Integrating Physical Education in the Primary School Curriculum. A Collaborative Approach for Interdisciplinary Teaching

Abstract

Interdisciplinary teaching connects two or more disciplines within content, activity, or experiencebased teaching proposals. Interdisciplinary teaching models allow to combine different areas of knowledge and, at the same time, to maintain the integrity of each discipline curriculum. In an interdisciplinary
program that includes the goals of physical education, movement is not simply considered as a tool for the realization of activities of other school subjects, but it allows the integration of the meanings of a knowledge sphere that pervades and enhances the embodied dimension of the human nature within a learning experience. The main purpose of the research was to analyze the results
of a collaborative model application in planning teaching units that better the integration of physical education into primary school curricula. Focus groups and workshops on interdisciplinary planning were carried out with a group of 32 teachers and 1 school sports tutor in a primary school.
Results showed that the choice of an interdisciplinary approach and integration of the physical education in the curriculum involve both technical aspect of planning and carrying out lessons – such as a deeper reflection on the objectives of each subject – and the personal vision of teaching practice, knowledge, and the meaning of school.