Year

2023

Credit points

10

Campus offering

No unit offerings are currently available for this unit

Prerequisites

Nil

Unit rationale, description and aim

This unit will outline the importance of health and physical education in primary school and prior to school settings highlighting the health and wellbeing, movement skills and lifelong physical activity of students. An understanding of national and state curricula which is specific to Catholic, State and Independent schools and early childhood centres will provide the foundation of the unit. A range of curriculum perspectives will be explored, including literacy, numeracy, ICT, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education, students with special education needs, and behaviour management approaches particular to outdoor settings and physical activities.

This unit aims to assist pre-service teachers to examine curriculum and practice in well-being, health and physical education, focusing on the Australian Health and Physical Education F-6 Curriculum (and other relevant national and state based curriculum and assessment documents) and movement and physical activity for children in prior to school sector.

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

LO1 - Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the content of current curriculum documents and guidelines, and policies relevant to well-being, health and physical education in primary school and prior to school settings. (GA4, GA5, GA9; APST 2.1, 4.4; ACECQA A4 A5)

LO2 - Demonstrate their capacity to organise, plan and implement well-being, health and physical education content into effective learning sequences, lesson plans, and provide appropriate assessment strategies in ways that integrate literacy, numeracy and ICT teaching strategies appropriate for the range of levels covered in this unit. (GA4, GA5, GA7, GA9; APST 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.5, 2.6, 3.2, 4.1, 5.1)

LO3 - Identify and demonstrate knowledge and understanding of strategies for differentiating teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students in both prior to school and primary school settings, across the full range of abilities in well-being, health and physical education and from diverse linguistic, cultural (explicitly including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander), religious and socioeconomic backgrounds. (GA4, GA5, GA9; APST 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 3.2, 3.5, 4.1, 4.4; ACECQA A4)

LO4 - Demonstrate the capacity to practically manage sensitive issues and behaviour in indoor and outdoor physical activities including knowledge and understanding of the administrative principles and safety procedures in relation to well-being, health and physical education (GA4, GA5, GA9; APST 3.5, 4.1, 4.2, 4.4)

Graduate attributes

GA4 - Think critically and reflectively 

GA5 - Demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession 

GA7 - Work both autonomously and collaboratively 

GA9 - Demonstrate effective communication in oral and written English language and visual media 

AUSTRALIAN PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS FOR TEACHERS - GRADUATE LEVEL

On successful completion of this unit, pre-service teachers should be able to:

1.3 Demonstrate knowledge of teaching strategies that are responsive to the learning strengths and needs of students from diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds.

1.4 Demonstrate broad knowledge and understanding of the impact of culture, cultural identity and linguistic background on the education of students from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds.

1.5 Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of strategies for differentiating teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities. 

2.1 Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the concepts, substance and structure of the content and teaching strategies of the teaching area.

2.2 Organise content into an effective learning and teaching sequence.

2.3 Use curriculum, assessment and reporting knowledge to design learning sequences and lesson plans.

2.5 Know and understand literacy and numeracy teaching strategies and their application in teaching areas.

2.6 Implement teaching strategies for using ICT to expand curriculum learning opportunities for students.

3.2 Plan lesson sequences using knowledge of student learning, content and effective teaching strategies.

3.5 Demonstrate a range of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies to support student engagement.

4.1 Identify strategies to support inclusive student participation and engagement in classroom activities.

4.2 Demonstrate the capacity to organise classroom activities and provide clear directions.

4.4 Describe strategies that support students’ well-being and safety working within school and/or system, curriculum and legislative requirements.

5.1 Demonstrate understanding of assessment strategies, including informal and formal, diagnostic, formative and summative approaches to assess student learning.

ACECQA CRITERIA

On successful completion of this unit, pre-service teachers should have developed the following specific knowledge:

A. Psychology and child development           

A4. Child health

A5. Wellbeing and safety early intervention

Content

Topics will include:

  • Health, well-being and physical education curriculum development, implementation and assessment including risk management and safety policies and procedures for both prior to school and primary school settings.
  • Exploration of relevant National and State curriculum and assessment documents, including Personal, Social and Community Health and the Movement and Physical Activity strands of the Australian Health and Physical Education Curriculum including the sub-strands Being healthy, safe and active, Communicating and interacting for health and wellbeing, and Contributing to healthy and active communities, Moving our body, Understanding movement, and Learning though movement and relevant sections of the Early Years Learning Framework.
  • Focus areas will include alcohol and other drugs; food and nutrition; health benefits of physical activity; mental health and wellbeing; relationships and sexuality; safety; active play and minor games; challenge and adventure skills; fundamental movement skills; games and sports; lifelong physical activities; and rhythmic and expressive movement.
  • Consideration of a range of curriculum perspectives, including literacy, numeracy, ICT, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education, students with special education needs, and behaviour management in outdoor settings
  • Relevant national, state and territory curriculum documents and assessment.

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

Pre-service teachers will be involved in a variety of teaching-learning strategies to progress and demonstrate their understandings in this unit. Participants will be involved in a variety of teaching-learning strategies to support learning, including: lectures, practical tutorials, group work, and pre-service teacher presentations. Collaborative enquiries and critical approaches to learning will be used. Please note this unit includes mostly physically active components which require pre-service educators to be appropriately attired in clothing and footwear suitable for movement.

This is a 10-credit point unit and has been designed to ensure that the time needed to complete the required volume of learning to the requisite standard is approximately 150 hours in total with a normal expectation of 36 hours of directed study and the total contact hours should not exceed 36 hours. Directed study might include lectures, tutorials, webinars, podcasts etc. The balance of the hours then become private study.

Assessment strategy and rationale

The assessment tasks and their weightings are designed to allow pre-service teachers to progressively demonstrate achievement against the unit learning outcomes and demonstrate attainment of professional standards.


Minimum Achievement Standards

The total assessment tasks will amount to the equivalent of 4,000 words. In order to pass this unit, pre-service educators are required to submit or participate in all assessment tasks and achieve a cumulative mark of 50% across all assessment tasks.

Overview of assessments

Brief Description of Kind and Purpose of Assessment TasksWeightingLearning OutcomesGraduate Attributes

Assessment Task 1:

Examination assessing health, well-being and physical education curriculum content and pedagogy (see details below)

50%

LO1, LO2, LO3

GA4, GA5, GA7, GA9

Assessment Task 2:

Development of a unit of work on a topic related to well-being, health and physical education curriculum (see details below)

or

Pre-service teacher presentation and reflection task. (see details below)

50%

LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4

GA4, GA5, GA7, GA9

Assessment Task 1

This assessment task is an examination assessing knowledge and understanding of relevant national and state health and physical education curriculum documents (ie from the Australia Curriculum sub-strands: Being healthy, safe and active, Communicating and interacting for health and wellbeing, and Contributing to healthy and active communities, Moving our body, Understanding movement, and Learning through movement), physical activity, health and well-being aspects of relevant early childhood curriculum documents, and pedagogy and practice in well-being, health and physical education.

This examination will assess the pre-service teacher’s knowledge and understanding of:

  • teaching strategies that are responsive to the learning strengths and needs of students from diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds and that are responsive to a range of teaching and learning contexts addressed through this unit
  • the impact of culture, cultural identity and linguistic background on the education of students from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds
  • strategies for differentiating teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities and learning contexts
  • the concepts, substance and structure of the content and teaching strategies of well-being, health and physical education
  • literacy and numeracy teaching strategies and their application in this curriculum area
  • teaching strategies for using ICT in this curriculum area to expand learning opportunities for students
  • a range of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies to support student engagement
  • strategies to support inclusive student participation and engagement in classroom activities
  • issues related to students’ well-being and safety as identified through centre, school and/or system policy and legislative requirements
  • types of assessment in Health and Physical Education

 

Assessment Task 2

This assessment task will involve either of the following options:

pre-service teachers develop a unit of work on an allocated topic from the Health and Physical Education components of the Curriculum (ie from the sub-strands Being healthy, safe and active, Communicating and interacting for health and wellbeing, and Contributing to healthy and active communities, Moving our body, Understanding movement, and Learning though movement) and provide differentiated material to show how the allocated topic can be developed for children in both the primary school and prior to school context.

or

pre-service teacher develop and deliver a presentation of well-being, health and physical education in relation to content of relevant health and physical education curriculum documents, demonstrating:

  • appropriate planning and assessment strategies
  • teaching strategies,
  • behaviour management approaches,
  • awareness of inclusivity and differentiation.

There will be a required self and/or peer reflection demonstrating knowledge and understanding of strategies to differentiate teaching and learning opportunities across both primary school and prior to school contexts.

Representative texts and references

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (2014). The Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education. Version 6.0. Australia: Creative Commons.

Doherty, J. & Brennan, P. (2008). Physical education and development 3-11: A guide for teachers. New York: Routledge.

Kirk, D. (2010). Physical education futures. London, England: Routledge.

Martin, K. (2010). Brain boost: Sport and physical activity enhance children’s learning. School of Population Health: The University of Western Australia.

Meldrum, K., & Peters, J. (2012). Learning to teach health and physical education: The student, the teacher and the curriculum. Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson.

Pangrazi, R.P. (2012). Dynamic physical education for the elementary school. (17th ed.).Glenview, IL: Pearson Education Inc..

Tinning, R., McCuaig, L., & Hunter, L. (2006). Teaching health and physical education in Australian schools. Frenchs Forest, NSW:Prentice Hall.

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