Developing students' health concept and generic skills through physical education: Theory and challenges

Under the current education reform, the physical education (PE) curriculum has undergone a drastic change in terms of PE knowledge, generic skills, values and attitudes. The emphasis has shifted from a sports education model to a fitness and personal-social development model. Given this change, students’ learning has become a crucial issue for PE teachers to revisit. The objectives of this paper are to review the current trend of students’ learning in a PE lesson and to identify the challenges in implementing the new emphasis in the PE curriculum. Suggestions on how to make use of this opportunity to switch towards a new direction to support students’ quality learning of a health concept and generic skills, values and attitudes are recommended. Without a corresponding change in the teaching approach from a didactic one to an innovative one, it is extremely difficult to implement the new curriculum successfully and to ensure that students demonstrate their understanding of these changes. Copyright © 2006 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.