Before you can begin to understand the mechanics of becoming a PE teacher, it is important that you have an understanding of what PE is, and why it is an important subject for schools to include within their curriculum.
The subject has developed a lot since the 1940s, when it was transformed into an educational subject from its earlier physical recreational form. But what are the aims of Physical Education in our schools today?
It is always an interesting process to see what student’s opinions are. Here are some responses to the question above:
‘To achieve in areas of sport that are personal to yourself.’
‘PE is important for becoming fit, developing teamwork and relaxing (time away from academic studies).’
‘PE is about teamwork and working on yourself, it can have an impact on your mind, not just your body.’
‘Teaching not only physical well-being but teaching multiple vital life skills through the form of physical activity and biological study.’
‘For some, to step out of their comfort zone and achieve what they thought couldn’t be possible!’
As you can see, this question is always answered with a vast array of responses – which highlights the multiple benefits derived from Physical Education.
But what are the definitive aims of Physical Education?
This question has two possible answers: one related to the outcomes expected from the National Curriculum, and the other being the general aims of the subject which have an overriding impact on student’s health and well-being.
Aims of the National Curriculum for PE (NCPE)
There have been a variety of reforms and changes made to the NCPE, including the aims and expected outcomes which derive from the subject.
That being said, there are also some consistent ‘themes’ that are present. These will need to be considered when planning to teach PE, and developments made by our students towards these aims should be assessed to show their progress.
The current aims of PE at Key Stage 3 (11 to 14 years old) and Key Stage 4 (14 to 16 years old) can be split into the following categories:
● Building on previous learning: It is important that lessons within secondary school PE build upon the students’ previous learning.
You do not need to have an in-depth understanding of the earlier Key Stages, but you will require a basic knowledge of what fundamental skills your students will have developed.
This should include mastering movements such as running, jumping, throwing and catching. As well as developing their fitness, such as balance, agility and co-ordination.
● Development of skills: PE within Key Stages 1 and 2 includes the development of fundamental skills, such as running, throwing and catching.
These will need further development, such as applying these skills to sport-specific skills. For example, progressing ‘throwing and catching’ movements to aiming a cricket ball towards a set of cricket stumps.
This will later progress to developing basic skills within a wide range of activities. This should increase the probability of your students taking part in this sport outside of PE lessons.
This theme will also include the development of fitness. PE will need to develop the physical capacity of our students by improving a range of fitness components, such as stamina and strength.
● Making and applying decisions: As students become more confident performing the skills they have developed, within certain sporting contexts, they will then need to advance their understanding of the activity they are undertaking.
This will include teaching students when to appropriately apply these learnt skills within a competitive situation.
For example, following the development of a basic lateral pass in rugby, students will then need to understand when to time their passes to be effective against an opponent.
● Evaluate and improve: With a greater understanding of skills and techniques, your students should be taught how to analyse themselves, or others when performing.
This could later include analysing different tactics and strategies within competitive games – which will require further knowledge of the activity they are undertaking.
Within this theme, students should also develop other inter-personal skills. These include problem solving and communication.
● Making informed decisions which influence the student’s health and well-being: This outcome is associated with the skills that the students require to be able to make decisions regarding their own health.
Students will need to learn about the effects of exercise and physical activity. This will include knowledge of how to participate safely.
Once students have acquired the skills and knowledge of an activity, they should then be provided with the information they need to further pursue that activity if it is of interest to them.
General aims of PE within secondary schools
Although all of the above aims are outlined within the NCPE, Physical Education has many additional benefits which are not overtly outlined, but still from an important part for the aims of PE.
Below are some examples of the skills we expect to derive for PE within secondary schools:
● Increasing confidence/self-esteem: One of the fundamental aims of PE is to increase confidence for our students.
Students should be provided a platform to confidently conduct their work in increasingly challenging situations – which will require them to be confident within their own abilities.
This will allow pupils within your lessons to perform practical skills in front of others, take risks and pursue activities in their own time.
● Mental health benefits: In addition to improving our students’ self-confidence, there are a number of other mental health benefits which can be derived from an effective PE curriculum.
This includes teaching our students how to manage stress levels, and gaining an understanding of how exercise/physical activity can support this.
PE also provides an opportunity for less academic students to achieve success within an educational requirement, which will have its own mental health benefits, including an increased engagement within school.
● Enjoyment: This aim is very self-explanatory, but remains an important aim.
PE needs to be enjoyable, particularly if we want to engage students that are ‘switched-off’ from sport or physical activity.
If students are actively enjoying the subject, or the activity they are being taught, they are also more likely to pursue this in the future.
● Developing creativity: Sport and PE provide many opportunities for students to invent outcomes.
Whether this is using creative methods to express ideas within a dance, or outwitting an opponent on the sports field, creativity is an important skill we need to develop.
This concept is one that sets our subject apart from other academic subjects. Creativity is a characteristic which many other countries are beginning to put more focus upon within education as they look at developing their future workforce.
● Sportsmanship: This refers to the ability of our students to enjoy competitive activities for what they are.
This includes their ability to compete fairly, within the rules and boundaries of the sport or activity. Respecting your team mates and opponents will be an important part of this aim.
Teaching our students to win gracefully, and show our opponents courtesy within defeat are important components of an athlete’s mentality, and we will need to encourage this within our lessons.
● Introducing students to a wide range of activities: The breadth of study that students have been introduced to will directly influence the probability of them pursuing activities in the future.
A PE curriculum which only contains a small number of activities may not effectively engage students to the point that they will want to develop their skills further, or join a community club to access further challenges.
In the past, the NCPE has been descriptive to ensure students are given a broad number of activities, from different activity areas. This has included activity areas such as invasion games (e.g. football or netball), net/wall games (e.g. tennis), and communicating concepts/ideas (e.g. dance or gymnastics).
This has now been removed to empower teachers to make more decisions for the classes they are teaching, therefore allowing us to provide a bespoke curriculum which will engage our students.
It is important that we provide a wide range of activities, from different activity areas to give our students as many experiences as we can within curriculum PE lessons.
● Promoting and improving health/fitness: PE is the foundation level of physical participation. It is within schools that most students will learn fundamental skills required to access sport and physical activities later in life.
Students also need to gain an understanding of what a healthy lifestyle is, and how the decisions they make can influence their health.
Providing students with PE also creates approxima...
