Teaching physical education in junior high school: A review of approaches to conceptual change in learning

Abstract

This article presents a review of physical education in lower secondary school, based on document reviews that highlight the current approaches and their representations in learning. The existing tensions between the traditional model of the subject, based on technical instruction and physical performance, and the innovative approaches, which try to resignify physical education as a space for the construction of the student body, are explained from the revealed literature. In the same line, it is shown that physical education is not only linked to motor skills but also to the cognitive, emotional and social development of students, favoring active and inclusive methodologies. Thus, the importance of teacher training, the flexibility of the curriculum, the diversification of teaching strategies and the nature of physical education to work on the construction of the students is also emerging. However, the difficulties of the lack of connection between physical education and other knowledge, the resistance to change those institutions try to implement or the lack of homogenized criteria for evaluation, understanding the diversity of students, are also visible. Thus, although in a broad sense, physical education in secondary school needs to move towards another understanding of its pedagogical foundations, it also needs to be articulated with interdisciplinary approaches, but also with educational policies for its development in the school curriculum. This review sets in motion lines of research that could be linked to physical education and meaningful learning, as well as the effects of innovative approaches on student motivation.