Physical Education and Sport BA (Hons)

This module develops your understanding of teaching and learning in school physical education. It consolidates and extends your subject knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge, allowing you to examine more closely how physical education can be taught and how learning can be supported.

You will explore a range of teaching, learning and assessment approaches used within physical education. This will help you consider the relationship between what is taught, how it is taught and how learning is assessed.

The module extends the curriculum, subject and pedagogical knowledge introduced through Introduction to Physical Education, moving towards a deeper consideration of approaches to teaching and learning. This knowledge is developed further at Stage 3 when you critically examine the place, purpose and development of physical education as a curriculum discipline.

In this module, you will explore how social science research is planned and conducted. You will be introduced to research methodologies and methods and examine the broad characteristics of social science research practice.

Rather than only learning about research in theory, you will develop a research plan based on a topic that interests you and present your proposed approach. This gives you the opportunity to think carefully about how a research question can be investigated and how decisions about research design need to relate to the subject being explored.

The module develops your understanding of the research process and prepares you for increasingly independent investigation. This is particularly relevant to the final-stage Dissertation, where you will design and carry out an investigation of your own.

In Sports Development, you will explore the varied roles that sport development plays in the delivery of sport and physical activity across the United Kingdom. You will consider how the field changes in response to government priorities for sport and physical activity.

A central focus is the tension between two important aims: increasing mass participation and achieving international sporting success. You will investigate these principles and consider how they relate to successful approaches to sport development.

By examining the relationship between policy priorities, participation and sporting success, you will develop a clearer understanding of the factors that influence decisions within sport development. This knowledge is extended at Stage 3 in Contemporary Issues in Sports Development, where you will critically analyse current issues within youth, community and elite sport settings.

In this module, you will examine social theories and use them to explore inequality within sport. You will investigate how theoretical perspectives can help explain patterns of participation in sport and physical activity and develop a more critical understanding of the relationship between sport and social equality.

You will move beyond studying social theory as an abstract idea by considering how it can be applied within research. You will explore how theoretical perspectives can inform research design and practice when investigating questions relating to sport and social equality.

This develops the socio-cultural perspective introduced in The Social Context of Sport and Exercise and strengthens your ability to use theory as a tool for interpreting participation and inequality and for informing research.

In this module, you will explore how pedagogical theory can help teachers and coaches understand learning in sport and physical activity. You will examine how participants interact with their environment, their peers and teachers or coaches, and how these interactions can contribute to the development of knowledge and skills.

The module considers active, problem-solving and self-regulated approaches to learning, alongside the importance of social interaction in shaping participants’ experiences. This allows you to explore learning as a process in which participants interact with both other people and the environment around them.

You will consider how teachers and coaches can apply pedagogical theory and develop adaptable and creative approaches to participation in sport and physical activity, strengthening your ability to connect theoretical ideas about learning with sporting contexts.

The Dissertation gives you the opportunity to design and carry out an independent investigation into a topic, aspect of practice or policy that you choose within an appropriate professional context.

You will draw on your previous preparation in research methodologies and methods to make decisions about how your investigation should be approached and carried out. This allows you to bring together subject knowledge and research skills while taking greater responsibility for an extended piece of independent work.

The module represents an important progression from Learning Through Research, moving from developing and presenting a research plan to undertaking your own investigation. Through this process, you will demonstrate graduate-level capabilities associated with independent research and the systematic investigation of a chosen issue.

In this module, you will critically examine contemporary issues affecting sport development, with particular attention to issues that influence the role of the sport development officer. You will explore real-world issues across youth, community and elite sport settings.

You will use relevant models and concepts from sport development literature alongside real-world case studies to critically analyse these issues. This enables you to move beyond identifying challenges within sport development and consider them using established ideas and evidence.

The module explicitly develops earlier learning about sport development principles, extending the understanding established in Sports Development at Stage 2. You will use this knowledge to engage critically with current issues and the different contexts in which sport development operates.

Critical Issues in Physical Education develops your understanding of physical education and school sport by examining important issues affecting the subject. You will consolidate and extend your subject, curriculum and pedagogical content knowledge and use this to engage critically with physical education.

You will investigate how physical education has evolved as a curriculum discipline and examine its place and purpose within education. This allows you to consider not only how physical education is taught, but also broader questions about why it forms part of education and how the subject has developed over time.

The module therefore extends the curriculum and pedagogical perspectives explored earlier in the course, asking you to analyse physical education at a more critical level and consider the assumptions and issues that shape the discipline.

In this module, you will critically examine contemporary social and welfare issues across a range of sporting contexts. You will approach these issues from several perspectives, drawing on sociology, policy and relevant research to develop a multidisciplinary understanding of the challenges affecting sport.

Case studies will provide a focus for debate and discussion, helping you explore contemporary issues and the strategies associated with them. By considering evidence and perspectives from different disciplines, you will develop your ability to analyse complex issues rather than relying on a single explanation.

The module extends the course’s wider examination of sport in society and provides an opportunity to bring together social, policy and research perspectives when considering current welfare issues within sport.