Some thoughts on a thematic curriculum for PE

 Penney and Chandler (2000) asked "How can physical education be more connective (within the subject, with other aspects of the curriculum, and with the lives and societies beyond school), and express a lifetime approach to education? The lens they applied to this question was not the allied health one where PE is relevant because it solves a problem for the health promotion people (physical activity accumulation), it was not the one where PE is valuable because it assists academic attainment and concentration on task in other subjects, it was the educative lens where PE is valued because of its contribution to the learning.

"The contribution to learning that we see the subject providing, rather than the activities through which we may ultimately achieve that contribution, should become the explicit and defining feature of the subject, and should provide the framework for curriculum development"

Rather than the common activity based curriculum typical of many programs, Penney and Chandler proposed a thematically orientated curriculum for PE that was educationally focused. I have some experience with a thematic curriculum. I won a position as Head of Department: Health and PE in a low SES "disadvantaged" school in the mid-1990's. During one of the early meetings with my still new to me teaching team the discussion started with one of the teachers who had been working in the school for a few years saying something along the lines of, "PE is not working in this school, we need to do something different to engage the students". At this time, we had 5 students (out of Year 12 cohort of about 50 odd) doing post compulsory Year 12 PE and only one semester of PE in Year 11 with a class of about a dozen students. The HPE team spent the next 6 months discussing options, and 5 year plan emerged where the central pillars of the Year 8 -10 PE program were the Game Sense approach and a thematic curriculum rather than sport specific activity based curriculum.  We staged the introduction of the idea, introducing it to the new Year 8's the next year, then keeping it Year 8 and rolling the focus into Year 9 when this cohort moved into Year 9 the next year (and so on). When I moved from the school to take up a senior leadership position in another school 6 years later, we had 20 students (out of a cohort of 50 odd) doing Year 12 PE, two semesters of PE in Year 11, and due to student demand for more PE, an elective PE offering in Year 9 in addition to compulsory PE as part of that Year Level's Wednesday afternoon elective program. In this school at that time, a "tactical to technical" game-based approach rather than the often more common in PE "technical to tactical" skill and drill approach seemed to make a major difference to students perception of their capacity to be successful, judging by the increase in the number of students enrolling in post compulsory PE.

The Australian Curriculum for HPE provides a framework for a thematic curriculum by indicating HPE has 12 focus areas.

The Focus Areas do not necessarily have to be thought of as independent themes. For example, tennis might link to Games and Sport,  Lifetime Physical Activities, and Health Benefits of Physical Activity in secondary school PE, depending on the curriculum design capability of the teacher to  enable the possibility (or not) of an integrated focus. In the early years of Primary School, (paddle bat) tennis might be used to integrate the Focus Areas of Fundamental Movement Skills, Active Play and Minor Games, and Health Benefits of Physical Activity.

Considering more closely the Focus Area of Games and Sport, a thematic approach to those same Focus Areas is possible via the game categories of the Game Sense Approach (in my work, I add a 5th category I call 'Competing" to capture activities like athletics, swimming, rowing, cycling etc).   

Teaching thematically using game categories and the principles of play common to the logic of the play in the game category means that the PE teacher does not need to provide experiences in every  or even many sports/games in a category, providing they are explicitly teaching for transfer of understanding across the games within the category. This is particularly pertinent within the context of the ACHPE as the Achievement Standard at Year 9/10 seeks transfer of understanding from the context students are experiencing to a "new" context.

Mitchell, Oslin and Griffin (2013) in one of my favourite PE resources provided a clear illustration of this conceptual familiarity between sports within a game category.

In the Play with Purpose model I use in my teacher education classes, the Games and Sport Focus Area is illustrated thematically using the game categories of the Game Sense approach for sport teaching and coaching. In Year 5-6 PE I suggest lots of small sided games to teach the tactical and technical skills common of games in the game category. In Year 7-8 I suggest modified or scaled versions of sports within the game categories, and for Years 9-10 a more deliberate use of the Sport Education model to connect students to the broader socio-cultural construction of sport in community settings. 

Rather than providing an activity based curriculum where lots of sport forms are put 'in front of the students' in the speculative hope they experience something they like and continue with it, perhaps PE can be more connective (within the subject, with other aspects of the curriculum, and with the lives and societies beyond school), and express a lifetime approach to education by adopting a "less is more" lens to curriculum planning. My personal experience in one school was that a thematic curriculum incorporating game categories, and beginning lesson planning from the principles of play and the associated strategies and tactics as the big ideas from which focus questions were developed, led to a rejuvenation of PE through renewed interest in PE from students.