ERIC Number: EJ1111424
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016
Pages: 11
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0300-4279
EISSN: N/A
The Primary Physical Education Curriculum Process: More Complex That You Might Think!!
Jess, Mike; Carse, Nicola; Keay, Jeanne
Education 3-13, v44 n5 p502-512 2016
In this paper, we present the curriculum development process as a complex, iterative and integrated phenomenon. Building on the early work of Stenhouse [1975, "An Introduction to Curriculum Research and Development". London: Heinemann Educational], we position the teacher at the heart of this process and extend his ideas by exploring how complexity thinking and ecological perspectives have helped us frame the curriculum process as self-organising, emergent, recursive and interactive. As such, we present a curriculum approach that recognises the need for teachers to concurrently develop appropriate knowledge and understanding of the learners they work with, the environment in which they work and the capacity to design learning tasks appropriate for this context. We discuss how the complexity principles of similarity and diversity offer a frame of reference to design learning tasks that bring connectedness and coherence to the primary physical education experiences of children and teachers. However, in line with Stenhouse, our ideas are not presented as a "package of materials or a syllabus of ground to be covered" but as a complex and ecological learning process that is more "a hypothesis testable in practice" and an invitation for critical evaluation "rather than acceptance".
Descriptors: Physical Education, Curriculum Development, Educational Change, Physical Education Teachers, Teaching Methods, Physical Activities
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A