Humanistic Physical Education

This book offers analyses, applications, and a combined form of behaviorism and humanism as they relate to the teaching of physical education. The composition of the two systems is explored pragmatically, with an overall objective of assisting teachers in their endeavors to make teaching and learning more efficient, effective, and rewarding. The differences between the two philosophies are apparent: humanism assigns the responsibility for learning to the student, while behaviorism assigns the responsibility for learning to the teacher. Humanism is concerned with self-directed activity such as creativity and self-discovery. Applying humanism to a physical education course entails creating an environment of psychological, intellectual, and physical (movement) freedom. The behaviorist model of teaching represents a branch of psychology which relies on a stimulus-response view of education. The central idea of behaviorism is that behavior is affected by its consequences, and the future occurrence of behaviors is influenced by the way in which the environment (usually people) responds to those behaviors. An effective combination of both systems, which at first glance seems antithetical, would use the following steps: (1) identify specific target behaviors; (2) select the educational experiences; (3) organize the educational experiences; and (4) evaluate the effect. (FG)

This new edition is updated to keep you current with today’s trends in adapted physical education and sport and new chapters, major chapters, revisions and an increased emphasis on best practise

Aimed at PE teachers, coaches and recreation leaders who want to learn strategies for promoting responsible behaviour in participants, this title combines theory with the application of teaching and leadership practices of proven merit in a variety of settings, including youth sport programmes, schools and leisure facilities.