Rational for the Inclusion of Health and Physical Education in the School Curriculum - Literature review Example

Running Head: PHYSICAL EDUCATION Health and Physical Education Health and Physical Education Smart Moves lesson ___1____ Kangaroo Date:____________________________________________ Class/Year level__________________________________________________ Years 1 to 3. Regular participation in physical activity develops movement capacity and promotes health and wellbeing Where: (circle or highlight) Oval Courts Multipurpose centre Classroom Undercover area Other______________________________________ Equipment and resources List all equipment and resources needed for the lesson – Chalk to mark two lines about ten meters apart, each about ten meters long Space on which to play the game Activity one: Organisation: How do we set up the activity Two lines of about ten meters long, divided by about ten meters apart is the play space for this activity How are students organised? (please circle) Individual Pairs Groups of ____6_______ Teams of____________ What do we do – what are the rules? How is the activity conducted? All groups divide into two groups of three, each going on the far side of one of the lines. Lining up, they take turns hopping like a kangaroo from one side of the play field across the line on the other side, releasing the next student to hop across to the other side. How do we include everyone? All children with the ability to hop would be able to participate, but should the class include a member who does not have the capacity to hop, the following modification can be made to the game: instead of hopping the game could be modified so that a ball is bounced as the child travels the distance or that they merely have to travel the distance, which at this point might be widened, passing an item from one person to the next in relay fashion. In this last form, any student that can move can participate, even, as an example, if they are in a wheelchair. How do we make it safe? Include the link to the most appropriate Curriculum Activity Risk Management Guidelines http://education.qld.gov.au/schools/healthy/ Go to this link and scroll down to sport. Select the category or activity that best represents your activities. You might need more than one category. http://education.qld.gov.au/schools/eppr/health/hlspr012/resources/trampolining.pdf While trampolining is a high risk and Kangaroo is a low risk, the same sort of use of the muscles exists, so some of the same risk factors will be included. Teaching the proper way to jump and how to hop from one point to the next would mitigate most of the risk in the game. Activity two:_____Bat and Ball Games____________________________________________ Organisation: How do we set up the activity? Set up a field similar to baseball with four bases at the corners of a diamond shape, but modified to be shorter distances for the age group that has been selected. Provide two fields of play so that two teams of 6 each can be played at the same time. Two plastic bats and two plastic balls will be needed. How are students organised? (please circle) Individual Pairs Groups ________ Teams of___6_________ What do we do – what are the rules? How is the activity conducted? The modified rules of baseball are introduced with the introduction to running the bases after hitting the ball being at the core of the instruction. Children hit a tossed ball (instructors should pitch the ball) so that the opposing team runs to get the ball and then towards the bases. First one to get to the base is successful and the game continues. In other words, if the child who gets the ball beats the batter to the base, the batter is ‘out’. If the batter gets to the base first, they can continue forward from base to base as other hitters hit, each time over home plate counting as a score. The outfield does not exist in this modified version of the game. How do we include everyone? Explain how you might modify this activity to ensure all students can participate. You are to imagine that your class has a child with cerebral palsy and think about the modifications that will be necessary to enable that child to fully participate in the activities. Children who are limited in their physical movement can still play this game, with modifications made to accommodate the limitations that a child may experience due to his or her specific needs. A child in a wheelchair, as an example, can possibly hit the ball, can possibly move from base to base, but might need one or the other done through someone acting on their behalf. How do we make it safe? Include the link to the most appropriate Curriculum Activity Risk Management Guidelines http://education.qld.gov.au/schools/healthy/ The category that works for this is Bat and Ball Games. Rational for the Inclusion of Health and Physical Education in the School Curriculum Part of educating students for the future is making sure that they have a broad understanding of their bodies and how to take care of them for the long term. Through health and physical education in the school curriculum, children learn how their health can be addressed as well as how to move and stay active towards sustaining their health. The education system is dedicated to training the minds of the youth of the nation towards fulfilling their potentials. In order to truly produce adults who are fit and ready for the world, making sure that they know how to take care of their bodies through good nutrition and movement will provide for adults who lower their risk for illness due to inactivity. Through quality courses in health and physical fitness, children learn about movement and physical maintenance of their body in ways that can benefit them throughout their existence. Physical education is a two-pronged topic through which the first part of the education is based on health and the second is based upon fitness activity. Mohnsen (2008) writes that “a quality health education is similar to a quality physical education program in the sense that a sequential K-12 curriculum addressing the physical, mental, emotional, and social dimensions of health is taught by qualified health education professionals” (p. 34). Through a quality health education program students learn how to minimize bad habits through which ill health is the result. In learning about the functions of their bodies, hygiene, and how to maintain good health they create a foundation of information on which to design their self-care. Minimizing risky behaviours that can lead to ill-health creates a population that knows how to minimize illness through the advantages of an education about what is the proper way in which to live towards a healthy life. Through this advantage, economic changes can be seen through lowered health costs. Green and Hardman (2005) write that “in many countries physical education is being increasingly marginalized within education systems even though it is instrumentally important for health, physical development, social cohesion, and intercultural dialogue” (p. 58). Physical education does not only teach children about how to be physically fit, but how to work through teamwork dynamics and social interaction. Game playing creates the cultural process for business, the advantage of teaching about ethical competition translating into ethical behaviour later in life. The nature of games becomes a part of how a society translates its beliefs into interaction in order to support both social communication and competitive frameworks of interaction. One of the greatest health problems of the new millennia is the spread of obesity as urbanization provides for communities that have a more sedentary lifestyle. One of the strategies to counterbalance the effects of urbanization is through educating children on how to address their physical fitness needs in conjunction with their physical health needs (Bendich & Deckelbaum, 2010). Through urbanization people have developed fast food, a dependence upon vehicular transportation, and employment that consists of a large amount of sitting per day. Without the proper education in how to eat properly, include physical fitness in daily life, and how to manage the expectations of the office with the needs of the body, people will deteriorate more quickly in their lives and fall victim to illnesses that are largely preventable through proper diet and exercise. Health and physical education is a tool that society should use in order to address the potential for an epidemic of illness that is largely preventable. The inclusion of health and physical education has been diminishing in school systems that are struggling to meet the demands of a society that does not want to spend money on education while still having the expectations of a quality educational program. Although diminishing in importance, the need to teach children how to be hygienically, nutritionally, and physically fit provides for prevention later in life of illness that comes from risky behaviour and a lack of attention to the needs of the body. Through providing children with the tools to keep themselves fit, health costs will be lowered as well as health risks. Combating the problems that are associated with urbanization also provides for the opportunity to teach belief systems through games and competition that can be translated into the ethics that frame business interactions as adults. Justification Supporting health and physical education in the school system is supporting preparation for a lifetime of healthy living. Living a healthy life provides for lowered risks for heart disease, diabetes, and respiratory problems, which leads to longer productivity and contributions to society. In addition, children learn through movement to address questions that are beyond that of physical fitness. Bailey (2001) writes that movement is “the culture of childhood”, defining how they translate their world into purpose through activity (p. 8). Learning situations in which movement is involved lowers the stress of learning and provides for the expansion of ideas through manifesting play as the medium through which information is transmitted. A curriculum of health and physical education supports the basis upon which most learning occurs for children as they experience their world through translating it into movement. Providing thirty minutes of exercise for p-6 per day and 2 hours in secondary education allows for the interpretations of learning to be structured into good habits. Health and physical education provides for supporting learning that extends into good decision making and good behaviours in relationship to how people interact. While physical education provides for a release of energy during the day and the opportunity to engage in meaningful activities, game play provides a resource through which to understand how to frame experiences of engagement which can then be translated into how learning manifests and is used. Decision making and good behaviour in social settings such as game play provides for learning of how to engage each other within appropriate limits so that lessons can be used in the best possible form within the social context. A very rudimentary example can be found in the example of a child kicking a ball. A child decides that in order to advance a game, he or she must kick the ball. Through instruction on how to kick the ball they have learned about the physics of accomplishing that task. Through good examples about behaviour, the child will elect to kick the ball at a target that is appropriate for the game, but will not injure other students. Including physical education supports good health and the opportunity to move and play during the school day. The advantages of physical education are far beyond just that of learning how to move, but having the opportunity to move is essential to good health. Thirty minutes of exercise each day help to build muscle and support advancement of motor functions so that children become skilled within their bodies and trained for good general health. In addition, through providing a structured course in physical education, children are given the benefit of learning not only to play, but how to play with each other under ethical terms. Physical education is a necessity in the lives of children so that they can develop life skills for operating in the social structure of their world as well as becoming in control of their bodies through physical fitness. References Australian Sports Commission. (2009). Yulunga: Traditional indigenous games. Australian Sports Commission. Retrieved from http://www.ausport.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/001 7/402191/SP_31864_TIG_resource_FINAL.pdf Bailey, R. (2001). Teaching physical education. London: Krogen Publishing. Bendich, A., & Deckelbaum, R. J. (2010). Preventive nutrition: The comprehensive guide for health professionals. New York: Humana Press. Green, K. & Hardman, K. (2005). Physical education: essential issues. London: SAGE Publ. Kirk, D. (1996). The sociocultural foundations of human movement. South Melbourne: Macmillan Education Australia. Mohnsen, B. S. (2008). Teaching middle school physical education: a standards-based approach for grades 5-8. 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