Exploring the relationship between Health Education and Physical Education

In the mid-1990s there was an attempt to standardise school curricula in Australia. This involved a shift from subjects to learning areas, drawing on a collection of subjects to form a syllabus (Brooker et al., 1998). In the process, Physical Education (PE) was initially marginalised and a draft curriculum document was developed for a ‘key learning area’ entitled ‘Health’. Following strong feedback, particularly from the field of sport (Pill, 2012; Swabey, 2006), the redrafted curriculum document came to be named as ‘Health and Physical Education’ (HPE). Skills and concepts were included in a statement and profile of the HPE learning area (Curriculum Corporation, 1994; Dinan-Thompson, 2006; Pill, 2012; Swabey, 2006). This marked the beginning of a blurring of the boundaries between Health Education (HE) and PE as academic disciplines, or subject areas, with their previously distinctive content and pedagogical traditions (Dinan-Thompson, 2006; Pill, 2012).
The HPE Statement and Profile (Curriculum Corporation, 1994) influenced the curriculum
work of Australian state education departments over the ensuing decade. However, some Australian universities (such as the one in which this study took place) continued to offer academic majors and minors in HE and PE that could be taken together or in combination with another academic  discipline, for example, English and Science. This was because employers continued to recruit specialist PE teachers into secondary teaching with the required need to teach two or more subjects, but not necessarily HE and PE. Indeed, it was not uncommon for HE to be taught by teachers with or without any HE tertiary training. And when HE was taught in secondary schools by PE teachers, it often more closely resembled ‘PE theory’ than HE due to PE teachers’ lack of HE pedagogical and  content knowledge (Barwood, 2015; Barwood et al., 2016; Lewis, 2012).

The development of the Australian Curriculum: HPE (AC: HPE) cemented the subject association between HE and PE. The Draft Shape of the Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education document proposed that the relationship between the two subjects move beyond the association earlier established in the statement and profile of the HPE learning area (Curriculum Corporation, 1994). The direction to more obviously link HE and PE, evident in the drafting and consultation of  the AC: HPE, has subsequently influenced the combining of these academic disciplines in Australian  schools and in some Australian universities education degrees. This shift has precipitated HE and PE staffing changes in  some secondary schools, requiring the presence of teachers who can teach this combined learning area. Consequently, in some states many more secondary PE teachers are now required to teach the ‘Health Education content strand’, as they are often employed as HPE teachers (Lewis, 2012). To do so effectively requires specialised knowledge of personal, social and community health areas. In my travels on teaching rounds and in discussion with in-service teachers at PD events, the key teacher of PE in primary schools does not appear to have evolved into a key teacher of HPE, with the classroom teacher still in most cases responsible for the health education curriculum in schools where a 'key teacher' of PE is employed.

In a recent study, we explored how much health education content knowledge had 'stuck' with PE teacher education students who were commencing a course of study in a health education topic. In broad terms, we found they had poor and naive understandings of health promotion and education. Their own experience of school health education appeared to have little impact on the development of retained understanding of key personal, family and social health promotion concepts.

As a result of our study, I believe research into the 'what' and 'how' primary and secondary education teacher education students remember of health education immediately post school graduation is needed to inform health education teacher education preparation and continuing professional development for enhanced school health education learning outcomes.

*This is an extract from our recent paper: How do pre-service physical education teachers understand health education and their role as health educators? Available here


Comments

  1. Physical fitness can be a key component of a healthy lifestyle. This is why P.E. is a key subject in all the leading universities in the world.
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