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Children’s School Lives Study: Report 7

Children’s School Lives Study: Report 7

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Teaching and learning in SCPE

The unique contribution of physical education to learning in the psychomotor domain is the central consideration in planning for teaching and learning. The emphasis is always on learners being physically active, thereby helping them to develop their psychomotor skills across a variety of physical activities.

In senior cycle physical education, learners are encouraged to be actively involved in all aspects of their learning. A wide range of participatory and enquiry-based learning approaches can be used to achieve this. These include learners undertaking playing and non-playing roles, applying theoretical knowledge and understanding to practical performance, engaging in class discussions and debates and reflecting on their own and others’ performances and participation in physical activities. Learning activities can be selected in consultation with students to ensure that they experience a broad and balanced programme and that the activities are enjoyable and worthwhile for them. Learners will collect evidence of their learning in a portfolio throughout senior cycle. 

Differentiated learning in physical education

The flexible nature of the framework for senior cycle physical education facilitates learners in achieving goals that are worthwhile for them. The use of a variety of teaching and learning approaches ensures that students’ different learning needs can be catered for. Assessment approaches should, in turn, facilitate learners responding to similar tasks in different ways.

Information and Communications Technology (ICT)

ICT has a significant contribution to make to learning in physical education. Increasingly there are affordable, user-friendly and portable digital tools available to support teaching, learning and assessment in physical education. For example, learners can use apps to goal set, to track their physical activity levels, to capture their performances and to analyse them. They can use ICT to make presentations, develop graphics, concept maps and databases about their learning and performance in physical education. Students can also learn to use ICT in an ethical and responsible manner as an integral part of their learning in physical education class.

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