Creative Physical Education

Creative Physical Education offers a flexible extended learning experience for children and teens that focuses on physical, cognitive, and interpersonal knowledge and skill development. A combination teacher’s guide and student workbook, Creative Physical Education has everything you need, including a CD-ROM of printable and adaptable class materials.

Creative Physical Education presents a project framework that you can adapt to fit the needs of your class. Great for physical education teachers looking for a fresh approach, Creative Physical Education also makes an excellent structured project for classroom teachers working with physical education.

Creative Physical Education begins with a teacher’s guide that details the underlying pedagogical models behind the project. Rather than focusing on one approach, Creative Physical Education integrates a number of pedagogical models and describes how these can be combined to form a creative PE project. This all-in-one resource includes a student workbook with all the worksheets needed for each part of the project. The project worksheets are included on the accompanying CD-ROM and can be modified as needed and printed for use. In addition, homework items offer ways to reinforce concepts learned in class.

Creative Physical Education progresses students through team building, game creation, organizing a season, and practicing skill development. In the first part of the project, you’ll help students discover the essentials of working in teams, the benefits of a team approach, and characteristics of successful teams.

The developing teams will then create their own games. Creative Physical Education provides you with all the necessary tools and ideas for this task. Through this section, the student teams discuss the ingredients of a game, plan their own team game, and teach it to other teams. The students are also involved in evaluating and reflecting on the games of others. After this, you’ll help students use their games to create one game for the whole class, which they play over the course of a larger-scale sporting season. Through regular participation, students improve their knowledge and skills and learn the strategies of their game. This section of the project also helps students experience a range of roles, always as a member of a team.

In the final section you’ll help students improve their tactics and skills through practice. By critically assessing the teamwork, skill, strategy, and fitness requirements of their particular game, students learn how to improve their individual and team performance. Activities in this final part also allow students to celebrate their success and reflect on their project.

This student-directed creative PE project offers students a new way to enjoy and learn from sport while also offering the possibility of integrating other curriculum areas with physical education. With step-by-step guidance and a full set of class materials, you’ll have everything you need to implement a fun, creative learning experience for your class. Find new ways to move, create, and collaborate with Creative Physical Education.

John Quay, PhD, is a lecturer in the graduate school of education at the University of Melbourne (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia), where he works with preservice teachers in primary and secondary teacher education.

Quay has many years of experience working in outdoor education and as a teacher and coordinator of physical education and sport at the middle school and junior high levels. As a researcher, he has published more than 15 scholarly articles on physical education, experiential education, outdoor and environmental education, and educational philosophy.

Quay is a member of the Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation (ACHPER) and has served as a member of the ACHPER Victorian Board. He is also a member of the Australian College of Education (MACE), Australian Council for Educational Leaders (MACEL), the Philosophy of Education Society of Australia (PESA), and the Victorian Outdoor Education Association (VOEA).

In 1999, Quay received the Victorian Inspirational Environmental Education Teacher Award from Ford One Planet Environment Awards In his free time, Quay enjoys bushwalking, skiing, running, and cycling.

Jacqui Peters, ME, is a lecturer in the department of health and physical education at Deakin University in Burwood, Victoria, Australia, where she has worked primarily with preservice elementary classroom teachers since 2002.

Peters taught K-12 physical education for 15 years before teaching at the university level. Her work as a practitioner and her current research keep her in contact with the state of physical education in the schools and, in particular, issues facing classroom teachers responsible for physical education instruction.

Peters has published three journal articles pertaining to Creative Physical Education and has presented the project at numerous conferences. Peters is also a frequent presenter of practical and theoretical sessions at Australian Council for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation (ACHPER) state conferences and in schools as a consultant for health and physical education. She is a member of ACHPER and also a member and the convener of the Health and Physical Education Tertiary Alliance-Victoria (HPETA-V). An active supporter of community sport, Peters volunteers as both a youth coach and committee member.

Currently a PhD candidate in physical education at Deakin University, Peters holds a graduate diploma in business (sport management) in addition to a master’s degree in education. Peters and her family live in Box Hill South, Victoria, Australia. In her free time she enjoys walking, practicing yoga, and reading.