Developing the practising model in physical education: an expository outline focusing on movement capability

ABSTRACT

Background: Physical educators currently have a number of pedagogical (or curricular) models at their disposal. While existing models have been well-received in educational contexts, these models seek to extend students’ capacities within a limited number of ‘human activities’ (Arendt, 1958). The activity of human practising, which is concerned with the improvement of the self, is not explicitly dealt with by current models.

Purpose: The aim of the paper is to outline how a model of human practising related to movement capability could be enacted in physical education.

Findings: Building on a theoretical exposition of human practising presented in a separate paper, this paper provides a practically oriented discussion related to: (1) the general learning outcomes as well as teaching and learning strategies of the model; (2) an outline of five activities that describe how the model could be implemented; and (3) the non-negotiable features of the model.

Discussion: The model’s potential contribution to the ongoing revitalization of PE as an institutionalized educational practice is discussed. Points concerning how the model relates to wider physical cultures, its position regarding transfer of learning, standards of excellence, and social and cultural transmission are considered.

Conclusion: The paper is concluded with some reflections on pedagogical models generally and how they relate to the pedagogical model of practising movement capability presented in this paper.

KEYWORDS:

• Practising
• movement
• models
• skill development
• practical knowledge

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

D. M. Barker http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4162-9844

Notes

1 By the end of year nine, Swedish students should, for example, be able to:

participate in games and sports involving complex movements in dif­ferent settings, and vary and adapt their movements to some extent to activities and context. In dance, and movement and training programs to music, pupils adapt to some extent their movements to beat, rhythm and context … Pupils in a basically functional way can set up goals and plan their training and other physical activities. Pupils can also evaluate activities by talking about their own experiences and applying simple and to some extent informed reasoning about how the activities together with dietary and other factors can affect health and physical capacity … . (SNAE 2012, 54, emphasis in the original)