All teachers are teachers of health and well-being.

I was excited to be a part of the ConnectedPE online conference recently and presented a webinar about cross-curricular teaching and learning in PHE. I had decided to present this webinar as I feel that it is a vital part of education that should be developed and explored further, as the benefits for student learning can be huge. In addition, in my role as MYP Coordinator and also Head of PHE and teacher of Sports, Exercise and Health Science, I feel I have a wider lens through which to view the curriculum, than perhaps some other teachers. So I thought I would write a post to summarize the content of my webinar and hopefully share some useful ideas from my experience. I have summarized my webinar into 3 main themes and provided some brief examples at the end.

A fresh perspective

Lynch says that “cross-curricular teaching is a fresh perspective for teaching and for learning”¹ and I like this quote because, in order to progress with regard to cross-curricular approaches, I think we must not only change our point of view of our subject but also of subjects in general. Dr. Heba Sadek explained it perfectly in her talk at the Cambridge University Press conference where she outlines the importance of breaking down the idea of compartmentalised, independent subjects and instead suggested we be more flexible to teach the student, not the subject². I can’t think of any job or profession in the real world, in which we are not required to take a multidisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary approach to fulfil our roles and responsibilities.

In addition I believe that, by collaborating regularly with teachers in other subjects and learning about their curriculum and content, we can gain a fresh perspective of PHE and maybe even learn something new about our subject that we may not have considered without that influence.

Here are some other benefits and drawbacks of cross-curricular approaches which I outlined in the webinar:

Real-world context

One of the biggest benefits of cross-curricular (and specifically interdisciplinary approaches) to learning is that it provides a context for learning, which increases student motivation and engagement. I think the starting point for any cross-curricular unit should be to root the unit in an authentic real-world context. This is important so that students can see the meaning in what they are doing and can identify how they will apply this knowledge and these valuable skills outside of school.

In my webinar I used an example about Arsene Wenger, as I had recently heard him talk on a podcast³ about how he applied different disciplines to ensure the success of his players, back when it was not the norm to focus on psychology and nutrition in sport.

Be a PHE advocate

The third theme of my webinar was to encourage other Phys Ed teachers to be an advocate for physical activity, health and well-being across the school. As PHE teachers, we are often expected to incorporate cross-curricular topics in our lessons, it is even a part of the National Curriculum for PE in England. However, it is not the same for other subjects; they are not necessarily expected to include movement, health or nutrition into their subject areas, although surely these are essential topics that should be addressed across the curriculum.

Therefore, as PHE teachers we can drive this forward by planning truly interdisciplinary units with other subjects (not just tokenistic nods to Maths or ICT), that improve learning in both subjects. I also provided ideas for other ways we can advocate for PHE across the school such as whole school events and celebrating the cross-curricular PHE units in staff meetings and on school social media.

I work in a bilingual school and regularly hear the phrase “all teachers are language teachers”, which I agree with. But in the same way, I believe that we should move towards a school culture in which all teachers are teachers of health and well-being. As PHE teachers, we have always known the value, importance and worth of movement and physical fitness on the overall health and (physical, mental, social) well-being of our students; but I think in light of the global pandemic, more and more people are waking up to this fact and now is a great time for us to drive the matter forward and encourage more of this, not just in PHE.

Some ideas

In my webinar I provided an in-depth look at a PHE, Science and Humanities interdisciplinary unit at my school and how we deeply and meaningfully incorporate the three subjects in a real-world context. Our purpose of integration is to combine the real-life and theoretical understandings of motion in Science with the technical understanding of running technique and speed in PHE, and market an idea applying knowledge about business enterprise in Humanities. The students collaborate on a group project, working for Nike to design a device that will improve running speed or technique.

Other examples of cross-curricular learning in my department are shown on the slide below:

You can catch the full replay of my webinar on the ConnectedPE site (if you are a member, which I highly recommend). But if you have any questions or comments about this post, I would be happy to continue the conversation on Linked In or Twitter.

References:

1. Lynch, Matthew “Pros and Cons of Cross-Curricular Teaching” The Advocate. 20 June 2019. URL: https://www.theedadvocate.org/pros-and-cons-of-cross-curricular-teaching/
2. Sadek, Heba “Teach students, not subjects: the benefits of cross-curricular teaching and learning” YouTube. Uploaded by Cambridge University Press ELT. 4 November 2019. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnq2S5UxsCw
3. Laverne, Lauren, host. “Arsene Wenger, former football manager” Desert Island Discs. BBC. 27 November 2020. URL: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000plw9

Image source:

Getty. “Arsene Wenger had an emotional send-off in his final Arsenal match in May 2018”. Talk Sport. 8 September 2019. URL: https://talksport.com/football/598671/arsenal-arsene-wenger/