Benefits of Physical Education

What are the Benefits of Physical Education?

Students can benefit in the following areas from participation in K-12 physical education:

· Individual Goal setting and Judgment: Physical education is an optimal environment for students to learn to self-test, identify needs and interests, set individual goals, create plans to achieve goals, overcome obstacles, build skills and understanding, and achieve goals.

· Developing Social Skills: Participation in dance, sport, cooperative games, and exercise provides students with opportunities to regularly work in teams where they learn to listen to diverse points of view and communicate, learn to assume leadership and followership roles, comply with norms for appropriate social behavior, show empathy and concern, solve problems, cooperate, listen and communicate, provide each other with support and encouragement, set team goals, develop and implement plans to achieve goals, overcome obstacles, persevere, contribute ideas and effort toward team goals, achieve team goals, and celebrate success as a team. Students also make social connections with diverse groups of people and build friendships that last for a lifetime. Social connections are especially important in late childhood and adolescence.

· Managing Emotions: Students show more of their emotional selves in physical education. While learning, physical education students publicly experience emotions that result from the consequences of success and failure. Such environments provide physical education teachers with opportunities to help learners identify emotions; shed feelings of disappointment; celebrate success appropriately; control impulses that may distract or disrupt the learning of others; and regulate their feelings, moods, and emotions.

· Stress Reduction and Rest: Physical activity in physical education can be an outlet for releasing tension and anxiety that facilitates emotional stability and resilience. Physical activity produces endorphins (chemicals in the brain that act as natural painkillers) that make us feel good and improve the ability to sleep, which in turn reduces stress. Regular participation in aerobic exercise has been shown to decrease overall levels of tension, elevate and stabilize mood, improve sleep, and improve self-esteem (ADAA, 2018).

· Self-efficacy: Many students who do not excel in the (high-stakes) tested subjects (ELA/Literacy and Mathematics) may achieve at high levels in physical education. When students build movement competence they also develop confidence, self-control, self-efficacy, positive feelings, self-worth, and self-esteem.

· Improved judgment: Regular physical education gives children practice in moral reasoning and problem solving. Students can assume leadership in team decisions, accept responsibility for what they do and fail to do, and develop a sense of fair play.

· Health-related Physical Fitness: Through participation in regular moderate to vigorous physical activity, muscle and bone strengthening activity, and dynamic and static stretching students can develop cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength and muscular endurance, flexibility, and improved body composition (Corbin et al., 2019).

Physical Education Promotes Development of the Whole child.

John Dewey (1916) stressed the importance of developing the physical, social, and emotional powers of the whole child in a child-centered school. The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD, 2011) promoted a whole child approach to education that includes physical education. Physical Education serves the whole child with goals from all three domains of learning. In every physical education lesson there are goals related to three domains of learning: the psychomotor (Harrow, 1972; Simpson, 1972), affective (Bloom, 1956; Krathwohl et al, 1964) and cognitive (Bloom, 1956). It should be noted that there is often great domain overlap between the domains for learning goals.

Physical Education Promotes Motor Skill Acquisition

Physical education develops movement skills. Movement skill proficiency is related to adolescent and adult health-related fitness. When students become proficient in many diverse movement skills they are equipped for regular participation in a wide variety of health-enhancing physical activities which in turn, can lead to the attainment of health-related physical fitness (Barnett et al., 2009; Stodden et al., 2009). Consequently, movement skill competency is the central goal of physical education (SHAPE America, 2014).

To enjoy participation in physical activity and sport one must have a sufficient level of skill. Maturation does not assure the development of skills to their mature stages. Research has shown that motor development is age-related, not age determined (Rovegno & Bandhauer, 2017). For example, children who were provided with well-equipped movement settings without instruction did not show significant improvement (Robinson, 2011; Robinson & Goodway, 2009). Achieving competency in motor skills depends on appropriate instruction and repeated opportunities for practice with corresponding feedback and guidance (Goodway et al., 2020). When children develop competency they have a foundation of movement skills to apply for a lifetime of enjoyable participation in physical activity, exercise, and sport.

Physical Education Promotes Physically Active Lifestyles

Physical activity is attractive and appealing to children. Children are natural, continuous movers. Physical activity is an important part of society and to the lives of children, adolescents and adults. When children and adolescent participate in regular physical activity it promotes health and fitness. Compared to those who are inactive, physically active youth have higher levels of fitness, lower body fat, and stronger bones and muscles (USDHHS, 2018). Physical activity also has brain health benefits for school-aged children, including improved cognition (e.g., academic performance, memory) and reduced symptoms of depression (USDHHS, 2018).

Physical activity is a behavior. Physical activity in physical education can be part of a child’s daily 60 minutes (or more) of moderate to vigorous physical activity. However, physical education is NOT the same as physical activity. Physical education uses physical activity as a means to an end. Physical education teachers use physical activities as learning experiences to help learners develop movement skills.

Physical inactivity can lead to an energy imbalance (e.g., expending less energy through physical activity than energy consumed through diet) which can increase the risk of becoming overweight or obese (Corbin et al., 2019). Here are some facts about overweight and obesity:

· A lack of physical activity is one of the major causes of overweight and obesity for children and adolescents aged 2-19 (USDHHS, 2018)

· In 2016, the prevalence of obesity was 18.5%, obesity affected about 13.7 million children and adolescents (CDC, 2017, 2019a)

· 31% of children and youth age 10-17 are overweight or obese (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2017)

· 25% of children and adolescents under the age of 18 are overweight or obese in Massachusetts. (Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 2014, p. 1)

Physical Education is an Essential Tool in the Fight against Obesity

Obesity is a condition in which a person has an unhealthy amount and/or distribution of body fat. Overweight means having too much body weight. Body weight may come from muscle, bone, fat, and/or body water. Both terms mean that a person's weight is greater than what's considered healthy for his or her height. Obesity is defined as a body mass index (BMI) at or above the 95th percentile (for children and teens) of the CDC’s gender-specific BMI-for-age charts. People with obesity are at risk for developing the following health problems (CDC, 2020a, 2020b; National Cancer Institute, 2017; U. S. National Library of Medicine, 2019):

· High blood glucose (sugar), Type 2 diabetes

· High blood pressure (hypertension)

· High blood cholesterol and triglycerides (dyslipidemia, or high blood fats)

· Heart attacks due to coronary heart disease, heart failure, and stroke

· Bone and joint problems, additional weight puts pressure on the bones and joints. This can lead to osteoarthritis (a breakdown of cartilage and bone within a joint), a disease that causes joint pain and stiffness

· Breathing problems, breathing stoppage during sleep (sleep apnea). Lack of sleep can cause daytime fatigue or sleepiness, poor attention, and problems at work

· Gallbladder disease, Gallstones and liver problems

· Endometrial cancer, esophageal adenocarcinoma, gastric cardia cancer, liver cancer, kidney cancer, multiple myeloma, meningioma, pancreatic cancer, colorectal cancer, gallbladder cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and thyroid cancer

· All-causes of death (mortality)

· Lower quality of life

· Mental illness such as clinical depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders

· Body pain and difficulty with physical functioning

Children and adolescents aged 6-17 require a minimum of one hour of daily moderate to vigorous physical activity (USDHHS, 2018). Unfortunately, American children are not engaging in sufficient amounts of physical activity. Here are some statistics related to youth physical activity:

· Children aged 8-12 spend 4 hours and 44 minutes each day watching screens (recreationally) (Rideout & Robb, 2019, p. 3)

· Adolescents aged 13-18 spend 7 hours 22 minutes each day watching screens (recreationally) (Rideout & Robb, 2019, p. 3)

· Children aged 9-12 spend 5 hours and 54 minutes each day engaged in screen and media (reading books and listening to music) (Rideout & Robb, 2019, p. 3)

· Adolescents aged 13-18 spend 9 hours and 49 minutes each day engaged with screen and media (Rideout & Robb, 2019, p. 3)

· Less than 24% of U. S. children and adolescents 6-17-years-old participate in at least 60 minutes of daily physical activity (CAHMI, 2016)

Physical Activity has Positive Effects on Cognition and Achievement

· No empirical evidence exists to suggest that the elimination or reduction of physical education time is related to higher academic achievement in other subject areas. In fact, empirical evidence suggests otherwise (Kohl & Cook, 2013).

· Aerobic fitness has a positive relationship to academic achievement (Etnier et al., 1997; Sibley & Etnier, 2003).

· Physical activity has positive effects on achievement and cognition with aerobic activity having the highest effect. (Fedewa & Ahn, 2011)

· Evidence suggests that mathematics and reading are the subjects that are most influenced by physical activity. These subjects depend on efficient and effective executive function, which has been linked to physical activity and physical fitness. Executive function and brain health underlie academic performance. Basic cognitive functions related to attention and memory, facilitate learning. These functions are enhanced by physical activity and higher aerobic fitness. Single sessions of participation in physical activity improve cognitive performance and brain health. (Kohl & Cook, 2013)

· Students who are physically active tend to have better grades, school attendance, cognitive performance (e.g., memory), and classroom behaviors (e.g., on-task behavior) than their sedentary peers (CDC, 2010; Michael et al., 2015).

· Higher physical activity and physical fitness levels are associated with improved cognitive performance (e.g., concentration, memory) among students. (CDC, 2010; Michael et al., 2015).

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