Physical Education Philosophy

Nicole Tucker

Physical Education Philosophy

The purpose of Physical Education is to create physically educated people who can stay healthy for a lifetime.  To help people become physically educated they need to be taught about physical education in all three learning domains; psychomotor, cognitive, and affective.  I think that the psychomotor domain is the most important and 70% of class time should be dedicated to kids being physically active and getting a good workout.  The cognitive and affective domains should each take up 15% of the lesson because they are both required to create a well educated person. 

To physically educate students in the psychomotor domain, a teacher must get kids active, excited to move, and interested in an activity that will keep them fit for a lifetime.  Some kids do not participate in free play or sports and therefore are only physically active during PE class.  Teachers in the PE setting have a duty to get kids participating at a moderate to vigorous intensity level during every lesson.  Teachers also need to create excitement about being physically active.  If a teacher puts in extra effort and makes physical activity fun, kids will want to participate and will become better movers.  Along with making physical activity fun, teachers need to explore a variety of activities so that every child will find an activity that he or she will want to use to stay healthy for life.  Most people stop playing team sports after high school or college so teaching other forms of physical activity is very important. 

To help students see the validity of PE, physical educators should teach in the cognitive domain.  Students need to understand the benefits of being physically active, and the hazards of a sedentary lifestyle.  PE teachers should teach their students how to make a personal fitness plan, how to use resources in the community to stay active, and how to maintain a healthy lifestyle past working out.  If students are aware of the hard facts behind physical activity they will be more likely to participate in class, and more likely to stay active even after physical education classed end. 

Teaching the affective domain is important in physical education because it teaches students safety and sportsperson ship.  Physical activity can be dangerous and a physical educator should always let students know about any injury that could occur during exercise or play.  PE is also a great way for students to learn how to win and lose in a gracious manner.  It is a responsibility of a physical educator to make sure that students are taught the etiquette of how to lose so that they are well prepared to compete in the future if they choose and not know how to lose. 

If a physical educator teaches lessons that touch on all three of these domains, students will become physically educated and will have the desire and knowledge to stay fit for life.  Teaching students a variety of psychomotor skills will show them how to perform a task, teaching the cognitive aspect of that task will teach them how to continue the skill throughout their life, and teaching in the affective domain will show students how to be safe and responsible during physical activity.