Education Essay Sample: Learning Domains in K-12 Physical Education Programs

Physical education is an educational course that enables students to enhance their skills, knowledge, and experience. Also, it is through physical education that enables them to develop a positive attitude that leads to a healthy lifestyle. There are three domains of learning: cognitive, psychomotor and affective and all education should include all these three learning domains. In the past few years, research has been carried out in figuring out how young people learn and the various components involved with learning. Back in 1956, these learning domains were first identified as Bloom's Taxonomy by a psychologist, Benjamin Bloom whose focus was on education and how young people learn (Adams, 2015). The paper, therefore, explores on each domain and how they are incorporated into k-12 physical education.

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Learning Domains

Cognitive domain is the center of learning domain that deals with how students acquire processes and utilize the knowledge. It ensures that learners develop mental skills like decision making, judgments, knowledge, analyzing and synthesizing (Cloes, 2014). It is a gradual process that increases as one move from childhood into adulthood. Affective domain is another critical domain of learning that ranges from initial awareness to values of commitment. Also, it is characterized with "attitude, motivation, willingness to participate, valuing what is being learned and ultimately incorporating the discipline values into real life" (Ramalingman, Kasilingam & Chinnavan, 2014). Therefore, affective domain guides decisions and behaviors of individuals by giving control on managing feelings and emotions being expressed. Another domain is the psychomotor domain which is concerned with "performing sequences of motor activities to a specified level of accuracy, smoothness, rapidity, and force" (Ramalingman, Kasilingam & Chinnavan, 2014). The capacity for developing psychomotor skills improves as one age and they are learned when one engages in activities that involve the physical body such as dancing, jumping, hopping and running.

Learning Domains and Physical Education

Physical education was introduced in school curriculum because it was considered to be the only avenue that will engage learners fully in the physical activities. Schools have models and programs that they follow while instructing and involving learners in physical education sessions as clearly outlined in "National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) standards for K-12 physical education" (NASPE, 2016). Sports, movement education, and games are considered to be the main instructional approaches and major contents in the physical education. The two main goals of physical education are preparing the learners to live the physically active lifestyle and engaging learner's physical body during the physical education session (Cloes, 2014). These goals help in developing physically active individuals throughout their lifetime.

The curriculum of teachers in physical education should ensure that the activities learners engage into, develop the three learning domains. One may think that psychomotor is the only learning domain that is developed in the physical education, but if you break down the activities learners engage in, you will realize that other learning domains are also incorporated. There are various games or activities that young people both in elementary and high schools engage in. Different games take different forms and some are even specific to the number of individuals required in each team depending on the number of roles involved (Metzler, 2017). Some of the common activities are skipping rope, hide and seek, lost-letter game, duck-duck-goose and lost handkerchief game.

Let's consider the lost-letter game and see how the three learning domains are incorporated in the activity. The game requires the learners to sit in a circular manner. One person goes around hopping while tapping the head of those sitting using the handkerchief they have on their hands one at a time. As they hop, they sing, "I have lost a letter" (Wang, & Mylers, 2010). Those sitting respond in unison "find it." They keep on hoping and tapping until they reach the person of their choice where they stand and say, "I have found it." At this point, the sitting student where "the letter has been," stands and runs in the direction opposite to the first student's direction. The one who reaches first at the spot where the letter was found, sits, and the student left standing, picks the handkerchief and continues with the game. The game ensures that at least 90% of the students sitting in the circle had a duty of finding the lost letter.

This activity involves the three domains. Hopping around, tapping and singing are in the psychomotor domain. The hopping student learns to coordinate movement of their legs as they hop and their hands as they tap the heads of those sitting in the circle (Wang, & Mylers, 2010). Also, on finding the lost letter they run very fast so that they outdo the other person and this helps them in strengthening their muscles and perception. Secondly, the cognitive is seen where the learners learn the game rules and follow them. He/she knows what's expected of them while on duty. Also, they judge those with sitting physical ability and chooses those they think they can outdo. Lastly, the affective domain concept is realized when the second learner selected takes up the duty of finding the letter amicably without being aggressive to the first learner (Ramalingman, Kasilingam & Chinnavan, 2014). In addition, in case the first learner fails to arrive on the letter spot before the second learner and he/she is forced to repeat, he or she takes on the duty again and does not cry or become violent even if they are tired but they repeat willingly.

New activities, programs, and games are being implemented in the physical education. Some of the programs include the Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH) and Sports, Plays and Active Recreation for Kids (SPARKS). New sports that have been introduced in the curriculum include; in-line skating, project adventure and skateboarding (NASPE, 2016). Nations have also set aside games and sports season for the younger people to compete globally with other students. To be competitive, learners are required to take physical education seriously and also engage in physical activities often. Also, the state government has taken the lead in formulating policies to be followed in physical education, some of which include time allocation for learners in elementary school and high school. Not only in elementary schools and high schools is physical education being conducted, but also juvenile schools are incorporating the same hence enhancing the learning of young people.

Conclusion

Physical education is an essential educational course that has played a key role in developing learners who lead a healthy lifestyle. The three domains of learning have been incorporated into the school curriculum and have developed physically fit individuals who can relate well with others without being too emotional. This is evident from the successful nationwide sports that learners get involved in. New innovations and programs like CATCH are continuing and are being implemented with the aim of advancing current activities learners engage in. Therefore, physical education empowers students with the knowledge and practical skills of performing wide ranges of activities connected with the development of an active healthy lifestyle.

References

Adams, N. E. (2015). Bloom's taxonomy of cognitive learning objectives. Journal of the Medical Library Association: JMLA, 103(3), 152.

Cloes, M. (2014). The physical education teacher as a physical activity promoter: Current Developments.

Metzler, M. (2017). Instructional models in physical education. Taylor & Francis.

NASPE. (2016). Adapted Physical Education and Sport, 6E. Human Kinetics. Retrieved from: https://www.pgpedia.com/n/national-association-sport-and-physical-education

Ramalingam, M., Kasilingam, G., & Chinnavan, E. (2014). Assessment of Learning Domains to Improve Student's Learning in Higher Education. Journal of Young Pharmacists, 6(1), 27.

Wang, L., & Mylers, S. (2010). Creating student-centered learning experience through the assistance of high-end technology in physical education .journal of instructional psychology, 37(4), 352-356.