Physical and health education in the modern primary school

Abstract

From the aspect of personality development, physical and health education (PHE) has a special role and is of particular importance in primary school since it is the period of the most intense growth and development of children. Given the specific characteristics of this age group and the potential that PHE has during this period, this paper aims to determine primary school students' opinions on the achievement of the main objectives of PHE. The sample is intentional and includes 160 fifth grade and eighth grade students. The study used a three-level assessment scale whose items related to the four main objectives of physical and health education expressed by age-adjusted formulations. The results of the research show that the pedagogical objective of physical education is the most dominant one, while health and hygiene, and the recreational objective are less present in the teaching process. The educational objective of PHE and its achievement in the classes is the most sensitive issue of the primary school practice studied. The findings have served as a basis to draw a number of conclusions and pedagogical implications aimed at improving the status of the issue analyzed by this study.