For many people, sport is assumed to be a 'natural' central facet of a Health and Physical Education (HPE) curriculum in schools, and sustained participation in sport is proclaimed as a key curriculum aim. Experience of HPE is unquestionably linked to students participating in sport, during the curriculum and beyond it. For many people outside of schools but also many children themselves, sport is the defining characteristic of HPE. This chapter questions and explores the HPE-sport linkage. Specifically, it considers what sport has to offer as an educational vehicle in the context of Australian primary schools. What role should we be looking for sport to play in our pursuit of HPE outcomes in primary schools? How can we best utilise it as a context and medium for teaching and learning? What HPE outcomes can be effectively addressed in and through structured, focused experiences of sport? What might those experiences look like

Dawn, Penney

University of Queensland eSpace

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Pursuing HPE outcomes through  
Sport Education and School Sport1 
 
 
Dawn Penny  
Edith Cowan University 
 
Introduction 
 
For many people, sport is assumed to be a ‘natural’ central facet of a 
Health and Physical Education (HPE) curriculum in schools, and sustained 
participation in sport is proclaimed as a key curriculum aim. Experience of 
HPE is unquestionably linked to students participating in sport, during the 
curriculum and beyond it. For many people outside of schools but also 
many children themselves, sport is the defining characteristic of HPE. 
This chapter questions and explores the HPE-sport linkage. Specifically, 
it considers what sport has to offer as an educational vehicle in the 
context of Australian primary schools. What role should we be looking for 
sport to play in our pursuit of HPE outcomes in primary schools? How can 
we best utilise it as a context and medium for teaching and learning? 
What HPE outcomes can be effectively addressed in and through 
structured, focused experiences of sport? What might those experiences 
look like?  
 
All of these are questions that we should be engaging with. For while 
sport has long enjoyed a central and dominant position in many physical 
                                                 
1  Forthcoming chapter in Tinning, MacCuaig & Hunter (eds) Teaching Health & 
Physical Education in Australian Primary Schools. To be published by Pearson Australia. 
 
education arenas, we might well question what has been achieved as a 
consequence. Media headlines and professional commentaries are claiming 
a crisis in relation to the current and prospective future health of young 
people. Frequently, the impression created is that too few young 
Australians are demonstrating that participation in sport and physical has 
become a valued, central facet of their lifestyles and one that is reaping 
rewards in relation to their personal health. A leaflet recently produced 
by the Western Australia branch of the Australian Council for Health, 
Physical Education and Recreation in collaboration with other 
stakeholders including the Western Australian Sports Federation and the 
National Heart Foundation, emphasised the urgent need for support for 
physical education programs in schools, saying that ‘If we ignore the need 
for quality Physical Education programs in schools, the future health and 
well being of our young people will be compromised’ (ACHPER WA, n.d). It 
highlighted that: 
 
• The weight of Australian children has increased significantly since 
1985. Unfortunately, obese children are more likely to become 
obese adults. 
• Young people aged 9-18 years have very poor health related 
fitness. 
• Male and female adolescents are less active now than they were 
when they were young. 
 
(ACHPER WA, n.d) 
 
Any consideration of the status and role of sport in primary schools and 
their curricula also needs to acknowledge that physical education is now 
integrated into the HPE learning area (or state derivatives of that). 
Tinning et al. (2001) have previously highlighted that with the integration 
has come a need to revisit physical education’s ‘purpose and function’ 
(p.182). I would add that in turn we need to review matters of curriculum 
form and content. Meanwhile, Taggart and Goodwin (2000) have 
commented that ‘Sport-based PE, which remains the predominant form of 
PE across Australia in both primary and secondary schools, needs to 
change if outcomes-based education is to be an integral part of students’ 
schooling in physical education’ (p.4, my emphasis). 
 
These opening comments are certainly not intended to imply that there is 
no longer a place for sport in Australian primary schools and their HPE 
curricula. Far from it. Rather, my emphasis in this chapter is that we 
need to be very clear about the specific envisaged educational worth of 
sport in schools and the HPE curriculum, and for those visions to be 
directly reflected in planning and provision. The following reflections 
were concerned with physical education in the UK, but could easily be 
voiced in relation to HPE in Australian primary schools;  
 
At this point in the debate we need to take stock in deciding how best 
to rescue Primary PE without losing the part that matters, namely, the 
educational part of it, and the philosophy of Primary education of 
which it is a part. We need to focus on those values that are most 
important to us as educators rather than simply as sport developers.  
 
(Wright, 2002: 38, my emphasis) 
 
 
Could less be more?  
 
Perhaps particularly in primary schools, where time and resources for 
HPE are acknowledged as invariably limited and teachers may well feel 
under pressure to prioritise other learning areas, an emphasis that ‘less is 
more’ (Siedentop and Tannehill, 2000) is well founded. Amidst ongoing 
temptations for HPE to be associated with many and varied outcomes 
(ranging from the production of the next generation of sporting elite to 
reductions in youth suicide and crimei), we need to consider the political, 
cultural and educational significance of various outcomes and consider: 
 
• which outcomes matter most, to whom?’  
• which are we willing to prioritise and furthermore, capable of 
effectively addressing?  
• what curriculum and pedagogical tools do we have to draw on to 
tackle the challenges of 'delivering' on any of the outcomes 
identified in national, state or school policy?  
• what exactly are we hoping will be achieved in terms of student 
learning in and through the inclusion of sport in schools and the 
curriculum?  
 
Only when we have a clear answer to this last question can we 
contemplate the format that sport should take within the curriculum, 
which brings me to the important distinction made in the chapter, 
between ‘Sport Education’ and ‘school sport’. Much of the discussion that 
follows focuses on Sport Education; an established curriculum and 
instructional model, designed to achieve particular outcomes in HPE, 
originating in the USA through the work of Darryl Siedentop (1994). 
Sport Education is thus contrasted with ‘school sport’ in primary schools, 
which is identified as having different, but nevertheless important role in 
the pursuit of HPE outcomes. 
 
Sport Education 
 
In Sport Education sport provides content and the context for teaching 
and learning. Siedentop and Tannehill (2000) explain that it is ‘designed to 
provide students with an authentic, in-depth and educationally rich sport 
experience within physical education…The primary objective is the 
development of skilled and competent sports participants’ (p.166). Sport 
Education has six characteristics (see Figure 1 below) that have come to 
distinguish it from other curriculum models and practices. The 
characteristics reflect the concern that the content and context of 
learning should be aligned with the participation and performance 
contexts and communities that we are hoping that students will progress 
on to, and have the skills, knowledge and understanding to enjoy being a 
part of. Having said this, it is important to note that the intention is not 
that Sport Education will completely mirror the practices of adult and 
particularly professional sport. Siedentop (1994), emphasised that within 
Sport Education ‘practices that might harm either individual participants 
or the sport itself should be reduced or eliminated’ (p.5), referring 
specifically to ‘an over-emphasis on competition’ and ‘a win-at-all-costs 
philosophy’. He was open in acknowledging that ‘there is nothing inherently 
positive about the influence of sport on developing children and youths’ 
(p.3); ‘sport, properly conceived and conducted, can teach important 
qualities of character, but these qualities do not come automatically, and 
there are many negative qualities that poorly conducted sport also 
teaches’ (p.3). 
 
Figure 1: The defining characteristics of Sport Education (adapted from 
Siedentop and Tannehill, 2000, p.168). 
 
 
• Organization of the curriculum experience in terms of seasons of 
play, lasting longer than usual units of work; 
• Affiliation of students to a team for the duration of the season, 
with members of teams prompted to support each others’ learning 
and value each others’ contributions to the team; 
• Formal competition as an important learning experience, with 
teams challenged to practice for their participation in 
competitions; 
• A culminating event, festival or finale, that is designed as a 
celebration of the festivity of sport and the achievements of all 
students; 
• Record keeping by students relating to various aspects of play and 
performance. This provides a reference point for the design of 
progressive learning experiences, individual and team target 
setting, and for documenting and publicising achievements; 
• Festivity, with the aim of establishing a learning environment and 
relationships that celebrate and encourage improvement, personal 
effort and commitment, and fair play. 
 
 
Sport Education is thus concerned as much with the ‘how’ as ‘what’ of 
curriculum. It features sport as content but also provides a specific 
framework for teaching particular skills, knowledge, understanding and 
values in and through sport. The format of students working in teams 
that are sustained throughout a unit of work, taking on specific roles and 
responsibilities within those teams, monitoring their own performances 
and identifying individual and team learning needs, can mean that students 
are challenged to take personal and collective responsibility in the 
teaching-learning process. The intention is that they will be guided and 
supported in taking on roles such as team coach, linesperson and match 
reporter, thereby extending the skills, knowledge and understanding that 
are addressed in HPE beyond a focus on player / performer. Increasingly, 
the teacher is positioned as a facilitator of learning – and not only 
learning of physical skills associated with a particular sport. There is a 
remit to address and scaffold progress in relation to a wide range of 
skills and knowledge that relate to various roles in sport (coach, official, 
etc), being a member of a team, supporting others in one’s team, 
evaluating how individually and collectively performance can be improved 
and organising sports competitions and festivals. The ability to design and 
implement learning experiences that facilitate this range of learning 
should certainly not be underestimated. The pedagogical knowledge and 
skills required for successful development of Sport Education have 
arguably not be given adequate attention in research to date, and remain 
a critical issue for further exploration if the rich educational potential of 
Sport Education is to be realised.   
 
  
Addressing HPE outcomes through Sport Education 
 
In Sport Education there is an explicit concern to be developing 
‘informed’ participants (Siedentop, 1994). This means that teaching and 
learning covers a spectrum of ‘what’, ‘how and ‘why’ questions that might 
be posed in sporting contexts, such as:  
 
• What skills are needed in particular game situations, how to 
execute them but also why they are appropriate to the situational 
demands;  
• What constitutes ‘fair play’ in sport, how it is demonstrated in 
sporting behaviour and exchanges and why we should promote it; 
• What effective teamwork involves and demands of players, how 
roles and responsibilities within teams may be assigned, why we 
need to question assumptions (relating, for example to gender or 
physique) about who may be best suited to particular roles. 
 
These questions reflect that there is an inherent concern to be advancing 
equity and inclusion through Sport Education. They also illustrate the 
prospective scope and depth of teaching and learning that may be pursued 
when adopting the Sport Education model. It is a model that can provide 
an effective means via which teachers may address a number of HPE 
outcomes. Table 1 below illustrates how Sport the five outcomes within 
the HPE learning area as outlined in the Curriculum Framework for 
Western Australia (Curriculum Council, 1998) might be addressed using 
Sport Education. Similar linkages can be made to outcomes identified in 
other state frameworks. However, progress towards any of the outcomes 
needs to be planned for and teachers will need to make decisions about 
which outcome(s) should take priority at any particular time, and design 
learning experiences and assessment tasks accordingly. In Sport 
Education as in HPE generally, there is a danger of assuming that 
progress towards multiple outcomes will be achieved purely by virtue of 
participation in a team-based activity. Sport Education is a curriculum 
model well suited to development of personal and social aspects of 
learning, and advancement in knowledge and understanding of many 
aspects of game play, participation and performance in sport. But notable 
advances in relation to, for example, Interpersonal Skills, will not be 
achieved unless this outcome is a genuine focus of planning and teaching, 
and learning experiences and assessment tasks are therefore designed 
that foreground and seek to progressively extend inter-personal skills.  
 
 Table 1 
  
HPE Outcome Example of pursuit via Sport Education 
 
Attitudes and Values 
Individual and team focus on Fair Play 
(development of contracts, experiences such as 
playing without a referee) 
Knowledge and 
Understandings 
Focus on movement concepts underpinning skill 
competency; strategic principles in game play; 
principles of fitness and training. 
 
Interpersonal Skills 
Focus on IPS associated with various roles and 
related situations, including leading a team 
practice, peer coaching, officiating, interviewing 
for a match report. 
 
Self-management Skills 
Focus on SMS associated with adherence to a 
personal fitness / skill improvement program and 
individual responsibility within a team context. 
Skills for Physical Activity Focus on development of sport specific skills and 
tactical competency. 
 
 
Sport Education is also a curriculum model that presents considerable 
potential for links to established in teaching and learning across learning 
areas. This potential is arguably greatest in the context of primary 
education, where teachers may be well positioned to design and implement 
Sport Education learning experiences that effectively engage students 
with learning outcomes beyond HPE, including numeracy and literacy 
outcomes. But as with HPE outcomes, the point to emphasise is the need 
for these ‘other outcomes’ to be an identified focus in planning, teaching 
and assessment. Increasingly, it is evident that amidst much potential, we 
need to be highly selective about what we will seek to achieve in any 
single Sport Education unit. 
School sport 
 
Having presented Sport Education as being distinct from ‘traditional 
sport’ and pointed towards the significance of the characteristics of 
Sport Education for the outcomes that it may enable us to address in 
HPE, how should we then view school sport? Just as in the case of Sport 
Education, the focus, form and content of school sport experiences need 
to be recognised as having implications for the outcomes that can (and 
will) effectively be engaged with. Thus, in many instances school sport 
(focusing on skill practices and competitive sporting experiences) may be 
an arena that we associate with pursuit of ‘Skills for Physical Activity’, 
over and above any other outcomes. But as with Sport Education, there is 
rich potential for experiences to be designed to foreground other 
outcomes, such as IPS relevant to effective team play. Participation in 
school sport is also a key opportunity for learning in the curriculum 
context to be reinforced and extended. With this potential, perhaps the 
most important point to stress is that school sport should be an arena and 
experience that is inclusive of all students. In this respect, we need to 
note that: 
 
Much of school sport is still premised on the ‘elimination’ model; that 
is, students are separated into winners and losers. The winners 
continue on to the next stage of the process, while the losers are left 
to seek other challenges, or as is often the case, fall by the wayside 
and fade out of participation…While there have been calls for a new 
model for school sport (and sport generally), they have generally fallen 
on deaf ears. School sport, in its current, traditional form, will never 
disappear altogether. It does, however, run the risk of becoming 
somewhat marginalised by failing to enlist its main stakeholders, the 
students. 
 
(Taggart and Goodwin, 2000: 30) 
 
 
Arguably, there is a case for many of the characteristics and 
underpinning principles of Sport Education to be taken as a starting point 
for the development of a ‘new model’ for school sport, and for 
experiences beyond the curriculum to thereby support progress towards 
outcomes being pursued in the HPE curriculum. School sport would rightly 
be an arena for developing interest and skills associated with coaching, 
officiating, sports administration, sports commentary and journalism, as 
well as performance and participation. It would also be an arena that may 
be more justified in claiming significance and relevance for many 
students’ future lives. 
 
 
REFERENCES 
 
ACHPER WA (n.d.) Why teach physical education? Promotional leaflet. 
Claremont, WA, Austrlaia: ACHPER WA. 
 
Curriculum Council (1998) Curriculum framework for Kindergarten to Year 
12 Education in Western Australia. Perth, W.A.: Curriculum Council. 
 
Siedentop, D. (1994) Sport Education: Quality PE Through Positive Sport 
Experiences.  Champaign, Illinois.  Human Kinetics. 
 
Siedentop, D. & Tannehill, D. (2000). Developing teaching skills in physical 
education. (4th edition). Mountain View, CA: Mayfield. 
 
Taggart,A. and Goodwin,S. (2000) Physical and sport education in 
Australia: Organisation, placement and related issues. Sport and Physical 
Activity Research Centre, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western 
Australia. 
 
Tinning,R., Macdonald,D., Wright,J. & Hickey,C. (2001) Becoming a 
physical education teacher. Contemporary and enduring issues. Frenchs 
Forest, NSW, Australia: Prentice Hall. 
 
Wright,L. (2002) Rescuing Primary Physical Education and Saving Those 
Values that Matter Most. British Journal of Teaching Physical Education, 
33,1, pp.37-38. 
 
                                                 
i For further discussion of the association of physical education and HPE with many and diverse 
outcomes, see for example …. 


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