I’ve been contemplating the research which shows that as children mature, their interest in PE tends to decrease. This seems especially so for students who are not natural athletes. The students who tend to stay in PE longer are the ones that are naturally good at sports and always have been. Interestingly, these are the students who probably don’t need to learn fundamental skills, and probably play sports outside of school where they receive advanced training in their particular activity of interest. In that case, even those who are good at sports will get bored in a PE class that teaches fundamental skills and strategies. That is why PE often just becomes a venue to play various games and sports, without much teaching and learning. That is why the goal of many PE classes is to make the students “busy, happy and good.”
I think the reason young children like PE is because it is fun. They enjoy exploring and trying new and interesting activities. I think that for many, PE becomes less fun as it becomes more focused on specific sports and fitness. For most, fitness blasts are not fun. Likewise, team and team sports and activities that require a high skill level are not fun. This is because most people have no desire to put in the effort and work to gain the skill necessary to perform the activity at a competitive level. This is when the expression, “if it ain’t fun, it won’t get done,” holds true.
If learning fundamental skills is boring for naturally skilled athletes, and learning advanced skills is more like work than fun, what are we left with? If the goal is to keep children in PE longer, than I think it must be made fun and/or interesting somehow. Perhaps as educators we need to tap into the types of experiences that children enjoyed in PE when they were young. Provide students with a sense of freedom and allow them to explore movement. The way to do this is to find activities that involve movement, exploration, collaboration, and that when completed provide students with a natural sense of accomplishment. The culmination of the activity should be fulfilling unto itself. When you are child, climbing the jungle gym feels like scaling a mountain. Standing on top is a rewarding experience unto itself. The problem is that as children age, those experiences become harder to find.
After reflecting upon all of this, I have come up with a potential method for keeping children interested in PE. First, deemphasize formal sports. As mentioned above, students who are good at formal games and enjoy them, probably play them outside of school anyway. The same goes for fitness training. People who enjoy running, resistance training, etc., probably do that already. If schools wish to promote those activities perhaps it should be done through intramurals or clubs, etc. Instead, cooperative and low organization games should be promoted in PE. These games tend to take us back to the kinds of experiences we enjoyed as children. These are activities that allow for more freedom and exploration, and often have a culmination that feels rewarding. The goal is not simply to compete with and outperform the opponents but to solve a problem or challenge. Educational gymnastics can also provide that exploratory experience, as well as the satisfying culminating experience. Dance is also something that is almost universally enjoyed in childhood but in adulthood it is something only usually done at weddings and night clubs where large amounts of alcohol is involved. Perhaps as educators we should take that love of dance—in whatever form it comes—and build upon it. Lastly, I think that putting most of the emphasis on alternative environment activities would be the most effective way to keep students interested in PE. The reason is that as children we loved the playground because we were free and able to explore. By taking PE out of the gym and into the real world, we are once again free and able to explore. Activities like geocaching, rock climbing, orienteering, scavenger hunts, parkour, and canoeing—just to name few—allow for freedom and exploration, as well as a satisfying culminating experience.
One possible critique of this view might be that the school year is largely during the winter months and therefore students will be confined to the gym for much of the year. To that I respond by pointing out all the winter activities we enjoyed as children: ice skating, tobogganing, building things out of snow, snowball fights, etc. Also, activities like geocaching, orienteering, and scavenger hunts can still be done in winter, perhaps adding further challenges like snowshoeing or cross country skiing into the activity. All of this ultimately increases the sense of personal satisfaction upon the culmination of the activity.
While this reflection might have provided a possible solution to the problem of decreased interest in PE for intermediate and senior students, it is also purely based on theory. I have no experience to back it up. Therefore, it should only be regarded as a thought experiment. Something to keep in mind and not necessarily implement without any further thought.
