Quality physical education and significance in the promotion of healthy life learning through physical activity

Walter Ho

University of Macau

The need for physical activities is an important ingredient for healthy development and personal growth in children and young people. There is a call to review the learning experiences of physical education and essential components in achieving the educational goals. The National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) raised the concern in 2004 in requesting the suitable development of meaningful curriculum contents in learning, appropriate methods in teaching, and experiences in exercises. The recent studies of holistic education and life development of sports experiences capture the attention of co-curricular arrangements for academic programs and extra-curricular activities together in school education. The 2015 UNESCO Quality Physical Education (QPE) Guidelines for Policy Makers highlight the invitation of innovative ideas in achieving the goals of equal opportunities for learning physical activities in various disadvantaged groups. Although there is anticipation of these developments in physical education, the progress of works is criticized due to the unenthusiastic attitude in planning. Hardman (2008) used the word ‘mixed message’ to describe the development with evidence of legislative commitment in nations but slow to transform it with proper actions for quality delivery. The four international sports associations of ISCPES, FIEP, AIFAP, and IAPESGW had a meeting in Brisbane in 2009 to discuss the QPE development and the team from Macau decided to launch the QPE study from 2010 to the present. The current study in QPE helped to identify 8 dimensions that were seen as essential criteria in measuring the progress of QPE development in 2018. The QPE team made use of the identified items and launched the research project ‘Global Index of QPE (GIQPE)’ in late 2019 to study the developmental progress of QPE in regions. The data collecting process for the GIQPE study was completed in 2021 and 5911 professionals spanning from 87 cities returned the questionnaire for analysis. The data indicates a preferred choice in the QPE works and the practice may portray a particular experience for healthy life learning through physical activities. This presentation expects to share the recent discoveries from the GIQPE study and its implications for the understanding of students’ learning experiences in physical activities.