Play, games and sport are a part of the content of physical education (PE), and has been the subject of a longstanding debate among educators internationally and in Scandinavian countries. Play refers to something unstructured and free, while sport is a controlled and managed activity. Drawing on Skovbjerg`s (2021) play theory, this article…

Research in the Scandinavian school context has indicated that physical education (PE) is dominated by activities and values from a sports discourse. The main aim of this study was to explore students' experiences of two competitive activities provided by the teacher. The participants were 49 students (13-15 years old) and their two teachers from…

Assessment has become a routine feature of school life, internationally. Little is known, however, about the consequences for young people of assessment and grading in physical education (PE) -- a subject often associated with physical recreation. This paper explores young Norwegian's perceptions of assessment and grading in PE from a sociological…

Teachers are designers and an essential act of the profession is the crafting of learning experiences to meet specific purposes. In this study, we follow a Norwegian physical education (PE) teacher in the design and teaching of a unit informed by a pedagogical model called the practising model (PM). Two research questions guided the study: (1) How…

Background: In school-based physical education (PE) programs, teachers' task to identify, assess, manage and communicate risk and safety and balance these with other pedagogical concerns is complex. Teachers' knowledge is essential in generating quality PE and their specialized knowledge of risk and safety management (RSM) is crucial for creating…

Swimming is a profound source of joy in life. The impact of swimming competence extends beyond leisure, encompassing aquatic skills crucial for the prevention of drowning incidents. The World Health Organization (WHO) strongly advocates for the proactive initiative of teaching basic swimming and water safety skills to school-aged children, which…

This paper explores teachers' educational values and how they shape their judgements about physically active learning (PAL). Twenty one teachers from four primary schools in Norway participated in focus groups. By conceptualising PAL as a didaktikk approach, the findings indicated that teachers engaged with PAL in a way that reflected their…

Teachers' assessment enhances students' learning in many situations in physical education (PE). The present study aims to examine the issue of potential unequal assessment of students due to their different physical abilities in PE in upper secondary school, where the research question is: What experiences do students with high or low levels of…

In the Norwegian curriculum for physical education (PE), health is one of several topics students should learn about. However, the way in which many educators conceptualize health can impact both what students learn and how health is taught in PE. According to Mong and Standal (2019), differences in terms of the conceptualizations of health can…

The focus of this study was to explore teacher educators' experiences as they prepared preservice teachers to implement a new physical education curriculum, and to identify their professional needs to support this work. Individual interviews were conducted with 14 teacher educators who taught in a physical education teacher education (PETE)…

An increasing number of studies have focused on policies in physical education and physical education teacher education (PETE). Policies are important because they prescribe behaviours or a course of action, and they legitimise some knowledge and perspectives while discrediting others. In the field of physical education (PE), a white,…

Some students find engaging in physical education (PE) problematic or undesirable to the extent that it makes them adopt strategies to avoid taking part, also known as hiding techniques. There is a need to get a deeper understanding of hiding techniques as a behavioral strategy in PE, especially the underlying causes as to why students choose to…

Background: Student participation in curriculum negotiation has been widely regarded as beneficial for student engagement, motivation, and learning. Within the physical education (PE) context however, several scholars claim that these benefits are seldom realized. Interestingly, most investigations into curriculum negotiation in PE focus on…

Based on the fact that many youth do not meet global health recommendations for physical activity (PA), and that schools constitute an arena in which all children may be reached, PA integrated into school settings is critical. Inspired by the theoretical framework of Gert Biesta and his three domains of education, i.e. qualification, socialization…

Although reflection has a key position in the development of teachers' pedagogical practices, few studies have investigated the development of physical education teachers' reflections over time. Against this backdrop, this study seeks to answer the following research question: "How does a one-year participatory action research project using…