The Society of Health and Physical Educators America’s new National Physical Education Standards deliver a framework for using PE to build leadership abilities across pre-K-12 grades, reports K-12 Dive.
Physical education classes can engage students who may not be as naturally confident or extroverted as some of their peers. This ultimately helps build their leadership skills, improves motor skills and enhances well-being, says Jesse Weber, education content and programs manager for the Society of Health and Physical Educators America.
“If you’re a math teacher, you’re not going to always choose the same students to answer the question or engage with the class,” says Weber. “So you make sure to keep a 360-degree wheel of kids that you are choosing to engage.”
PE educators can encourage leadership skills by allocating time for students, before they leave the gym, to discuss the activity they engaged in, says Weber. Identifying what they learned about themselves and their focus for the future can help all students move as a team toward a collective goal.
Some PE activities once common have been discontinued. Games like dodgeball don’t build confidence for students who are “out” after being hit and must wait before they can play again.
“We don’t want kids feeling a certain way, getting eliminated, and then not being able to participate,” says Weber, a former senior curriculum and instruction specialist for Denver Public Schools. “Our goal is to participate — not sit on the sidelines — and to engage consistently, so always making sure that activities don’t have an elimination factor is one thing.”
Educators also can pair students who may lack confidence with supportive peers who can make them feel safer in the gym class environment, she says.
“If you know you have a student who may not participate as much because they feel a certain way about other students or themselves, mindfully grouping them with a team of students that can help them feel a little bit better about engaging” can make a difference, she says.
K-12 Dive
