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The Future Physcial Education

“Meaningful PE” may be regarded as the major concern for the next generations. It relates to its purposeful experiences focusing on the subject nature of PE, its contributions to the nation, society and culture as well as its positive impacts on the growth and development of the students (Jewett & Bain, 1985). It is the belief of the project team that PE should provide meaningful experiences that are relevant, enjoyable and innovative. Below are some of the directions that are worth to be considered (Kirk, 2013; Fernandez-Balboa, 2012; Penny & Chandler, 2010) for structuring the respective professional development programmes in Hong Kong Physical Education Teachers Conference, including the keynote session, parallell session, lesson analysis, collaborative action research and workshops:

a) Furthering enhancing students’ learning-to-learn capability and lifelong learning through PE for tackling rapid global and local technological, economic, social and political development

The World Economic Forum estimates 65% of children today will end up in careers that do not even exist yet (Diana, 2017). Nigel Heap, Managing Director of Hays UK and Ireland said: “Individuals and companies that succeed in the future will be those who adopt the philosophy of lifelong learning” (Martindale, 2017). Our education system must prepare individuals for the world that will be, not the one that is and that was. It must ensure that those educated embody the qualities and competencies essential to life in a society is very different with our past.  Taking into account of these changing contexts in society and the world, with the ongoing renewal of the school curriculum, incorporating various Major Renewed Emphases (MRE) in PE curriculum, students are expected to be cultivated their capabilities for life-wide and lifelong learning.

b) Continuing to promote the STEM education through PE

In order to achieve the overall aims of PE ultimately and to broaden students’ horizons and spearhead innovations to meet the future challenges of the rapid social and economic development, it is necessary to incorporate the MRE, e.g. promoting STEM education, Information Technology in Education (ITEd), Entrepreneurial spirit, etc. into the PE KLA.

c) Further substantiate the enhancement of active lifestyles through PE

On the other hand, “physical inactivity” is another major challenge for our next generations facing with the health problem in the society which is recognized as a global public health issue (World Health Organization [WHO], 2018a). As recommended by WHO (2018b) children and youth aged 5-17 should accumulate at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity daily in order to provide fundamental health benefits for them. Therefore, motivating students to engage regular participation in physical activities according to the recommendation of WHO enhances not only students’ fitness level and cognitive control, but also contribute to their physical and mental health. Parents also valued physical activity as a factor which contributed to their children’s physical and mental health, but also enhances their team skills as well as increasing family and social bonds (Ha, MacDonald & Pang, 2010). Through purposeful and systematic curriculum planning, implementation and assessment in PE, under six strands and the MRE, nurturing seven values and attitudes as well as enhancing nine generic skills, students cannot only acquire skills and knowledge, but also develop the important learning-to-learning skills that promoting their lifelong learning capability.

d) Promotion of Pedagogical models to cater for inclusiveness, cultural heritages and student-centred learning through PE

Current practices of PE have been dominated by direct teaching or Command Style (Mosston & Ashworth, 2008) focusing on managerial efficiency with emphases of physical, technical, non-cognitive nor social domains. Teaching is commonly scheduled with rigid sequence of introductory, skill development, application and concluding activities with little variations. Block practices majoring in drills are the commonly conducted in most local PE lessons. Such “technical model” (Rink, 2014) is originated from the belief of information processing theory (Magill, 2011) which originated from the behavioral orientation. Such practices are more capable of improving students’ techniques and maintaining students’ discipline. However, such teacher-centred approach is less capable of cultivating students’ active learning, tackling their diversity which is common in local PE classes, as well as achieving multiple goals like social, cognitive, ethical, aesthetic and understanding of the games etc.

On the other hand, advancement of varied of pedagogical models like Mosston’s Spectrum of Teaching Styles, Teaching Games for Understanding, Cooperative Learning, Sport Education and Assessment for Learning etc. with distinct philosophical beliefs, objectives, content, methods and assessment are being promoted worldwide in the PE field (Metzler, 2015). These student-centred pedagogical and curricular models, to a certain extent, originate from the Dynamical Systems Motor learning theory (Davids, Button, & Bennett, 2008) with constructivist orientation. They are thought to be more capable of meeting the multiple learning outcomes of PE, tackling the diversity of students as well as promoting their active learning.

Furthermore, one of the main goals of education is to promote national heritages and culture for our students. Although there is debate and pollical dilemma in the concept of national identity, the promotion of national cultural physical activities should be regarded as an important goal of local PE.  It can be done by initiating professional development programmes for acquainting PE teachers’ competence and understanding of the Chinese cultural physical activities like Tai Chi, lion and dragon dance, shuttlecock, Chinese martial arts etc. so PE teachers can help promoting such cultural heritage for their students.          

e) Strengthening evident-based PE practice to help students to perceive competence and motivation to engage

It is the belief of the project team that PE teachers should be equipped themselves as curriculum and pedagogical leaders who are capable of tackling issues of professionalism, accountability, demanding and producing evidence-based work.  For a long time, most PE teachers work devoted in their in promoting students’ learning. However, relative less of them care about demonstrating their work with evidence for promoting students’ understanding of their performance in various learning domains which are possibly important to their motivation to learn and engage in PE learning. It may be one of the areas to be tackled.

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