A sociocultural perspective as a curriculum change in health and physical education

As a lens through which to read and understand a subject area and its curriculum content and issues, a sociocultural perspective is a recent and arguably significant change for the Health and Physical Education (HPE) Key Learning Area (KLA) in Australia. Its significance lies, first, in the fact that it seems to represent a notable departure from the predominantly medico-scientific, bio-physical and even psychological foundations of the learning area as it stood throughout the second half of the twentieth century, and second, because its attention to social and cultural influences on health put it in direct opposition to notions which locate health almost solely in the individual and his or her decisions. Despite the potential ramifications of these shifts for practitioners, to date there has been little research that has examined this change within the context of the classroom. This paper reports on a research project conducted in two classrooms in the Australian state of New South Wales, which began with the question ‘what happens when you introduce a unit of work planned with the aim of developing a sociocultural perspective into the HPE classroom?’ I respond to this question by drawing on teacher and student interviews, planning sessions, and classroom observations and recordings to discuss the most prominent discursive tensions and organisational constraints that stand as impediments to a sociocultural perspective as a practiced curriculum change.     

Framing citizenship: from assumptions to possibilities in health and physical education

Within the Australian context physical education (PE) and more recently health and physical education (HPE) have long been ascribed utilitarian value for producing healthy citizens. Whilst this has not been a linear progression over time, traces from the past do inform current assumptions about this utilitarian role. Of consequence are historical contingencies and responses to societal problems around health-related conduct and capabilities of the nations’ citizens. In this paper a genealogical approach is adopted to explore discourses and power relations that have framed the contribution of PE and HPE in shaping students for healthy citizenship. Disciplinary technologies associated with military-style physical training, civilising technologies of game play and responsibilising governmental technologies of contemporary policies will be explored. I conclude in arguing that if HPE is to prepare all students for equitable, inclusive citizenship what is required is the adoption of curricula and pedagogies that counteract hegemonic notions of individual responsibility for healthy citizenship.     

Health education assessment practices used by physical education and health teachers in a collaborative action research

ABSTRACT

Background: The school setting is the ideal environment for encouraging students to adopt health-promoting behaviours (Chong, McCuaig and Rossi, 2018, “Primary Physical Education Specialists and their Perceived Role in the Explicit/Implicit Delivery of Health Education.” Curriculum Studies in Health and Physical Education 9 (2): 189–204. doi: 10.1080/25742981.2018.1452163). Schools are actively supporting the implementation of health education (HE) initiatives, and the potential contribution of physical education (PE) to these initiatives is recognised in a number of countries (Gray, MacIsaac and Jess, 2015, “Teaching ‘Health’ in Physical Education in a ‘Healthy’ Way.” Retos 28 (1): 165–172; Haerens, Kirk, Cardon and De Bourdeaudhuij, 2011, “Toward the Development of a Pedagogical Model for Health-Based Physical Education.” Quest 63 (3): 321–338. doi: 10.1080/00336297.2011.10483684). One of the biggest challenges faced by PE teachers is the assessment of student learning in the area of health (Bezeau, 2019, “L’accompagnement d’enseignantes en éducation physique et à la santé visant l’optimisation de leurs pratiques évaluatives en éducation à la santé.” PhD diss., Université de Sherbrooke; Turcotte, Gaudreau, Otis and Desbiens, 2010, “Les pratiques pédagogiques d’éducateurs physiques du primaire en éducation à la santé.” In Éducation à la santé, edited by Claire Isabelle, Louise Sauvé, and Monique Noël-Gaudreault, 717–738. Montréal: Revue des sciences de l’éducation). These challenges highlight the need for professional development that meets the needs of PE teachers in regard to the health component, in particular in terms of assessment practices (Turcotte, 2010, “Problématisation: l’éducation à la santé et l’éducation physique.” In Faire équipe pour une éducation à la santé en milieu scolaire, edited by Johanne Grenier, Joanne Otis, and Gilles Harvey, 25–48. Québec: Presses de l’Université du Québec). However, teachers report that the professional development provided to better integrate health into PE is ineffective (Alfrey, Cale and Webb, 2012, “Physical Education Teachers’ Continuing Professional Development in Health-Related Exercise: A Figurational Analysis.” European Physical Education Review 18 (3): 361–379. doi: 10.1177/1356336X12450797; Makopoulou and Armour, 2011, “Teachers’ Professional Learning in a European Learning Society: the Case of Physical Education.” Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy 16 (4): 417–433. doi: 10.1080/17408989.2010.548060). In order to optimise assessment practices in HE, the development of training methods that answer the real needs of PE teachers constitutes a potential solution to this problem. In this study, two PE teachers were supported in the operationalisation and appropriation of an innovative problem-solving process aimed at optimising their assessment practices in HE.

Objectives: The objectives of this article are to describe: 1) the operationalisation of strategies established by the participants targeting their assessment practices in HE, and 2) the evolution of these practices.

Method: A collaborative action research (CAR) approach was taken, and four methods of data collection were used: 1) individual interviews; 2) group interviews; 3) participant observation, and 4) logbooks. The data was collected over a 12-month period, overlapping two school years, and then analyzed through content analysis.

Findings: Results suggest that, despite the planning and implementation of strategies considered effective by the participants, their assessment practices in the gymnasium progressed very little, while their practices outside the gymnasium evolved considerably.

Conclusion: If we want to optimise assessment practices in HE, or teaching practices in general, we must put aside the question ‘why,’ and focus on ‘how’ to meet the challenges related to the implementation of this type of professional development. Bringing real change to teaching practices is a long process that requires an investment of time and effort from teachers, and starts with the optimisation of practices outside the learning environment.     

体育与健康课程实施的发展策略

课程实施是体育与健康课程理想得以实现、课程价值赖以生成的重要途径,是达成体育与健康课程愿景的战略通衢。为了切实提升体育与健康课程改革由课程愿景转变为课程现实的科学性和实效性,必须强化如下策略:体现中国特色,创新体育与健康课程实施的运行机制;树立新观念,真正发挥课堂教学的主渠道作用;注重实效,大力推广大课间体育活动;重视条件建设,提供强有力的课程资源保障;科研引路,充分发挥课程研究的牵引作用。     

Conducting research with young Chinese-Australian students in health and physical education and physical activity: epistemology,positionality and methodologies

Research that delves into the sociocultural perspectives of health and physical education and physical activity (HPEPA) in the lives of ethnic minority students in Westernised countries is often conducted by investigators who are Westerners, native English speakers and racially different from the study participants. Limited research is conducted by researchers who have racial and/or linguistic identities similar to those of study participants, and even fewer reports include the reflexivity data of the research process. This paper draws upon my own experience, as a young Hong Kong-Chinese female Australian, of conducting research with Chinese students and their White HPE teachers in Australia. I discuss a number of aspects of the epistemological dilemmas of being an insider and outsider as a researcher, and the practical and methodological issues in recruiting participants and conducting research with them. In addition, reversing the ethnic gaze by focusing on the teachers (i.e. a young Chinese female conducting research with White teachers) can help to illuminate new perspectives on the construction of otherness and positionalities within research. The reflections add to current discourse on problematising HPEPA research in general, particularly when researching the Other. This paper concludes that an intersection of racial, ethnic, class, gender and age identity can and does have some effect on the research process, as the Chinese students raised particular questions to a young, female Chinese researcher, and they were more willing to talk about racial and cultural issues they felt I could relate to.     

学生体质健康的影响因素与学校体育的应对

教育部公布的2004年全国学生体质健康监测结果显示,我国学生体质健康状况不容乐观。认为不良的教育观念、繁重的课余学习负担、学校体育的缺位、不良的卫生习惯和生活环境是导致我国学生体质健康水平下降的主要影响因素。为了学生体质健康水平的提升,从转变教育观念、调整学校体育的指导思想、教学内容、教学模式、学校家庭社会三结合等多角度提出应对策略。     

体育与健康课程标准实施的几个关键点

通过对体育与健康课程标准的研究,提出实施体育与健康课程标准应把握研读课标抓变化、教学设计体现新、教学目标易评价、技能掌握是根本、学法指导善观察、分层分类综合评等策略。     

体育教学中思想品德教育和心理健康教育的结合

在体育新课程改革中,思想品德教育目标和心理健康教育目标必须有机结合,以实现二者的互补互动,相得益彰,而不能单纯强调一方,忽视另一方。其依据主要是：思想品德教育和心理健康教育存在着交叉互补、相互影响的关系,决定了两者有机结合的必要性;体育教学自身的特点,以及体育教学基本要素和基本环节的统一,为两者有机结合提供了现实条件。     

体育与健康课程标准的变化及困惑

通过对比分析体育与健康课程标准修订稿和实验稿,解读了体育与健康课程标准的变化:课程名称统一为"体育与健康";课程理念由过去的"以学生发展为中心,重视学生的主体地位"变为"以学生发展为中心,帮助学生学会体育与健康学习";"五大领域"整合成了4个学习方面,即把心理健康、社会适应合二为一,变成了心理健康与社会适应;实施指导更加具体和实用。但在课程内容、目标、评价等方面仍存在定位和操作性的困惑。     

关于体育与健康思想的几点思考

“健康第一”思想的提出,给学校体育提供了良好的发展机遇,而明确责任、加强实践教学、提高教师素质、改革体育考核方法无疑有助于学校体育贯彻“健康第一”的指导思想。     

我国体育教育专业健康教育课程存在的问题

《健康教育》课程构建健康教育知识体系框架的基础，调查发现《健康教育》课程在各校实际开设的随意性较大，教材建设滞后，教师缺少业务进修等情况，与体育与健康课程标准对体育教师应具有较高的健康教育专业知识与技能的要求不相称。     

对大学体育健康课程教学改革走向的探讨

面对体育教育改革的新发展，从大学体育教育应具有的时代性特征入手，从健康教育的角度，对大学体育健康课程的改革提出一些观点，以期为教学实践提供参考。     

Embodied encounters with more-than-human nature in health and physical education

ABSTRACT

Despite the importance of interactions with natural environments for personal and social well-being, there is only limited evidence of the relationship between the environment and health as an idea or area of study in school education in Australia. Logically, the place for such a study, at least in Australia, would be within the Health & Physical Education (HPE) key learning area. However, in HPE, alternative ways of considering health beyond the dominant ‘healthism’ discourses which privilege physical activity, fitness, food and nutrition struggle for any kind of existence. Gruenewald (2004. A Foucauldian analysis of environmental education: Toward the socioecological challenge of the earth charter. Curriculum Inquiry, 34(1), 71–107) suggests looking to the margins of a field to see what knowledge is silenced or subjugated in order to open up new conditions of possibility. This challenged us to look beyond taken for granted ways of thinking about health to identify other resources, perhaps unrecognised as yet, that teachers might draw on to constitute their knowledge of health. To do this, we look to interview data collected when teachers were asked to talk about their personal experiences of the relationship between the environment and health. The analysis of the interviews demonstrated how the teachers conceptualised the relationship between the environment and health by drawing on embodied experiences and affective encounters with more-than-human nature. By theorising these encounters through a post-human, new-materialist lens, we demonstrate how their corporeal knowledge, developed through embodied experiences, has the potential to assist teachers in formulating less institutionalised health understandings. We argue that these encounters with more-than-human nature can serve as alternatives to those dominant healthism discourses that invoke problematic risk, fear and crisis responses.     

Data assemblages,sentient schools and digitised health and physical education (response to Gard)

Michael Gard raises some important issues in his opinion piece on digitised health and physical education (HPE) in the school setting. His piece represents the beginning of a more critical approach to the instrumental and solutionist perspectives that are currently offered on digitised HPE. Few commentators in education, health promotion or sports studies have begun to realise the extent to which digital data surveillance and analytics are now encroaching into many social institutions and settings and the ways in which actors and agencies in the digital knowledge economy are appropriating these data. Identifying what is happening and the implications for the concepts of selfhood, body and social relations, not to mention the more specific issues of privacy and the commercialisation and exploitation of personal data, requires much greater attention than these issues have previously received in the critical social research literature. While Gard has begun to do this in his article, there is much more to discuss. In this response, I present some discussion that seeks to provide a complementary commentary on the broader context in which digitised HPE is developing and manifesting. Whether or not one takes a position that is techno-utopian, dystopian or somewhere in between, I would argue that to fully understand the social, cultural and political resonances of digitised HPE, such contextualising is vital.     

对体育中几个概念的讨论

在20多年的体育教学改革实验中，由于对体质与健康、运动文化、体育、体育手段等概念认识的偏差，影响了体育方向、目标、方法与效果。本着百家争鸣的方针，以实事求是的态度，在长期从事体育教学积累而来的一些经验的基础上提出自己的看法。     

新《体质健康标准》视角下构建体育课程体系的研究

在前期体育教学改革和实践的基础上,提出了建立与新《标准》相适应的“以三自主选修课为主体、必修课为基础、课外锻炼为补充、竞技训练课为拓展”的体育课程体系。该体系强调：指导思想一体育课程和《标准》目标的整体性和一致性;方法体系一课程设置与组织形式的复合性和全面性;内容体系一兴趣需要与发展体能的全面性和基础性;过程体系一课程管理、评价、运行的强制性和实效性。     

对普通高校实施体育健康课程的探讨

高校体育肩负着大学生身体健康．并培养其掌握健身知识、方法，使其终身受益的重任．随着新世纪社会需求人才标准的变革．高校体育培养人才的途径和目标必然随之发生交化．实施体育健康课程是高枚体育改革的趋势。为此．用辨证的、理性的、发展的观点．对我国高校体育存在问题的根涿进行再认识，阐述了普通高校实施体育健康课程的重要性．并对科学构建体育课程体系进行了探讨。     

阳光教育理论与中小学体育教学改革

阳光教育是教师用爱心关心、理解、激励学生,使其成为性格活泼、自立自强、合群合作的一代新人的教育。作为一种新的教育理念,阳光教育是基于对目前学校体育教育,尤其是中小学体育教学所存在的弊端而提出来的,在体育教育中应贯彻阳光教育理念。     

高校体育与健康教育的新理念

高校体育与健康教育要以邓小平理论和"三个代表"重要思想为指导,建立以人为本的体育理论体系;要关注学生的健康问题,坚持"健康第一"的指导思想,促进学生健康成长;要注重激发学生的运动兴趣,充分发挥学生的主观能动性,培养学生终身体育锻炼的习惯;要重视学生的素质教育问题,充分利用和开发体育与健康教育资源,为提高学生的综合素质服务。     

创新教育与高校体育改革

在知识经济为背景的信息社会时代，创新是教育思想的灵魂，作为高等教育中一个重要组成部分的高校体育，必须顺应时代发展的要求，更新教育指导思想和改革传统的教学方法，注重学生的个性发展，加强体育师资队伍建设，开展创新教育。