their own questions, find reliable information, draw conclusions, and present findings appropriately to an audience.
Flexibility: Inquiry can focus on the entire process or on specific components.
Essential Question: A broad, overarching “essential question” can frame an inquiry for an entire unit or over several class periods.
Example of a Motor Development Mini-Inquiry
Inquiry Topic: Impact of internal/external factors on performance.
Day 1: Formulate Questions & Gather and Organize Information
Brainstorm and create questions (or use teacher-provided questions).
Conduct a lab to investigate answers. Examples of activities:
Practicing writing with the non-dominant hand.
Attempting to hit a target while distracted by noise.
Performing blindfolded basketball free throws and receiving different types of feedback.
Record observations in a graphic organizer.
Day 2: Interpret and Analyse, Evaluate and Draw Conclusions
Students begin researching information to supplement lab observations and findings.
Day 3: Finish Drawing Conclusions and Prepare Communication of Findings
Complete research and synthesize information.
Prepare findings for sharing (e.g., rant, Prezi, slideshow, video).
Day 4: Communicating Findings and Reflection
Share new knowledge and findings with the class.
Complete a reflection on the inquiry process, including:
The most challenging component.
Improvements for future research/information organization.
Characteristics of an Effective Inquiry Question
Effective inquiry questions are the starting point for successful inquiry or problem-solving.
Open-ended: Does not have a single, definitive, or correct answer.
Thought-provoking and Intellectually Engaging: Designed to stimulate discussion and debate.
Calls for Higher-Order Thinking: Requires skills like analysis, synthesis, inference, and prediction, rather than just recall.
Points Toward Important, Transferable Ideas: Connects to significant concepts within (and sometimes across) subject areas.
Raises Additional Questions: Acts as a catalyst for further inquiry and exploration.
Requires Support and Justification: Demands evidence and reasoning, not just an answer.
Recurs Over Time: Can and should be revisited multiple times throughout learning.
Types of Questions
Simple Questions
Nature: Often “closed” with a single correct answer.
Function: Factual or used to confirm existing knowledge.
Examples:
“Who were the men’s ice hockey champions at the 1948 Olympics?”
“What is Canadian James Naismith known for?”
“When was Wii Fit technology introduced as a new leisure activity?”
Complex Questions
Nature: “Open-ended,” encouraging a variety of approaches and responses.
Function: Thought-provoking, often leading to deeper discussions.
Skills Required: Utilize higher-order thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis, prediction, inference, decision-making, or evaluation based on information.
Examples:
“Why would Clara Hughes be considered one of Canada’s top athletes?”
“Which area has experienced the biggest change in sports - the equipment or the training methods?”
“How has the role of physical activity in society changed over the last century?”
Question Builder Chart
This chart helps in creating questions by selecting one word from a left-hand column and one from a top row (chart not provided in text, but its function is described).
Questions can fall into four categories: Knowledge, Predict, Analytical, or Synthesize.
Complexity: Questions become more complex and require higher-level thinking as one moves down and to the right in the conceptual chart.
Starters for Knowledge Questions
“Who is, are, was, has?” “Who did, do, does?” “Who can?”
“What is, are, was, has?” “What did, do, does?” “What can?”
“When is, are, was, has?” “When did, do, does?” “When can?”
“Where is, are, was, has?” “Where did, do, does?” “Where can?”
Starters for Predict Questions
“Who could, should, would?” “Who will?” “Who might?”
“What could, should, would?” “What will?” “What might?”
“When could, should, would?” “When will?” “When might?”
“Where could, should, would?” “Where will?” “Where might?”
Starters for Analytical Questions
“How is, are, was, has?”
“Why did, do, does?”
“Which can?”
Starters for Synthesize Questions
“How could, should, would?”
“Why will?”
“Which might?”