Health Related Fitness as an Innovation in the Physical Education Curriculum

This chapter discusses despite historical links between physical education and health, and the influence of health education in an implicit form in the school curriculum, the notion of &s;health related fitness&s; is for many physical education teachers, a new and problematic idea. It draws on data derived from an ethnographic case study of teachers&s; attempts to introduce and develop a health related fitness course as a part of the physical education curriculum at Forest School, a 14–18, co-educational Upper School and Community College in England. The chapter also discusses the important implications for the development of teaching methods in relation to the health related aspects of the curriculum. The teaching of health related fitness as part of the physical education curriculum is currently highly problematic. This conception of health in the physical education curriculum represents a marked departure from the idea that health benefits derived from participation in physical activity are merely by-products of teaching.