Physical Education and Its Changes

Author : Sharon White
Physical Education subject faced a variety of significant changes during last 50 years.
Some of these changes are so crucial that there may not have even been an academic subject called Physical Education to speak about. This essay shall aim to uncover the
principle changes the subject has gone through since 1945 and also
provide insight into why these changes did and had to occur. I shall
endeavour to tackle these principle changes in a chronological order
although some have to be considered as an issue on their own.Firstly, however, before uncovering the changes in PE post-1945 it is
important to know what was going on in this subject pre-1945. A good
place to start is in the 1800s in Rugby school where a gentleman named
Dr Thomas Arnold was headmaster. He arrived at this public school when
boys were taking part in traditional country outdoor activities such
as shooting and fishing, though in rebellion of the law. Arnold wished
to confine the boys at Rugby to take part in activities within the
confines of the school grounds, this meant team games such as Rugby,
Cricket and Football. He allowed these team games, where the boys
would often get hurt and covered in mud, to go on because he believed
that they also served an educational role, a means of developing one's
character (Goodwin, 1984). He understood that these games would
develop traits in a boy such as courage, loyalty, self-sacrifice,
unselfishness, co-operation, a sense of honor and the ability to
accept defeat, "be a good loser" . These games were
however very much confined to the public schools.In 1872 an Education (Scotland) Act was passed that introduced
compulsory schooling for children aged 5-13. Though this helped
children receive an education, there was no mention of PE, or sport of
any kind within the document. In order that these
children could receive some sort of physical activity, drill was
introduced to encourage sharp obedience, smartness, cleanliness and
order. It was however recognized that other forms of physical activity
had to occur for the health of the nation. This was the time when
therapeutic Swedish gymnastics appeared in order that it would
counteract disease and ill health. Physical training and education had
become part of the wider developments in health education in the
school medical service of 1909. PE therefore from
about 1872-1945 was no longer about discipline but about health.It is very important before continuing to have a definition of what
Physical Education actually is, from reading the literature it is hard
to determine one true designation. The Oxford Dictionary (1999) offers
the following, "(PE is) the instruction in physical exercise and
games, especially in schools". Whereas Webster's New International
Dictionary (1986) offers this description stating that PE is
"education in methods designed to promote the development and care of
the body and usually involving instruction in hygiene and systematic
exercises and in sports and games". As can be seen from the two
descriptions the Oxford dictionary does not even mention the word
education and instead contends that PE is all about games and sports.
This proponent of PE began to surface after 1945.After 1945 and around the mid 1960s more significant educational
changes began to emerge. In 1945 an Education of Scotland Act was
passed which increased the school leaving age to 15 years old. PE at
this time was a compulsory part of schooling, so with this change more
children took part in PE for longer. PE started to move towards the
more aesthetic elements of the curriculum; dance and movement were
particularly popular. This aesthetic aspect towards PE fashioned a
movement characteristic, thus maintaining its physical nature. At this time the majority of PE teachers were female and these teachers pushed towards more qualitative gymnastics and aesthetics promoting that it was a part of self-discovery and expression in their
pupils. These female PE teachers came from a very restricted physical
education establishment in the form of specialist teacher training
colleges. These were confined mainly with women and gymnastics until
the end of the Second World War. It was also suggested
that this type of PE placed a certain level of demand on pupils'
intelligence levels and helped to develop cognitive activity. Male PE teachers argued that this type of expressionist PE was not the way forward and instead pursued the idea
that PE should be competition based. The male physical educators took
on board Olympic Gymnastics as opposed to the more qualitative
recreational sort. They supported scientific principles and skill
development as the best form of education. The popularity of this
approach grew as the numbers of male PE teachers increased. The males
criticized the females, suggesting that their approach contained a
lack of teacher involvement and direction and that it was mainly based
around the pupils teaching themselves. With the introduction of other activities into the curriculum the debate surrounding educational or Olympic gymnastics died down. It would not be until 1988 that male and female PE teachers would teach the same thing.Games were made compulsory in state schools in 1944 even though they
had been a very important aspect of private schooling for years. PE around the 1960s consisted mainly of team games. These games were often taught by non-specialists, this was especially the case for the boys' games programme. At this point out of school games or extra
curricular school sport was a major part of the physical education
programme. An assessment for the selections of school teams was often a job undertaken by the PE staff. The pupils selected for these teams would be the best players in the school as seen by the PE staff. This was an opportunity where the PE teachers could make a
name for themselves and gain prestige from their peers by picking
winning teams. Often the prestige of the school came before attempting
to give all pupils a game.As can be seen so far PE had already made some big changes. It had
transformed itself from the rough games and character building of
Arnold's Rugby School to militaristic drill taken by sergeants to
aesthetic gymnastics and movement to the scientisation of the male
taught Olympic gymnastics. Once again though PE has returned through
this chronological order to the team games that were prevalent back in
the 1800s, however, here it was to promote the status of the PE
teachers and help them to create a name for themselves within the
schools.In 1965 a Sports Council was set up to advice the government on future
policy on sport and PE. This was a unique step and came from the
advice of the Wolfenden committee, which reported in 1960 on 'sport
and the community'. Sir John Wolfenden chaired this
committee and David Munrow was one of its members and also the
Director of PE at Birmingham University. This committee was formed to
examine the general position of sport in Britain and to recommend any
action that they think should be taken.Between the late 1970s and early 1980s PE was lacking in educational
significance. PE teachers were regarded as having a low status that
they were good for talk about the weekend's sporting events but they
did not teach a very educational subject. Musgrove and
Taylor (1969) suggested that practical subjects had always been
regarded as low status. PE had been linked with subjects such as
Music, Drama and Art in the section of the curriculum known as the
'expressive arts'. This convenient label was based on the fact that
creativity was an aspect of these subjects. There were various
educational ideologies around during this time. Some of which
suggested that the main thrust of the curriculum was recreational with
the emphasis on games and education for leisure. There was an awful
lot of emphasis on playing the game and not a lot of specific teaching
going on at that time. PE had become categorized as a subject with a
lack of formal assessment.Assessments up to the mid 1970s had often relied on fleeting evidence
and a reliance on general impressions, with a lack of specific
criteria and specific observation. Therefore as a result assessment
was never seen as an important issue in PE, any thought given to the
purposes, issues and problems surrounding PE non-existent. Assessments
were in the form of school reports, generally for the pupils and
parents to ascertain the levels of their achievements so far. These
reports were often vague, hurried and did not have much consideration
given to them by teachers. A move towards
certification in PE would provide a sound curriculum and forms of
assessment and examination.As of the late 1960s PE had been trying to develop the curriculum and
in 1972 this was mirrored in Curriculum Paper 12 - 'Physical Education
in Secondary Schools'. At this time certification and assessment were
not yet considered. However in 1980 plans for an introduction of a new system of curriculum and assessment for 3rd and 4th years of secondary schooling were presented, encouraged by the
recommendations in the Munn and Dunning committees. The Munn committee
established 8 modes of activity within the curriculum of which
physical activity was one. This was part of the core and additional
options structure. The Dunning committee recommended
that all pupils should be given the right to take part in courses that
could lead to the Scottish Certificate of Education and that exams and
assessment by teachers should depict the awards achieved. These awards
would be at three different levels: Credit, General and Foundation. Fryer (1986) contends that the introduction of this structure helped PE to re-consider its teaching
practices and system of assessment for certification.These recommendations for the change in the PE curriculum from the
Munn and Dunning report were set in motion by the first Thatcher
government, where a small group of policy individuals set about
developing a suitable certificated course. In 1984 PE
was certificated and came under the title of Standard Grade in
Scotland. Standard Grade PE (SGPE) held the idea that PE was now
educationally respectable and it began to enhance the status of the
teachers. It was now seen by others as an entry into the world of
testing, exams, knowledge and understanding, thus implying
intellectual activity and serious academic study. The SGPE course contained a large element of coursework concerned with the acquisition of knowledge and understanding of facts, concepts and principles about the activities studied, about how skills are learned
and performed and about the body and how it works. All of these
elements began to give PE an air of intellectual and educational
rigor and importance. PE teachers were now starting
to use the same kind of language as their colleagues when talking
about course moderation, examinations, estimates, assessments and
assignments.On Tuesday 31st May 1994 2,288 students from 116 presenting centers
sat the first examination in performance for Higher Grade PE (HGPE). HGPE was established as the next level of certificated education in PE and is offered to students at 5th year level. The
Scottish Universities Council on Entrance (SUCE) approved HGPE for the
purposes of the general entrance requirements of its constituent
Universities, this also added to the status of the educational
aptitude of PE. It was important that HGPE was equivalent to HG
courses in other subjects as an entry to University. This of course
was especially important to parents and pupils when deciding
particular subjects to pursue. Teachers pushed the practical vs.
academic battle. Improved standards were a major difference between SGPE and HGPE and to achieve these students must acquire understanding of concepts, assess and appraise both processes and product. Thus, the activities selected in HGPE are the focus for
learning rather than a vehicle for learning as in SGPE. In short, HGPE
allows a more in depth study to PE. In order to gain an award at HGPE
two activities are selected for the students, decided as a result of
consultation, which has to be balanced against the expertise,
facilities and resources available at individual schools. Assessment
is internal with external moderation.Carroll (1994) has suggested that this move towards a certificated PE
curriculum did mean that PE became more centrally involved in the
functions of the school, moving from a more marginal role to a more
central one. However, as a result, it also meant involvement in the
ideologies of assessment and lost its sense of freedom, accepting
external control in order that there is clarity of role, personal
development for teachers and possibly even the survival of the
subject. The development of nationally recognized forms of assessment
and certification did, according to Reid (1996), finally settle the
problem of marginal status of PE in relation to other academic
subjects. Kirk and Tinning (1990) believe that PE finally demonstrated
that it was an educationally worthy subject when it demonstrated its
scientific basis. They may then believe that the certification of PE
led it to become a more scientific subject and that this is the reason
that it is worthy of intellectual pursuit.As can be seen from this essay there have been many changes in
physical education since 1945. These changes have most notably been
down to changes in the curriculum and this occurred due to the
ever-rising argument that PE was not an educationally significant
subject. Before 1945 PE was more about play and building ones
character through this play. Since this period, PE moved to become
more to do with the philosophy of movement and more aesthetic
qualities began to surface, especially with the introduction of
Swedish gymnastics and the beliefs of many female physical educators.
PE has also seen changes towards a more scientific subject with the
introduction of male teachers who believed that PE was more than just
movement and creativity and that it should have some form of
competition. One theme of these changes that has been noted throughout
has been the ever-changing status of PE. It seems from the literature
that PE has always had a certain stigma attached to it that it has
tried so hard to shed. An important change within this context then
was the certification of the subject and its resulting educational
significance in the school curriculum. The Munn and Dunning report
being the main benefactor of this change. The later introduction of
the higher grade structure also enhanced PE's status and gave it
significance as an entrance into University. All these changes have
led PE to the subject that it is at present, however without a few of
these changes it is hard to say whether there would be an education to
be had in PE.The article was produced by the member of masterpapers.com.
Sharon White is a senior writer and writers consultant at term papers. Get some useful tips for thesis and term paper writing .
Keyword : physical education, subject, importance