Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance

ISSN: 0730-3084 (Print) 2168-3816 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ujrd20

Teaching Strategies for Physical Education during

the COVID-19 Pandemic
Editor: Ferman Konukman

Bijen Filiz & Ferman Konukman

To cite this article: Bijen Filiz & Ferman Konukman (2020) Teaching Strategies for Physical
Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic, Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance,
91:9, 48-50, DOI: 10.1080/07303084.2020.1816099

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/07303084.2020.1816099

Published online: 07 Dec 2020.

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 Editor: Ferman Konukman Teaching Strategies for Physical Education
Teaching Tips
during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Bijen Filiz
Ferman Konukman
D
ue to the COVID-19 outbreak,
many countries around the
world have imposed various
restrictions on social life and education to
slow the spread of COVID-19. These
include introducing varying degrees of
social isolation and restrictions on things
such as social gatherings, travel, sports,
leisure activities, going to work and
school. In this context, schools in 194
countries were closed. Attempts were
made to ensure the continuity of learning
by using distance-learning tools. The
infrastructure and facilities of all
institutions in the countries were
organized to prevent the epidemic, to
minimize the learning losses while the
epidemic continues, and to ensure the
continuity of learning.
During COVID-19 physical education
practices in some European countries and
the United States were as follows: in North
Macedonia, the school year ended with
online teaching and homeschooling.
Different teachers used different forms
such as online classes with livestreaming,
recorded videos, tasks for students,
projects or just links to follow. In
Hungary, weekly “movement diaries” was
the most common method to motivate
students for physical education. In Italy,
teachers were invited to teach via online
distance learning. SHAPE America
– Society of Health and Physical
Educators supported physical education
teachers organizing online materials,
video lessons with practical and theoreti-
cal contents, webinars about most popular
sport applications and how to teach
physical education. In addition, online
questionnaires were launched on social
media about how to organize the next
school year as well as a physical education
campaign called #IdoNotstopMoving.
Those resources were free and available
for all physical education teachers in Italy
48 Volume 91 Number 9 November-December 2020
(European Physical Education
Association, 2020). In the United States,
SHAPE America supported physical
education teachers by providing online
virtual resources for health and physical
education, #HPEatHome, including video
with theoretical and practical content.
Teachers applied a distance-learning
program with suggestions for physical
education activities that could be done at
home. They held online sessions and
completed one hour of moder-
ate-to-strong physical activity daily as
suggested by the World Health
Organization (WHO) guidelines. Teachers
in Turkey lectured online courses via an
education information network called
EBA prepared by the Ministry of
Education. In addition, live broadcasts
were made to students from the EBA-TV
channel prepared by the ministry for
every class, every day, at certain hours.
In general, due to the current
COVID-19 pandemic, three scenarios for
return to school are discussed in
the world:
1. Face-to-face education, including
strict reduction protocols
2. Distance education
3. Hybrid education (at home and
school, face-to-face and distance)
Face-to-Face Education, Including
Strict Reduction Protocols. Face-to-face
education will help prevent the negative
social, physical and mental health
consequences of inactivity due to
quarantine. However, maintaining social
distance and avoiding contact in order to
control the transmission risks of
COVID-19 seems difficult for physical
education classes, especially indoor
activities. Measures should be taken to
prevent or reduce contamination in
students at risk in face-to-face education
(Mandl, 2020).
This is also associated with a high level
of hygiene and disinfection. By including
most of the procedures performed in all
countries to prevent transmission (WHO,
2020), it is important to prevent students
from becoming infected in physical
education classes and to protect their health
by exercising under professional supervi-
sion (International Monetary Fund, 2020).
Disinfection and professional
supervision should be prioritized in
physical education classes. Banners
related to COVID-19 precautions such as
hand washing, use of masks, and rules to
be followed inside the gym should be
placed at the entrance of the gyms. Hand
sanitizer should be available at the
entrance of the gyms and inside. Physical
education teachers should ensure that
students wash their hands or use hand
sanitizer before and after each lesson.
Students should have access to water and
soap at all times, and there should be
disposable paper towels. Teachers should
measure the temperature of all students
before starting the lesson, ensure they use
masks, and maintain a high level of
hygiene (WHO, 2020). Students with a
high temperature of 38°C (100.4°F)
should be ensured to stay at home; in this
case, private lessons can be given at home
to protect the physical fitness of students
(Institute for Health Metrics and
Evaluation, 2020). In addition, physical
education teachers should use masks and
gloves throughout the lesson, and their
temperature should be measured before
the lesson.
Moreover, physical education teachers
should be trained about the symptoms of
the disease. Students who have had
symptoms of fever, cough, runny nose, or
respiratory distress, or who have tested
positive for COVID-19 or come into
contact with someone who has should not
be admitted to the gym. Students should
be directed to the health institution by
wearing a medical mask. Students who
show symptoms of COVID-19 should be
kept in quarantine at home until they
recover.
In closed areas, especially if the
number of students is high, it is obligatory
for students to use masks while perform-
ing physical activities. This leads to
different disease risks (heart attack,
inability to breathe due to evaporation in
the mask). If it is necessary to use masks
in the class, it is important to carry out
the lesson with light exercises and to
ensure that students rest intermittently. If
excessive facial sweating occurs, the
masks should be changed. In this context,
there will be no need to use masks in
schools, especially in outdoor exercises,
and the risk of contamination will be
reduced. Open spaces are better than
confined spaces and are the safest option
(Wang, Tang, & Wei, 2020). However, if
physical activity is done indoors, the
space should be constantly ventilated.
Ventilation systems should be used in
sports halls, and their maintenance should
be done regularly; air conditioning and
ventilators should not be used in the halls.
Reducing the number of students in
the classes, decreasing the total number
and hours of lessons per week, or
shortening the duration of a lesson can be
a solution. It is important to limit the
number of students in the gym to be one
person per 6 square meters in the area
where sports will be done (Turkish
Ministry of Health, 2020). Sports activity
increases droplet output and speed.
Therefore, social distance should be
applied as at least 2 meters. Disinfecting
and resting the educational environment
after each lesson and extending the
transition period to the next lesson are
other measures. The mixing of groups
should be prevented during physical
activities and during class changes. In
addition, it should be ensured that
showers and changing rooms are
disinfected after each use. It may also be a
suggestion that a smaller number of
teachers work in schools at the same time
and work in rotation.
Physical education teachers will teach
more effectively with fewer students in a
short lesson time using alternative
JOPERD
programs. It would be appropriate to
reorganize various training areas for
alternative programs such as local parks,
open-air ball courts, parking lots, tennis
courts, and so on. It would be appropriate
for teachers not to add team games and
sports that require close contact to the
programs during this period. Some sports
that can be applied without contact and
individually can be preferred considering
the 2-meter distance requirement. Sports
that do not require contact can be
included in the program by maintaining
the social distance between people.
During this period, activities that require
face-to-face partnerships should not be
included. Students may find it difficult to
keep a distance of 2 meters while doing
activities. If face-to-face activities are to
be included, they should be low effort,
and students should definitely use masks.
If activities requiring high effort are to be
performed, a mask may not be worn
during the work because it may make
breathing difficult. Students should be
provided with masks to be used during
possible contacts in sports activities where
the mask is not worn.
In addition, students may be asked to
bring the materials to be used in physical
activities from their homes, to disinfect
the materials after each use, to place them
in their closets and label them. If the
sports equipment belonging to the school
will be used jointly in the lessons, the
materials should be disinfected at the end
of each lesson. Students can be encour-
aged to bring their own filled and labeled
water bottles from home.
A balanced and healthy diet in daily
life helps protect the immune system
(Palmowski, Boßlau, Ryl, Krüger, &
Reichel, 2019). Students should be guided
to a balanced and healthy diet at school
and at home. The education given to
students to gain balanced and healthy
eating habits should be intensified. There
are dozens of studies on sports to
strengthen the immune system. Physical
education teachers should constantly
convey the importance, benefits and gains
of sports to students in various ways, as
well as a balanced and healthy diet.
Distance Education. A distance
classroom model can be used to
maximize continuity of learning. The
Teaching Tips
magic word of distance education is
motivation. The state and school
administration should motivate the
teacher, the teacher should motivate the
parents, the parents should motivate
the students, and cooperation should be
made to ensure continuity in education.
In distance education, students should
be provided with information-rich
materials and evaluations. It is important
to involve students in decision-making
processes. Students should be encouraged
to challenge, collaborate and solve
problems. In this process, students and
parents can be contacted in multiple ways
such as letters, e-mails, phone calls and
video chats.
Simultaneous teaching is often
promoted through the ministry’s program
as joint lectures or by media such as
videoconferencing and live chats. In
asynchronous teaching, access to
information is facilitated by sending
messages and files to students, usually
through social media programs or via
e-mail (The Maryland State Department
of Education, 2020). Teachers can increase
the effectiveness of education in these
two ways.
Physical education teachers can
follow social media groups and suggested
topics on Twitter in #PdinPE,
#HPEatHome, #physed, or #SDinPE.
They can participate in contracts and
workshops for MSDE, SHAPE America,
SHAPE Maryland, MAPEC,
#PhysEdSummit, ChargedUP, OPEN
Phys Ed, SPARKecademy, EPEW, or PHE
Canada. These platforms are constantly
updated (The Maryland State
Department of Education, 2020).
Teachers should follow the distance
education offered by the ministry.
Some students can access dis-
tance-learning materials and continue
their academic development. However,
some students may have difficulty in
accessing and interacting with digital
learning materials because they do not
have an Internet network at home.
Students may not even have a room of
their own. Therefore, teachers should aim
to make a cognitive, affective and
psychomotor evaluation that ignores the
interruptions in the continuity of learning
49
 and includes the individual capacities of
Teaching Tips
all students.
Basically, the aim is to maintain the
physical fitness level of students and to
ensure that they move regularly to be
healthy and fit. Students’ pedagogical
readiness in this direction should be
increased during distance education. In
distance education, students can be
provided with the necessary documents to
prepare individual programs for them-
selves and to update these programs and
apply them regularly.
Hybrid Education (At Home and School,
Face-to-Face and Distance). A blended
classroom model can also be used to
maximize continuity of learning. In the
hybrid education model, students are taught
at home on some days of the week and at
school on some days. Some classes are
distance, some are face-to-face, and lesson
hours are generally reduced. It is a model
that is applied alternately by separating the
students into groups, with some of them at
school and some of them receiving distance
education. Face-to-face lessons are generally
academic, while distance lessons include
lessons such as music, painting, physical
education and life science. Therefore, the
programs prepared by physical education
teachers gain importance in understanding
the value of the lesson.
Online programs prepared by physical
education teachers should reflect a
value-oriented approach that includes
behaviors such as socialization, interac-
tion/communication, teaming, problem
solving and cooperation. Also, not all
students in a class are at the same level of
ability. Teachers should develop online
programs that will enable students to
50 Volume 91 Number 9 November-December 2020
develop their basic skills at their own
level. In addition, they can prepare a
health and wellness-based model that
incorporates World Health Organization
(WHO) guidelines.
In summary, a positive role-model
that facilitates learning healthy life skills
can be developed in a physical education
setting. The link between student and
teacher is important to ensure that
learning takes place. The lack of direct
interaction in the COVID-19 era has
significantly highlighted how valuable
this link is. This is a new challenge in
teaching physical education, and
physical education teachers will be a
resource teacher/personal trainer and
coach to all students during the
COVID-19 pandemic, although there is
a debate about how much these values
and behaviors can be obtained via
distance physical education classes.
Physical education teachers’ motto
should be “Guiding youngsters in the
process of becoming physically active
and healthy for a lifetime.”
ORCID
Bijen Filiz http://orcid.org/0000-0001-
5863-3861
Ferman Konukman http://orcid.
org/0000-0001-9508-8874
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Bijen Filiz (bijenfiliz@gmail.com) is an
assistant professor in the Department of
Coaching Education, Faculty of Sport
Sciences at Afyon Kocatepe University,
Afyonkarahisar, Turkey. Ferman Konukman
is an assistant professor in the Sport Science
Program at Qatar University in Doha,
Qatar.