Key concepts are the big ideas and understandings that we hope will remain with our students long after they have left school.
The underlying and interacting concepts of the health and physical education learning area (hauora, the socio-ecological perspective, health promotion, and attitudes and values) underpin and shape teaching and learning in health education.
Movement is integral to the well-being of self, others, and society.
Learning in, through, and about movement enables students to gain understanding that movement can be part of how people express themselves physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually. They directly experience how movement contributes to people’s pleasure and enhances their lives.
Participating in movement allows young people to feel confident and competent enough to choose to be involved in physical activity throughout their lives.
Learning and applying bio-physical knowledge (anatomy, bio-mechanics, exercise physiology, sports psychology, and nutritional principles) and skills enables students to understand how our bodies move in new contexts and different environments. They develop both bio-physical and socio-cultural knowledge (the social and cultural contexts in which movement takes place) and learn how to think critically about the place of the body in society.
Movement can contribute to people’s pleasure and enhance their lives. This involves exploring and understanding the serendipity, the joy, and the spontaneity that engaging in movement can provide.
By actively participating in contexts that involve challenge, students extend and test their spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional limits, both individually and as part of a group.
Movement contexts and activities have a social and cultural heritage that can both contribute to society and play a role in maintaining societal assumptions. Applying a socio-cultural perspective to movement contexts can create a learning environment in which participants address issues such as gender inequality in the remuneration and media coverage available to specific sports.
Leadership, teamwork, and interpersonal skills are developed when students are engaged in movement contexts. Students develop leadership knowledge and understanding about how to balance rights, roles, and responsibilities in group situations.
Last updated October 1, 2013