BC schools are experiencing a complete overhaul of the curriculum, and PE will arguably be facing one of the largest changes. With a number of additions to PE soon to be set into effect, (including health education topics of social/emotional health, mental health, and sex education,) teachers will need to adapt and find new strategies to implement the sheer amount of material into their classes. The challenge will be finding effective strategies that effectively cover the material without taking away an ample of active PE time.
Various methods will be tested out once the new curriculum is set in place, and the most effective will depend on the individual teachers and departments at each school. However, there are some initial ways that the material can be transferred to the students, and this inquiry looks into the effectiveness of specific implementation strategies. Initially, mini-lessons covering health education topics will be taught to students at the beginning or end of active PE lessons, taking up approximately five to ten minutes, and hopefully will tie directly into the lesson of the day. For example, a stress management lesson could be taught after students participate in a regular PE class, and could be connected to the stress relieving benefits of physical activity and exercise.
Although these lessons are short, they will hopefully be a very effective way of transferring the Health Education curriculum to, other techniques will need to be explored to cover all Health Education topics. In addition to academic classroom periods and mini lessons, options such as in class worksheets, homework drawing connections between material, and cooperative teaching amongst teachers will need to be explored in order to complete all aspects of the curriculum. However, mini-lessons will be a good starting point to get the material across to students, and this project will look into the effectiveness of the lessons.
