The Overlap and Differences between

‘Health’ and ‘Physical Education’ in

Primary School HPE

The Health and Physical Education in the New Zealand Curriculum published in 1999

had brought about significant changes in the following two subjects: health and PE.

They were combined into one learning area due to the shared features in multiple

perspectives. Despite of so, until today, health and PE are still considered as two

subjects and usually taught separately in New Zealand, as the differences in some

aspects between them remain. This essay will critically discuss the differences and

overlap of ‘Health’ and ‘Physical Education’ in New Zealand primary education.

The Major Differences between Health and Physical

Education Lie in the Means Used and Part of the
Learning Areas
Even though Health and Physical Education are considered as one learning area in the

curriculum since 1999, they are often taught respectively, mainly because the different

pedagogies and focused learning areas are often applied into these two subjects.

Different strategies and Pedagogies are applied in Health and Physical

Education

“Physical education is only about and should only be interested in learning that is
directly or explicitly to do with physical movement.” (Ross & Burrows, 2003) Even

though physical education shares objective achievements with health, it emphasizes

achieving those aims almost only through vigorous activities. To be specific, in physical

education lessons, students learn through “play, games, sports, exercise, recreation,

adventure, and expressive movement in diver physical and social environment”

(Ministry of Education, 2007) By learning in, through and about a series of movement

concepts and motor skills, students’ regular involvement in physical activity, not only

during their schooling, but also over their life time, is increased. (Ross & Burrows,

2003) In addition, due to the features of physical education, such as high interactivity,

dynamic nature, and so on, a series of instruction models, including games education,

experiential learning (adventure based learning), inquiry learning, and so on, were

created and initially applied into physical education.

Unlike physical education that concentrates on teaching through physical movement,

health, in another hand, is often taught through a boarder range of methods, strategies,

and teaching resources, such as books, structured controversies, circle time, and so on.

Take children literature as an example, a large proportion of it contains positive and

beneficial information about health related contents, which allows teachers combine

reading and health education easily. This is also convenient and effective for students

to take in health-related information in contexts that they are interested in and familiar

with, such as stories and picture books. Moreover, “health education shares content,

skills and attitude with other subjects in the curriculum including language, social
studies, science…” (Department of Education, 1985), which allows health education

being taught through a large diversity of forms such as drama, visual art, music, writing,

and so on, based on the connections between health education and other subjects. An

excellent example I have seen about this in my practicum in a local intermediate school

is that student were required to make cards for the victims, their families and

communities of the Christchurch shooting, which is a great combination of visual art

and health.

Different Learning Areas between Health and Physical Education

Admittedly, health and physical education share the seven key learning areas which are

“mental health, sexuality education, food and nutrition, body care and physical safety,

physical activity, sport studies, and outdoor education”. (Ministry of Education, 2007)

However, the focuses of these two subjects are obviously differentiated. “Physical

education is about teaching skills for sports” (Ross & Burrows, 2003), which is to say,

students learn more about physical activity, sport studies, and outdoor education

through physical education. While the remaining four key learning areas are more

frequently discussed through health education. This is supported by the Syllabus for

Schools Health Education in Primary and Secondary Schools published in 1985 by the

Department of Education, in which the nine listed themes in health education greatly

matches some of the key learning areas listed in the curriculum. Specifically, building

self-esteem and relating to others match with mental health; eating for health matches

with food and nutrition; staying healthy and keeping safe match with body care and
physical safety.

Health and Physical Education Share the Same

Philosophy, General Aims, and Part of the Learning
Contents.
The general aim of Health and Physical Education

The health education in New Zealand primary and secondary schools has been aiming

at raising students’ awareness of taking responsibility to their personal health, the health

needs of other, and the health issues in the community constructively and critically.

(Department of Education, 1985) This significantly resonates with the aim of physical

education, the ‘whole person’. Through learning physical education, students can

“contribute to a better world” (Ross & Burrows, 2003) One of the fundamental reasons

that health and physical education were combined into one learning area is that they

share the same aim of learning. Through HPE, “students reflection on the nature of

well-being and how to promote it” (Ministry of Education, 2007), which not only

enable them to take responsibility for themselves, but also to the well-being of those

around them, of their communities, environment and of the wider society. (Ministry of

Education, 2007)

The further four general aims based on the four strands of HPE were came up with in

the Health and Physical Education in the New Zealand Curriculum published in 1999,

which focuses on the development of personal health and physical development,

movement concepts and motor skills, relationships with others, and healthy

communities and environments, (Ministry of Education, 2007) which can only be

achieved through the efforts of both health and physical education.

Health and PE are both supported by the four underlying concepts

The framework for learning of health and PE is supported by four underlying concepts:

Hauora (well-being), attitude and values, the socio-ecological perspective, as well as

health promotion. (Ministry of Education, 1999), which is also regarded as the heart of

this learning area in the curriculum published in 2007.

Taking Hauora as an example which is a great illustration of the combination of health

and PE. Both of the subjects are working on the four interlaced dimensions of Hauora,

Taha tinana (physical well-being), Taha hinengaro (mental and emotional well-being),

Taha whānau (social well-being), and Taha wairua (spiritual well-being). To be specific,

by focusing on Taha tinana by sports and exercise, PE enhances Taha hinengaro and

Taha whānau indirectly. By working on Taha whānau, health education helps to provide

a beneficial environment for students to develop the other three dimensions of Hauora.

Therefore, students are supposed be provided with learning experiences that encourage

an embracing of all aspects of Hauora, none of the dimensions should be left alone.

(Burrows, "Fit, Fast, and Skinny": New Zealand school students 'talk' abut health, 2008)

Not only the Hauora, attitude and values, health promotion, and the socio-ecological
perspective also provide solid foundation and philosophy for both health and PE.

The overlap of ‘Health’ and ‘Physical Education’ in learning area

As the seven key areas of learning are designed for both health and PE, even though

they have focused learning areas respectively, it is undeniable that these two subjects

have an interrelated and mutually-supporting relationship with each other regarding the

learning areas. Neither of them can be separated from the other completely. Physical

activity for health has always been one of the key themes in health education.

(Department of Education, 1985) This is because not only ‘physical healthy’ is an

irreplaceable part of the ‘general health’, but also the mutual effects between physical

and mental/emotional health.

Moreover, the dynamic learnings of health and PE are not constrained by the ‘textbook

knowledge’. They both pay attention on current situations and existing issue among the

youth, provide students opportunities to explore themselves and others in a wide range

of perspectives, and bring about long-lasting effectiveness of learning. (Sinkinson &

Burrows, 2012) Through the learning areas of health and PE, students are able to think

and take actions critically, “to promote personal, interpersonal, and societal well-being”.

(Ministry of Education, 2007)

In conclusion, within the combined learning area of health and PE, differentiated

pedagogies and focused learning areas are applied respectively into these two subjects.
Nevertheless, owing to the shared philosophy, general aims, underlying concepts, as

well as a part of learning content, health and PE have been having a interrelated and

mutual-supporting relationship with each other.

Bibliography

Burrows, L. (2008, 11). "Fit, Fast, and Skinny": New Zealand school students 'talk' abut

health. New Zealand Physical Educator , 34.

Department of Education. (1985). Syllabus for Schools Health Education in Primary

and Secondary Schools. Wellington.

Ministry of Education. (1999). Health and Physical Education in the New Zealand

Curriculum . Wellington : Learning Media .

Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand Curriculum. Wellington, New

Zealand: Learning Media Limited.

Ross, B., & Burrows, L. (2003). It Takes Two Feet. Dunmore Press .

Sinkinson, M., & Burrows, L. (2012, Mar 12). Reframing Health Education in New

Zealand/Aotearoa schools. Asia-Pacific Journal of Health, Spory and Physical

Education , 63.

Critical 22 Feb 2019 NZC and Sexuality

There were two focuses of this lecture: Health Physical Education (HPE)
in the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) and sexuality.

Starting with HPE in NZC, initially, I had confusion about why health
and PE were combined into one subject until I saw the curriculum. HPE
focuses on “the well-being of the students themselves, of other people,
and other society” (Ministry of Education, 2007), which can not be
achieved only through health-related or movement contexts. Take taha
hinengaro (mental and emotional well-being) as an example, even
though it seems more like a part of health education, as a matter of fact,
“sports and exercise (which are more involved in PE) can help to relieve
the symptoms of depression”. (Institute for Quality and Efficiency in
Health Care (IQWiG), 2013) Therefore, only through learning both
health and PE, students are able to “reflect on the nature of well-being
and how to promote it” (Ministry of Education, 2007)

The four underlying concepts (Hauora, attitude and values, socio-

ecological perspective, and health promotion) are not only powerful
tools for teachers when planning health and PE lessons, they can also
be applied into other teaching and learning activities to help students
build up beneficial personalities and relationships.

I used to believe as the learning content of health, such as attitude and

values, can be abstract sometimes, which makes it not very easy for
teachers to evaluate students’ learning outcome immediately. However,
I obviously underestimate the power of health education. I would love
to share an example that I witnessed during practicum, which
significantly boosted my confidence in health education. This term, the
focus of health lesson of my practicum school is the growth mindset.
Both the homeroom teacher and health teacher spent plenty of time on
it. In one of the health classes, students were asked to make a poster
with 1-2 quotes to demonstrate their understanding of the differences
between fixed mindset and growth mindset. A year-8 girl asked me if
she can use the same quote she used in a previous poster she did, I
encouraged her to come up with something new. She said, “But I can’t”.
Immediately, three girls sitting around her shouted out “That’s fixed
mindset!” Then they all started to encourage her. I was really surprised
that the students were able to absorb the philosophy, apply it into the
practice, and use it to support others. I believe that is the power of
health education.
Works Cited
Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG). (2013, 01 17). Depression:
Can sports and exercise help? Retrieved from InformedHealth.org [Internet].
Ministry of Education . (2007). The New Zealand Curriculum. Wellington: Learning
Media.

Critical 25 Feb 2019 Hauora and Nutrition

In this lecture, we were introduced three Māori and Pacific models

health and well-being.

Starting from the word “Hauora” (health in Māori), hau is vitality, it’s
about the essences of a person, an object or a place which are all
connected in the universe. Human beings are not isolated. This Māori
philosophy reminds me of the theory of the traditional Chinese
religion, Taoism, that promotes the unity of human and nature.
Taoism guides believers to achieve harmony with other people, the
whole society and nature, which highly coincides with the Māori
concept of hauora. This made me realize why instead of simply using
the English word “healthy”, NZC introduced the Māori word hauora.
Hauora is about the holistic and macroscopic well-being of a highly
connected universe. It is not merely about the physical and mental
health in a narrow sense, (which was my initial preconception of this
subject), the picture was much bigger than that.

The definition of hauora is closely related to the Māori model of

health, Te Whare Tapa Whā which consists of four dimensions: Taha
Tinana (physical well-being), Taha wairua (spiritual well-being), Taha
whānau (social/family well-being) and Taha hinengaro (mental well-
being). Among these four dimensions, Taha Tinana and Taha
hinengaro are easily understandable whereas Taha whānau and Taha
wairua draw more of my attention (as a non-Māori).

Taha wairua
• Taha wairua draws my attention because the following reasons.
For one thing, I am aware that Māori and some Pacific islanders
are very spiritual and think highly of their religions, which
requires me to try my best to understand and respect their
believes and the diversity.
• Moreover, personally, I’m not a believer, I may accidently neglect
the important role that religion/spiritual life plays in some of
students. I thereby pay more attention to Taha wairua to gain a
better understanding of the spiritual well-being.

Taha whānau
• In the website of Ministry of Health, Taha whānau was
paraphrased as “The The capacity to belong, to care and to share
where individuals are part of wider social systems” (Ministry of
Health, 2017) Social system includes nuclear family, extended
family and even the ancestors. As Māori culture thinks highly of
 their extended family (this is also significantly similar with
Chinese culture), and many traditions and customs derive from
this value (such as grandparents raise their third generations), it
is very important for teachers to understand, respect and
embrace the importance of Taha whānau. This is not only for
teaching, but also for comprehensive understanding of students
and effective communication with them and their whānau.

Works Cited
Ministry of Health. (2017, 05 18). Te Whare Tapa Whā. Retrieved from Ministry of
Health: https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/populations/maori-health/maori-health-
models/maori-health-models-te-whare-tapa-wha
20 Feb 2019 What is health education?

Based on my personal experience, my initial understanding of health

education was about physical and maybe a small proportion of mental
health knowledge, or more like common sense such as washing hands
before eating and doing exercise twice a week. Health education was
not a serious subject for either the teachers or students and their
families when I was in primary school.

This lecture updated my understanding of the definition of health

education (concept 1) which is absolute a comprehensive concept in
New Zealand, involving a series of “factors that influence the health of
individuals, groups, and society: lifestyle, economic, social, cultural,
political, and environmental factors” (Ministry of Education, 2007).
Students are expected to “use skills and understandings they acquire
through health education to take critical action to promote personal,
interpersonal, and societal well-being” (Ministry of Education, 2007).
Such an essential and lofty expectation made me realize the necessity,
importance, and irreplaceability of health education.

In addition, I was born and raised up in a mono-cultural country where

the diversities (concept 2) of cultural background, religion, sexual
orientation, and many other aspects are not encouraged and publicly
propagated. I’m thus not very sensitive to diversities and sometimes
tend to generalize. I often wish to find out a “main-stream” or standard
answer which does not always exist in a multi-cultural society.

Through this lecture, I found out there is not a unified expectation or

definition of “health”. It is greatly differentiated by students’ gender,
cultural background, religion, sexual orientation, and many other
aspects. Health education is about developing students’ understanding
of what health means to them. As a future teacher, I believe what I need
to do is to help students to recognize, acknowledge, embrace and
celebrate all the different aspects of themselves that make them unique,
help students to understand what health means to themselves and
others. Only by recognizing, acknowledging and embracing the diversity,
they will be able to become critical thinkers and actioners.

Works Cited
Ministry of Education . (2007). The New Zealand Curriculum . Wellington : Ministry of
Education .

28 Feb 2019 Planning and Pedagogies

The focus of this lecture was health class planning and pedagogies.
Besides the four underlying concepts, strands, as well as the seven key
areas provided by the curriculum, I personally was quite impressed by
the five strategies, not only because they are interactive and enjoyable,
but also because they can be easily combined with almost any other
subjects, which provides teaches loads of opportunities to reinforce the
philosophy, and values taught in health classes.

• Books
When doing the reading aloud assignment during my practicum,
I noticed almost all the children literature contain positive and
beneficial information about health, which allows teachers to
combine reading and health easily. This is also effective for
students to learn health-related content in contexts/stories that
they are very familiar with. For example, in the book, I did analyze
for literature assignment, (named My Teacher is A Monster)
teacher-student relationship was portrayed and illustrated
vividly, which can be used as teaching materials for both English
reading and health.

• The Arts- Dance/Visual Art/Music/Drama

The large diversity of art form provides plenty of teaching
methods and materials for health. Take singing as an example,
the Māori song Te Aroha is often used in different circumstances
(such as in the silent pray for the victims for Christchurch
shooting), to demonstrate and reinforce the values of love, faith，
and peace. This is a great combination of art (music and singing),
health and Māori. Another example I’ve witnessed is in one of the
art classes in my practicum, the teacher invited students to draw
cards for the victims of Christchurch shooting and their
communities. With images and colors, students expressed their
feelings and emotions so well.

• Circle time
Circle time is something I really enjoy doing because it shortens
the physical distance between teachers and students and among
students themselves. Moreover, sitting in a circle on the mat is
more relaxing and causal than sitting at desks, which, I believe,
makes students comfortable to talk about their opinions. In
addition, sitting in a circle means every member in the group is
equal, teacher is not necessarily the authority, everyone is
allowed and encouraged to publish their ideas or question.
Critical 26 Feb 2019 10:30-12:30 Inquiry Learning/Movement Education

This tutorial was about inquiry learning/movement education. The movement concepts and a series of movement themes were
introduced. my reflection is about when introducing and teaching a movement theme through activities, how to put the four
movement concepts into consideration.
Pathway Static
Body • Activity: designing an obstacle course involving at least • Activity: students were group in 3-4. When teacher said
three movement themes. combinations of a number and a body part, students in
My reflection of pathway is based on the course my group groups needed to reach a static balance with only the
designed. required numbers of body parts touching the floor.
• Multiple body parts were involved when travelling from A to • Students needed to figure out how to take full use of their
B body parts and what action, such as push, stretch,
• The utilize of body shapes and actions of body parts were should be used.
closely related with static, flight and other movement
themes, which made me realize that most movement
themes were closely connected. They should not be
isolated in teaching process.
Space • It is one of the critical skill for students to learn that moving • When organizing an activity like this, appropriate space
When planning an towards different directions with various pathways in space is very important. To be specific, we found out it was
activity or sport, with obstacles almost impossible to stay still with only elbows touching
appropriate space • The concept of space includes self-space and general the floor as the wood floor was too hard. In this case,
should be provided space (Abels & Bridges, 2010, p. 11). The latter is mats should be provided.
for students connected with the concept of relationship. Teachers
should guide students and help them to learn how to share
or divide (set up territory) the general space with group
members.
Efforts • Even though all the activities and sports involve four • In this activity, force was the focus of efforts we made.
Contains time, flow, categories of efforts, I noticed there are 1-2 focus in
force and focus. different sports. For example, if it’s a timing game, time and
flow are the focus.
Relationship • Movement relationship with people involves the • Relationship with team members played a critical role in
People, position, relationship with team members and rivals. Students this activity as it was impossible to achieve any goal
 timing, goal and should be guided to collaborate with group members without cooperation. After the activity, I felt more
environment (teamwork) for multiple purposes and play against rivals bounded with my group members
(dodging, passing, flying and so on) • Finding the available position/action was the key. To
• Environment: players should adjust their movements make it work, we had to overcome personal obstacles
swiftly according to the change of environment. such as physical contacts or lying on the ground in
• As movement relationship involves collaboration with public. We should take these factors into consideration,
others, it is “the most complex of the movement concepts” and guide students to overcome their personal
(Abels & Bridges, 2010, p. 10). If one can build up healthy obstacles.
and positive relationships in movement with himself and
others, he can apply the strategies into other aspects of
lives. Which is to say, “movement relationships provide the
best opportunity to build long-term movement capabilities
that can affect our physical, emotional, and cognitive
health” (Abels & Bridges, 2010, p. 10).

Works Cited
Abels, K. W., & Bridges, J. M. (2010). Teaching Movement Education: Foundations for Active Lifestyles . Human Kinetics Publishers.
Bridges, K. W. (2010). Teaching Movement Education: Foundations for Active Lifestyles . Human Kinetics Publishers.

21 Feb 2019 10:30-12:30 Direct Instruction and Skill Theme Approach

The focus of this tutorial was direct instruction with the skill theme of throwing. I was greatly impressed that the teaching process
was perfectly combined with a series of well-designed ice-breaker activities.

Teaching Step Activity/Instruction Personal Reflection

• Students were challenged step by step, from easy to hard
• creating a throw and catch game in group of 6
• Some challenges were optional (challenge by choice)
• add something on the game to help group members
• Multi-purposes activity: warm-up and allow student to know
Warm-up know each others’ name
each other
• add small challenge on the game(optional)
• Instant reflection allows students to adjust and enhance the
• instant reflection: what? So what? Now what?
game immediately
• Demonstration was divided into 3 steps with clear instructions
• Stand face to face in pairs (get ready for practice)
Modelling • Slow movements
• Watch teacher’s demonstration
• Modelling was repeated during
• Teacher acquired non-verbal feedbacks by observation
Structured
• Practice/throw a ball in pairs • Further demonstration, suggestion and remind were provided by
Practice
teacher based on her observation
• Verbal feedback: Is the instruction clear?
Can you understand it well? My understanding is that feedback is not a fixed step in the
… teaching procedure. Teacher acquires feedbacks from students
Feedback
• Non-verbal feedback: teacher attain feedbacks by by multiple approaches consistently and adjust his/her teaching
observing students’ movements during practice accordingly.

• Students got slightly distracted and started to chat and play

• Students were divided into four groups
• Shorten the waiting time as much as possible
• Throw a ball at a target by turns
Reinforcement • Put some students in charge of helping others
• When it’s not your turn, observe others’ throwing and
• With sufficient practice, if there’s enough time, make it game:
consider how you can improve your throwing
with limited time, whichever time hit the target the most win
21 Feb 2019 3-5pm Experiential Learning/ABL

This tutorial was about adventure based learning which provides not
only a progressive sequence of activities for PE but also principles and
teaching methods that can be applied in other subjects and class
management.

Full Value Contact

• Students were divided into groups of 5-6. Each group listed their
preferred values of the class and decided their top 3 on a sheet. Teacher
collected the sheets of all groups and the whole class voted for all the
listed values. The top 6 values would be the contracted class
values/treaty.
• This is a highly interactive and inclusive method to make a class treaty.
It was the result of students’ vote, which is to say, students accept it and
would like to comply with it.
• We didn’t talk about the consequence of breaking the contract in the
tutorial. I believe it will be widely acceptable by students if the
consequences are also discussed and decided by themselves.

Challenge by Choice
• Challenging by choice does not mean students can choose whether
they are challenged or not. They can choose how they are challenged.
• If students are forced into something, fear is born. I thus believe
challenging by choice is a principle that suitable for most of the teaching
activities as it leaving space for students, especially those who are not
prone to take risks. Different levels of options should be provided by
teachers.
• I noticed in most of the activities during all the tutorials, students were
challenged by choice. For example: when we were required to design a
game, we were allowed to choose preferred equipment.

Debrief
• What? (what do I observe?) So what? (What does this mean to me and
my group?) Now what? (How can I apply this to my learning so that I can
adapt for the next activity?)
• This is a useful method of reflection for both teacher and students to
reflection and adjust the teaching and learning activities.
25 Feb 2019 Teaching Game for Understanding

This tutorial was about TGFU. Based on my understanding, this

tutorial introduced how teachers (game designer/planner) design and
adjust games and how students (game players) participate games.
For teachers (game designer/planner):
• Teachers should observe students who are playing the designed games,
collect information, and adjust the game accordingly
• Teachers can adjust games according to the following factors:
1. Students’ skill level
2. Environment, equipment
3. Numbers of player; size of class
…
• There are a wide range of approaches to adjust the game:
1. Reducing the area of play
2. Changing the number of player
3. Changing the equipment
…
• For example, in the tutorial, we were divided into groups of 4 and
required to design a 2 vs 2 ball-bouncing game. As both game designers
and participants, we monitored how the game went through and adjusted
it accordingly.
1. Initially, we just bounced the ball at each other.
2. After realizing the game was not challenging enough, we put a
line between 2 teams and added a rule: each player had to
bounce over the line.
3. Then we found out we often bounced the ball too high or far for
other players to catch, we used cones to set boundaries
For students (game player/participants):
• In this tutorial, we were divided into 4 groups, introduced a new game,
and required to play against another team.
• In the first round, I was not sure how to play and as a team, we did not
have any strategy. Therefore, I just ran blindly with others trying to catch
the ball
• Before the second round, we were requested to come up with a strategy
as a team. In my team, we chose positioning to make sure there were
players in each zone.
• Before the third round, we were requested to observe the game of the
other two teams, try to spot their strategies and think about them.
• As a game participant, I experience playing blindly, playing with strategy,
and learning from other players.
• As the game designer/planner, teachers should provide guidance and
suggestions to students and make sure students playing with thinking. I
believe this can apply to not only PE but also other learning activities.