Research On Physical Education Of Primary And Middle Schools In US

Since the 1990s, the physical education (P.E.) in U.S. primary and secondary schools has achieved great development along with the wave of reform of basic education. The aim of physical education was making a gradual shift from skill-oriented physical fitness to health-oriented physical fitness, while the public health was turned its focus on improving lifetime activities.The P. E. in the United States before 1990s is divided into four periods by its historical stage:the colonial (1607-1783); the national independence (1784-1860); the civil war until "World War I" (1861-1915); "World War I" until 1990s (1915-1990).The P. E. in the U.S. has two forms, the curricular Physical Education and the Extracurricular Physical Education. We can see that the physical education in U.S. has shown strong features towards innovation, personalization, Health and lifetime with the analysis on students, teaching purposes, teaching content, teaching methods, teaching environment, evaluation and teachers in the curricular Physical Education, plus with the research on the Walking and Cycling to School program, school activities and sports clubs, interscholastic athletics in the Extracurricular Physical Education.The P. E. in the U. S is influenced by multiple factors, such as the core political concepts, economy, multi-culture, educational reform and the public lifestyle. The core political concept consists of freedom, equality, autonomy, individualism, integration and diversity, which influence on the formation of the modern P. E. in the U. S respectively. The highly developed economy laid the material foundation for the P. E in the U. S and also provides a great financial support to teacher training. Race & ethnicity, gender, and individual difference as three major factors related to multi-culture make the United States a specificity in P. E in the U. S today. The National Physical Education Standards is considered as a milestone in the history of the P. E development in the United States, which establishes a standard framework and has a great influence on the P. E in the United States. The lifestyle of the American public, such as fast-food culture, popular video games, etc. triggers obesity and many other social problems, which also have great impact on the P. E in the United States.Many problems exist in the American physical education, such as the neglect of physical education in school, lack of qualified physical educators, low participation rate in P. E class and the polarization caused by competitive sports.The P. E in the U. S, either in theory or in practice, has a lot of inspiration to our physical education. The concepts of P. E, teaching content, teaching methods, evaluation and teacher training can bring up a great inspiration into the P. E in China.