Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH

An important challenge for physical education teachers is to find strategies for the implementation of health education in the school subject physical education and health (PEH). The overall aim of this thesis has been to develop and explore the implementation of a pedagogical, practice based teaching-learning model in PEH. Focus of the study has been to promote students' understanding of health with aerobic condition, and its impact on health, as the specific object of learn-ing. The concept of Health Literacy has pervaded the entire project, both in the design of the model and in the analysis of students' description of their experi-ence and knowledge development. One upper secondary school class (n=32) was chosen for this action-based study. The implementation of the pedagogical model was designed as a student task-oriented interactive model. The educational outcomes of the model derived from tests and questionnaires were examined analyzed with statistics and con-tent analyses, as presented in article I and with phenomenographic analyses of student reports presented in article II. In focus for the analysis was how the object of learning, the phenomenon that the students encountered were de-scribed, experienced, conceptualized and understood. The design of the model supported an active processing of knowledge and stu-dents' ability of critical self-reflection within the framework of health literacy. To better integrate health in physical education, we need to both broaden stu-dents' way of questioning, and challenge their ways of constructing knowledge in (physical) health.