Publisher's Synopsis
Physical activity is the best recipe for staying physically and mentally healthy; it plays an important role in preventing the development of many chronic illnesses and in increasing life expectancy as physically active people tend to live longer than sedentary ones. Physical education trends have developed recently to incorporate a greater variety of activities besides typical sports. Introducing students to activities like bowling, walking or hiking, or Frisbee at an early age can help students develop good activity habits that will carry over into adulthood. Some teachers have even begun to incorporate stress-reduction techniques such as yoga, deep-breathing and tai chi. Tai chi, an ancient martial arts form focused on slow meditative movements is a relaxation activity with many benefits for students. Studies have shown that tai chi enhances muscular strength and endurance, cardiovascular endurance, and provides many other physical benefits. However, the recent great inventions have brought about new changes in the amount and quality of physical activity carried out daily. Physical activity has been replaced by sedentary activities, especially with children and young people. The consequences are visible and noticeable in the increase in childhood overweight and obesity. Even when physical education is required, an appropriate curriculum implemented by a certified teacher is not guaranteed. Therefore, assessing the association between physical education and academic achievement is quite difficult when the time children spend in physical education as well as the quality of instruction they receive varies across the nation. The aim of Improving Teaching and Learning in Physical Education is to identify the current trends and challenges in physical education and sports and based on these current challenges, future trends and challenges would be discussed. There are various factors which are diminishing the interest of students in physical education activities. This volume presents the main objectives, activities and outcomes of physical education. The volume gives insights into a wide range of educational experiences (ethical issues, student support, barriers, online teacher/student experiences, collaboration teachers/ parents). The work also examines the e-materials and tools created so far with a view to motivating students only interested in sport to improve their school performance, helping students balance their school career with their passion for sport, integrating sport and healthy lifestyle approaches into the students' educational pathways and using sport as a means to acquire transversal skills.
