Cultivating Character through Physical Education Using Memetic, Progressive and Transformative Practices in Schools

Overview & Synopsis

This paper articulates how the teaching of movement, physical activity and sport, through formal education and schooling, and the medium of physical education, affords opportunities for twenty-first-century character education. We begin by outlining our theoretical framework for character education and identify how character-traits developed through teaching morally and morality, can be pigeonholed into one of four categories, including performance, moral, civic and intellectual virtues. We then scaffold five models-based approaches to teaching physical education through memetic, progressive and transformative pedagogy based on their scope for educating the moral person. In doing so, we illuminate how model-based theories play a pivotal role when educating for character and illustrate the importance of physical education as a developmental platform for character, practical wisdom and human flourishing.