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| Part I | Knowing your subject
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| Chapter 1 | The nature of physical education
MARGARET WHITEHEAD |
INTRODUCTION
This chapter is designed to help you clarify your thinking about key aspects of the nature of physical education. It looks at the relationship between aims, objectives and learning outcomes and how aims relate to values and justifications. It also encourages you to think about the difference between physical education and related activities such as sport, as well as alert you to the way aims can be ends in themselves or means to other ends. In essence, this chapter has a philosophical flavour and rather than give you all the answers, it challenges you to reflect on your current thinking and to appreciate that there will always be different opinions about many of the important issues covered here.
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
● employ the terms ‘aim’, ‘objective’ and ‘learning outcome’ accurately;
●identify the relationship between an ‘aim’, a ‘value’ and a ‘justification’;
●differentiate between key concepts in physical education and sport;
●recognise aims that are ends in themselves and those that are means to other ends.
AIMS, OBJECTIVES AND LEARNING OUTCOMES
It is very important to be clear about the aims underlying physical education and how these relate to units of work and lesson planning. Aims are usually defined as long-term intentions of a subject. The stepping stones to achieve an aim are usually referred to as objectives and are the intentions that guide the planning of units of work. Steps to achieve objectives are usually referred to as learning outcomes and these are written in such a way to describe specifically what pupils are able to demonstrate (see also Whitehead, 2010a; and also Chapters 4, 5 and 13 in this volume).
Activity 1.1a allows you to check that you have grasped both the relationship between these three important terms and the difference between these concepts.
Aims, objectives and learning outcomes
From the list below, identify which is an aim, which is an objective and which is a learning outcome:
● Introduce pair work in simple sports acrobatic balances.
● Show stability in holding a pair balance.
● Develop the body management skill of balancing.
Complete the steps below by adding an objective and a learning outcome:
● Aim – develop co-operative skills.
● Objective –
● Learning outcome –
Complete the steps below by adding an aim and a learning outcome:
● Aim –
● Objective – introduce 5 vs 5 game of hockey.
● Learning outcome –
Complete the steps below by adding an aim and an objective:
● Aim –
● Objective–
● Learning outcome – be able to record the heart rate before and after activity.
AIMS, VALUE AND JUSTIFICATIONS
The previous section looked at aims and how these are broken down in stages and thus impact on the actual nature of the teaching of pupils. The other important aspect of aims is their role in justifying the place of the subject in the curriculum. Rather than putting aims under the microscope as in the section above, this consideration of aims looks outwards at how the subject relates to education as a whole and the place of physical activity in society. It is very important for all teachers of physical education to be able to articulate the value of the aims of the subject and be able to support this value claim with a justification.
Aims are statements of your intended goals. They answer the question, ‘Why are you carrying out this practice?’ Values answer the question, ‘What is the point of carrying out this practice?’ In other words, a value describes the benefit to be gained from a particular activity. A justification responds to the next question, ‘Can you persuade me that the value you attribute to the practice is worthwhile?’ A justification, therefore, goes a step further and explains why the claimed benefit is desirable. There is further discussion of these concepts in Whitehead (2010a).
For example, one could be asked, ‘Why are you catching this train?’ The answer could be ‘To go to London.’ The value question would be, ‘What are you going to London for?’ The answer could be ‘To do Christmas shopping.’ The justification question following this could be, ‘What is the advantage of going to London if you could do all your shopping in Sheffield?’ Your answer could indicate, for example, the amount of choice in London or that the prices are cheaper.
Similar questions in relation to physical education could be:
● Why are you doing physical education? Answer: to promote skilful body management.
● What is the value of promoting skilful body management? Answer: to help pupils to be co-ordinated and be able to control their body.
● Why is this a valuable thing to do? Answer: as humans we need to be able to function effectively physically not only to carry out activities in our daily life with ease but also to give us the opportunity to take part in the wide range of physical activities available in our culture.
Complete Activity 1.1b to check that you have grasped the relationship between an aim, a value and a justification and appreciate the distinctive nature of each concept.
Aims, values and justifications
From the list below, identify which is an aim, which is a value and which is a justification:
● Competition is an integral part of our culture.
● Learn to handle competition.
● To experience and manage winning and losing.
Complete the trio below by adding the value and justification:
● Aim – to develop physical literacy.
● Value –
● Justification –
Complete the trio below by adding the aim and justification:
● Aim –
● Value – to ensure lifelong health and fitness.
● Justification –
Complete the trio below by adding the aim and value:
● Aim –
● Value –
● Justification – imagination and creativity are integral aspects of life and offer the potential to enrich many aspects of work and leisure.
DEFINING TERMS SUCH AS PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND SPORT
One complication in debating aims, values and justifications is that there could be an underlying misunderstanding about the subject under debate. For example, some people find it difficult to differentiate between physical education and sport; others see both physic...
