Portuguese Version:

Este post de blog foi escrito por Edna Chimangue, que é professora de educação física
de Moçambique. Com uma publicação recente sobre experiências significativas na
educação física em contextos de língua portuguesa (Moçambique, Portugal, Brasil),
liderada pelo Dr. Marcos Godoi, o blogue de Edna ajuda-nos a perceber como o
conceito de significado – ou “significativo” em português – ressoa em diversos
contextos.

Sou professora de Educação Física em Moçambique e tenho cerca de 10 anos de
experiência. Durante a minha formação, adquiri ferramentas para ensinar de uma forma
que fizesse com que os alunos gostassem da disciplina e se divertissem. No entanto,
ao longo da minha carreira profissional, acabei por me desviar desse objetivo e foquei-
me mais em atingir as metas definidas pelo Ministério da Educação.
Contudo, há alguns anos, fui apresentada à Educação Física Significativa através de
um projeto de investigação do qual participei. Confesso que esta investigação me
proporcionou uma forma diferente de lecionar. Através dela, consegui compreender o
que os alunos desejam obter das minhas aulas. A partir daí, passei a centrar o meu
planeamento de aulas no aluno, trazendo mais diversão e desafios, uma vez que esses
eram os principais significados que eles queriam alcançar nas aulas.
Com esta nova abordagem, os meus alunos e eu temos assistido a que as nossas
aulas se transformem num ambiente mais acolhedor e agradável. Esta tarefa não é
fácil quando se tenta conciliá-la com o Plano Analítico do Ministério, mas com esforço
conseguimos. Hoje, estou a pesquisar mais sobre Educação Significativa através do
meu mestrado, porque acredito que ainda há muitos significados a serem alcançados.

English Version:

This blog post is written by Edna Chimangue, who is a physical education teacher from
Mozambique. With a recent publication on meaningful experiences in physical education in
Portuguese-speaking contexts (Mozambique, Portugal, Brazil) led by Dr. Marcos Godoi, Edna’s blog helps us see the ways in which the concept of meaningfulness — or “significative” in Portuguese has resonance across several contexts. Edna’s post was originally written in Portuguese, with a translation into English from Google Translate provided below:

I am a Physical Education teacher from Mozambique. I have about 10 years of experience. During my training, I was equipped with tools to teach in a way that would make students enjoy the subject. Throughout my professional career, I ended up deviating from this objective and focused more on achieving the goals set by the Ministry of Education. However, a few years ago, I was introduced to Meaningful Physical Education through a research project I participated in. This research gave me a different way of teaching. Through the research, I was able to understand how students could benefit from my classes. From then on, I focused my lesson planning on the students to bring more fun and challenge them since those were the greatest meanings they wanted to achieve in the classes. With this new approach, my students and I have seen our classes transform into a more inviting and enjoyable environment. This task is not so easy when trying to reconcile it with the Ministry Analytical Plan, but with effort, we will get there. Today, I am researching more about Meaningful Education through my Master’s degree because there are more meanings to be achieved.

May 3, 2025

On a slightly rainy day on the beautiful campus of Brock University in St. Catherines, Ontario a group of dedicated individuals gathered for the first (and definitely not the last!) Meaningful PE Learning Day. Champion teachers, grad students, researchers and a film crew – all gathered to focus on meaningfulness in physical education – and learning from each other. Organized primarily by Tim Fletcher and the team at Brock, the day included seven of our champions teaching lessons with intentional Meaningful PE pedagogy (for a definition of what a ‘champion’ in Meaningful PE is, check out the podcast of a presentation at the PHE National conference).

1. Starting and ending a lesson using Meaningful PE (Ty: Invasion Games)

2. Using the features to guide reflective discussion (Anita/Mel: Striking games)

3. Student voice pedagogies (Grace: Gymnastics stations)

4. Using Meaningful PE to contextualize instruction (Rachel/Rosie + Spencer)

All of these lessons were filmed by the fabulous Brock TV students and will be edited to be shared with the world – coming soon to a not-yet-determined format near you! The day also featured Deirdre NiChroinin in her directorial debut!

As you may have suspected, more content from the day will be released as it’s ready. For now, we have perspectives on the day shared by two of our newest champion teachers, Kelly and Tori. Enjoy!

An Eye Opening Day – Kelly

I was honored to be a part of the Meaningful PE day – as a new champion teacher it made me excited for the work that has been done and the work that is sure to come. The experience left me inspired as a learner and also energized my lessons as I returned to school.

During this day we experienced multiple physical activities/ lessons in the role of students, which, as a teacher, created a powerful learning journey. Experiencing Meaningful PE from the learner’s perspective was eye-opening. I appreciated the time spent in discussions with others to reflect on why we were eager to engage in certain activities or felt connected to being active. These conversations re-instilled the value of taking time to reflect and share our thoughts with others to create meaning to our physical experiences.

A highlight for me was the opportunity to modify rules within various activities to suit our group’s needs and preferences. These included something minor like the type of equipment used to something more major like whether we wanted the game to be competitive or cooperative. Flexibility was common in almost every activity to ensure that not only was I personally connecting with an activity, but that my whole group could. That flexibility allowed us to shape our experience in ways that made the activity more enjoyable and engaging. These cooperative skills are not only important within the physical activity world but in our everyday lives as well.

An interesting realization was that as a high-level athlete, I came into the day thinking I’d always prefer the most competitive and challenging activities. But when given the freedom to choose, I found myself thoroughly enjoying a cooperative task that focused on group success rather than individual achievement. In one challenge, our group chose to do the conga while moving to cooperatively complete a task rather than choosing to race against others. The shift from being competitive to cooperative surprised me and helped me see how our experiences can change and be different from what preconceived biases we may have had before.

Returning to my own teaching context, I felt re-energized and motivated to deepen my implementation of Meaningful PE. I found this especially important as previously, I struggled in some of my lessons to try new reflection techniques. Using simple graphics or buckets like in the map activity provided by Rachel was an easy method that takes little time but allows students to pause and reflect. I am now planning lessons with clearer intention, aiming to make time for students to connect with activities, adjust rules, and discuss as a group.

Although I had a strong understanding of Meaningful PE before this day, experiencing it from the student’s perspective gave me a renewed sense of purpose. The day reminded me that meaningfulness in physical education is not just a natural outcome of experiencing physical activity. These opportunities need to be intentional in nature and reflective in practice. I am excited for the ongoing opportunity as a champion teacher and the impact it will have on my students and colleagues.

Reflecting on Reflecting – Tori

The opportunity to learn from other teachers is a welcome and rich occasion! I had the opportunity and pleasure to learn from some of the Meaningful PE champions, and I will say it was some of the most informative professional development I have had in years. Seeing and being a part of these champion teachers’ practice allowed me to learn and understand genuine and authentic ways to integrate Meaningful PE into my own classes. In my own teaching practice, I have always struggled with including reflective activities and it is where I have the most room for growth.

Although there were many intentional opportunities presented by the champion teachers to include other Meaningful PE components, the way they included reflection practices were most impactful for me as a learner and an educator. The time for reflection was a sticking point for me as I (and my students!) value activity time. Knowing this, I have always tried to keep instruction brief and to the point. Therefore, when I thought about reflection, I always wrestled with the idea that it took away from movement time. In the past, I had students complete reflective pieces online and as homework. I was always “wowed” by the insights that they gained and as a bonus found it was a great way to improve my relationships with my students by getting to know them better. Unfortunately, in my context I am no longer allowed to assign homework for physical education and have since found reflective physical education a hurdle that I did not know how to overcome. I simply didn’t understand how to get my students to buy into the importance of reflection for meaningful learning.

Fortunately, I took away two simple techniques to create reflection in the moment, efficiently, and effectively. The first method was simply to ask a question and have students hold up their fingers (1: too easy, 2: just right or, 3: too hard) to rate how they were feeling regarding their level of challenge. So simple! I love this method as it is an easy way to check in and adjust tasks if necessary. The feedback is given in the moment and can be incorporated immediately. The other option that I liked used stickers to show which features of Meaningful PE students associated with that class. It’s an easy way to collect feedback even as students leave the gym. The feedback provided can then help to determine where adjustments need to be made in future classes.

I think that these two strategies are a manageable way for teachers to start to include important aspects of reflection in their classes. What I most appreciate from this day is the ability to take strategies that I can implement without too much fuss. Professional development should be straightforward and easy to execute within our classrooms. Thank you to all who attended and shared on this rewarding day at Brock!

In a similar way to one of the other project participants from Spain (Elena), my approach to this model—or to what I believe most closely resembles it—was the discovery of the Sport Education methodology more than 10 years ago. 

I liked the different approach offered in Sport Education. Giving students a voice and the opportunity to take on responsibilities in the teaching and learning process seemed like a new challenge for my teaching, which was more focused on tradition and direct instruction. Over the years, I have continued to implement the model at certain levels with success, I would say. 

The MPE that I am discovering seems like a much bigger and more complex step than the one I took back in the day with Sport Education. I am struggling quite a bit to decide how to apply it consistently. So far, I have limited myself to conducting small teaching units or experimental sessions with different groups, and the results do not seem entirely satisfactory to me at the moment. Possibly, my lack of determination to insist on the model over more sessions is one of the reasons. I also cannot ignore that perhaps I have my own resistance to change after 35 years as a PE teacher—everything certainly plays a role. 

However, when I have reviewed some of the other blog posts, I believe that change is possible. Even though I am not yet convinced to use this methodology as something recurrent and habitual, it may have to do with my “need to have control” or simply with my personal difficulty in putting the new MPE methodology into practice. 

I fully agree with the idea that it should be fun and that there should be different levels of learning depending on the students. I also support the idea of encouraging students to take initiatives and come up with ideas for teaching units or simply games. I believe that the main content and the way it is taught should remain my responsibility, and I am not sure if this contradicts the application of the MPE methodology. 

The European Commission’s support for the implementation of this project does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

During my years working in Physical Education, I have witnessed the evolution of teaching methodologies. There is an increasing emphasis on students’ interests and needs, the development of competencies, and concepts such as inclusion, diversity, social interaction, cooperation, and participation in decision-making. 

Meaningful Physical Education incorporates all these aspects, which in theory makes it a good option for our daily sessions. Does this mean that previous methodologies did not take them into account? From my point of view, no. In the Physical Education curriculum of the Autonomous Community of Galicia, these concepts have been present for years. Therefore, for teachers in this region, it is not a novelty but an obligation within our daily work. Furthermore, other active methodologies already address many of these principles, which raises doubts for me about whether Meaningful Physical Education truly offers something new or simply groups existing concepts under an attractive new name. 

I have encountered several difficulties in implementing it: 

• Limited Time 
  • Sessions at my school last 45-50 minutes, including students’ transition, changing footwear, taking attendance, and returning to class. At best, this leaves about 30 minutes of actual physical activity. Constantly incorporating reflection, cooperation, and student decision-making within this time frame is a significant challenge. 
• Lack of a Clear Structure 
  • To me, Meaningful Physical Education seems too theoretical and abstract. While it includes important terms, its approach does not provide a clear practical guide for designing sessions or teaching units, which is what interests me most in my teaching practice. 
  • For example, in the Sport Education methodology, sessions are well-structured, roles are defined, and participation rules are clear, making implementation easier. In contrast, Meaningful Physical Education lacks a detailed structure, making its daily application more difficult. Ironically, this could also be one of its strengths, as almost any Physical Education activity can be labeled as “meaningful” if it meets certain criteria. 

In conclusion, Meaningful Physical Education incorporates valuable ideas but lacks a clear structure that facilitates its application. While it has enriched my teaching perspective, I still find it a challenging methodological option for everyday use in my classroom. 

My Experience with Meaningful Physical Education 

At first, I focused on integrating some of its key aspects into specific sessions, using the characteristics as a reference framework: social interaction, enjoyment, challenge, motor competence, and personally relevant learning, as well as the pedagogical principles of democracy and reflection. 

As I became more comfortable, I added more criteria until I developed a full teaching unit based on its principles. 

Currently, I continue using it in my daily practice, although I still face some challenges: 

Personal Challenges: 

• Feeling more comfortable with the approach. 

• Finding a clear structure to apply it in most of my sessions. 

• Making it less theoretical and more practical. 

Professional Challenges: 

• Better adapting it to the individual needs of students. 

• Continuously promoting inclusion, diversity, and reflection. 

I consider this an enriching experience that helps me rethink my teaching approach. I continue exploring ways to improve its application and find a balance between theory and practice. 

The European Commission’s support for the implementation of this project does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

My arrival at this physical education group that focuses on Meaningful PE comes from the relationship with our coordinator Raúl, who I have known for many years for several courses related to physical education in which we collaborated. 

When Raúl told me about this group, I felt that a lot of the things I’ve been doing in my classes for about 10-12 years, had much to do with this approach to physical education. 

I think the trigger was a training course I did on the Sport Education Model (Siedentop) in which sports initiation was looked at from another perspective. I came to understand that we had to give more autonomy to the students so they would understand why things are happening, be able to organize themselves, make decisions, etc. This allowed me to see the class from outside, see it from another perspective and understand that teachers are guides but students have to do the learning.  

This model helped me to adjust the focus in other teaching units. From recycling, parkour, cooperative challenges with families, basic physical skills, classes on wheels, organization of leagues at the playground, organization of loaning the equipment for popular games, or the organization of school activities for little kids. The ideas from Meaningful PE helped me see new possibilities and ways of thinking about how these tasks could be focused around the idea of meaningfulness.

I firmly believe that if the students make their own decisions, they are involved in class and school in a different way. And so they will take charge of their own life and better cope with the situations in which they find themselves.

I have also learned that the students are the best teachers we have. To learn how to do things, we need them; and by testing things with them, we learn and improve. Why not do the same with them? Why not let them try and learn from their successes and failures?  

I believe that education is based on respect for oneself and others. And since we are not all equal, education cannot be the same for everyone. We must let them learn in their own way and guide the learning process. 

The European Commission’s support for the implementation of this project does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Lesson Planning Based on the Five Features of Meaningful Experiences

This blog post focuses on the implementation of Meaningful PE with students in the 9th grade. This 9th grade class has many multilingual students from different backgrounds, for whom there are different traditions of physical education in school and leisure. For some, this means that physical education may not be highly valued by students and their parents. Therefore, we find this grade ideal for this physical education project  about meaningfulness.   

Our Starting Point: Our goal for the PE lessons has always been to create a sense of joy in movement and participation opportunities for all students. We aim for students to develop their movement competencies and be prepared for the 9th-grade PE exam, which includes both practical and oral parts. Meaningfulness in physical education has always been central to our vision for PE, even if it wasn’t always explicitly stated. The Meaningful PE project has given us new perspectives and a language to articulate some of the practices we might have previously done unconsciously. This awareness has sharpened our planning and guided many of the reflections we’ve had with the students.  

How Meaningful PE has led to changes in our teaching practice: 

Lesson Planning: Based on the features, we have experimented with how focusing on one or more affects our lesson planning. For example, we considered how the content of a badminton unit changes when planned with a focus on motor competences (personal development) versus fun (joy of movement), and how students experience these two approaches differently. We find that paying attention to the different features sharpens our awareness of what we want to emphasize in each lesson, making our content planning more targeted. This focus also helps us understand how the different features impact students’ participation opportunities. Therefore, we believe that working with these features is essential for the versatility we want students to experience in PE lessons.  

Short Reflective Check-Outs with the Students Before They Leave the Lesson: We have experimented with using short check-outs to give students an opportunity to reflect on and become aware of the features, a language for their experiences in PE lessons, and a space for reflection. Examples of check-outs include:  

• Students fill out a form at the end of the lesson, indicating on a score from 1-5 the extent to which they feel they have developed their own technical skills.  

• Students discuss which of the features has been most prominent for them in today’s lesson.  

• Students play around-the-net. When they are out, they go to the changing room. On their way out, they note on the board which activity/feature has made the most sense to them during the unit.  

These short check-outs provide a brief, concrete, and recognizable format where students can reflect on their own experiences. They are reminded of the focus of the unit and the lesson, and the how and why of movement. With the short check-outs, we as teachers get to look each student in the eye and check out with them in a meaningful way. It is also our experience that the short check-outs are an effective way to develop students’ language around meaningfulness. This opportunity to reflect on meaningful physical education together with the students is something we will definitely make greater use of in the future.  

The European Commission’s support for the implementation of this project does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

In this blog post, we want to share our initial experiences and insights in the process of implementing the project “Champions of Inclusion and Diversity Using Meaningful Physical Education.“. What reflections and new ways of thinking about our physical education teaching has the project given us so far? 

We are two physical education teachers from Denmark. We teach a 4th grade class in physical education once a week for 90 minutes, which includes walking to the gym, changing clothes, showering, and a lunch break. This means we are physically active for 40 minutes. We have two classes combined in the PE lessons, which means about 45 students. 

Quite quickly in the introductory phase with Meaningful Physical Education, it became very clear to both of us that the concept of FUN is paramount, and we see it as a very natural part and approach to the subject of physical education. PE is FUN. But the question we had to ask ourselves afterward was, is it necessarily fun just because we teachers think so? 

The first unit we tackled was “Athletics.” (what some call Track & Field). Athletics should be fun, so we started the lesson with a common social movement game, as we often do. Then we divided the student group into two teams. One team was to practice throwing/catching with Simone, and the other team was to train for running with Anne. We wanted to be close to the students and implement skills and techniques as our focus. This way, we were trying to evoke meaningfulness for other students and those who do not immediately find PE fun. 

After the PE lesson, we evaluated the session and realized that as teachers, we actually did not quite know what each other was doing. The student group was relatively large despite us splitting into two. Had we even succeeded in implementing the technical skill element we wanted? 

With these considerations, we decided to rethink our organization so that we as teachers could be closer to each other and closer to the children in smaller groups. The solution became a PE lesson organized by stations. Under a common theme, e.g., “Athletics,” we distribute the students into smaller groups at 4-6 stations. In the first PE session, the students are introduced to all the stations. We show and explain so that all students know the purpose and content of each station. Then we distribute the students to the stations. They work for about 7 minutes at each station, so they can reach 3 stations in one lesson and therefore have some variety in what they are learning about and engaging with. We as teachers have chosen a station in advance where we stay, so we can get very close to the smaller student group and teach/guide them closely in the specific skill we want to focus on. We make sure to optimize and develop the unmanned stations, e.g., with signs that precisely show exercises and purposes, steps 1, 2, 3 at each station, so the students can challenge themselves at their level and maintain engagement in the exercise. 

We have experienced positive effects from this organization and have therefore continued it in new units. 

Summary & Evaluation: Before we were introduced to Meaningful Physical Education, our PE lessons often ended abruptly. Suddenly, time was up, and we had to clean up, and the students had to shower. We have tried to change this so that each PE lesson ends with the students standing on an assessment/evaluation line and reflecting on the lesson that has just passed. Students are asked to step forward to the line if they can answer yes to each of the statements, which could be: Have I tried something new? Have I challenged myself? Have I done my best? Have I collaborated with someone new?… 

We continue to work towards making this evaluation line even more reflective to help students understand how and when they encounter meaningfulness in their physical education lessons. 

The European Commission’s support for the implementation of this project does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

1. CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND: I teach in a small rural school (67 pupils in total) I teach a multi-class, both 5th and 6th class, aged 11 and 12 year olds. There are currently 20 pupils in my class. My class have two 30 minute P.E. classes each week. I teach all subjects and am not a specialist P.E. teacher. However I do value P.E. and am always open to improving my P.E. lessons.

2. REASON FOR GETTING INVOLVED: Teaching P.E. in senior classes presents unique challenges due to the wide range of abilities, engagement levels and interests among the children. As they grow older, this gap becomes even more pronounced, with some children actively participating in sports both in and out of school, while others show little interest and have minimal involvement. Bridging this divide can be difficult – the goal of my P.E. lessons is to create an inclusive and enjoyable environment where all students feel challenged and engaged.

3. IDEAS YOU WERE DRAWN TO:

• The priority is that the lesson is fun, fostering a life long engagement with movement, games and sport.
• Activities are designed to be adaptable, allowing the children to modify the challenge level to suit their abilities. This could involve introducing a timer, adapting rules of a game or choosing a different piece of equipment to complete the task
• Children are given a degree of autonomy over their learning experience, encouraging discussions about challenges and collaboratively problem-solving. For example, they consider ways to make a game more challenging or introduce rules to promote inclusivity.
• Choice is integrated into the lesson, with children having opportunities to vote on games, lead warm-ups, or decide how groups are formed.
• The idea of personally relevant learning, the children focus on self-improvement, challenging themselves as opposed to competing (or not) with other children in the class.
• The children reflect on the P.E. lesson, they think about what they learned, how they participated, what they need to work on.

4. OPPORTUNITIES/ CHALLENGES YOU FORESAW:

• As a teacher, I had to adapt to the reality that lessons might not always go as planned or envisioned, requiring me to be more flexible and responsive.
• I found that incorporating meaningful P.E. methodologies was easier in some strands of the P.E. curriculum than others. I found Games and Athletics lend themselves to the ideas of meaningful P.E. but I found it more difficult in Gymnastics, Outdoor and Adventure and Dance.
• While the children are accustomed to reflecting on their learning in other subjects, applying this practice in P.E. was a new experience for them.

5. FIRST STEPS IN IMPLEMENTATION AND HOW THIS PLAYED OUT:

• I am confident that our P.E. lessons are fun, children enjoy P.E. and I have observed increased participation, especially among the children who previously did not look forward to P.E.
• Children quickly became skilled at adapting games and activities. They liked that I listened to and incorporated their ideas.
• Reflecting on P.E. lessons has been challenging for the children, so I have kept it simple by asking questions about what they enjoyed most and what they found difficult.

The European Commission’s support for the implementation of this project does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.