Developing Physical, Health and Wellness Literacy in Physical Education

The aim of physical education is to inculcate the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed for our learners to develop and maintain a heathy and active lifestyle well into adulthood. A quality physical education program does not only focus on games and fitness but also on developing students’ physical, health and wellness literacy.

PYP students have explored two PE strands during term one: Individual pursuits and Health-related fitness. Early Years to P1 students inquired into the different ways they can move with their bodies through the exploration of fundamental movement skills (Individual Pursuits). Developing students’ understanding and competency in performing fundamental movement skills can facilitate their learning of more complex sports skills. In our health-related fitness unit, students in P2 to P5 inquired into the impact that personal choices can have on health and physical wellbeing. The learning engagements ranged from evaluating personal fitness, measuring personal heart rate, understanding the importance of healthy eating and nutrition, recognizing the health-related components of fitness, to setting SMART goals.

Learning and teaching in a virtual environment has been a challenge for all teachers and students, especially planning a quality physical education program during this pandemic. PE teachers are aware that most of their students do not have sports equipment at home or access to recreational facilities, and not being able to interact or play with friends further complicates the issue. However, this has also been an opportunity for teachers and students to develop their critical thinking skills to actively seek creative ways to develop personal fitness and movement skills. The use of technology facilitates the process in the sense that teachers and students can share individual workout videos, view skill demonstrations, share ideas for activities, and give feedback and feedforward (thinking about ways to extend learning).

Image Credits

Fundamental Movement Skills. (https://mheaysman.weebly.com/fundamental-movement-skills.html)

Fernando Beukes

Teacher, Physical Education