Learning health in Swedish physical education : A critical case study of students’ encounters with physical fitness and health as a learning object

• The interfaces between health, physical education and schooling have a long history. Critical questions are being raised about the enforcement of learning a particular health practice in school physical education (PE). The present study departures from a practice-based research project evaluating a pedagogical model. The aim of the case study was to explore upper secondary students' learning and understandings of a specific learning object, aerobic fitness and how this influences health, after participating in a period of a longer lab work in the context of Swedish physical education. A phenomenographic approach was used when analyzing the students' written reports to identify and distinguish the variations of learning outcomes and understandings that emerged. Expectations of physical performance created tensions, and even conflicts, between the student-centred assignments and existing traditions within the field of physical education. The findings underscore the risk of neoliberal logics underpinning health education in the learning culture of PE. Further studies are needed where teaching methods/models and student learning are paid attention to in order to move away from teaching to be healthy towards students learning about health and make sense of themselves as healthy. This may offer new educational perspectives.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

physical education

pedagogical model

teaching methods

student learning

health literacy

Samhällsvetenskap/Humaniora

Social Sciences/Humanities

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)