The Thinking Body: Constructivist Approaches to Games Teaching in Physical Education

Abstract

Up until the late eighties physical education had enjoyed a relatively unchallenged place in the curriculum of Australian schools. Historically it had been justified in terms of its links with military training, the promotion of social order, physical fitness and, more recently, the links between physical activity and health. Critical scrutiny of physical education over the past two decades in Australia and other "Western societies has, however, found it to be lacking in direction and purpose. It has also found it to be facing a range of problems such as a lack of meaning in young people's lives, general student alienation from physical activity and the marginalisation of low-skilled boys and girls. Indeed, many researchers in the field have expressed concern with what they perceive to be a general 'crisis' in physical education. It is seen to be struggling to find direction and purpose within the context of significant changes in the purpose, and practice of education in contemporary societies. In response Kirk and Macdonald suggest that there is now an urgent need for the subject's regeneration. Along with others in the field they argue that the application of learning theory to physical education provides a means of giving a disparate subject much needed direction and purpose. The application of constructivist learning theory also constitutes a means of highlighting the cognitive dimensions of movement.