Being Healthy, Well and Active (EDUC91068)

This subject prepares Teacher Candidates to use evidence-informed approaches to understanding and advancing the factors that contribute to student health, wellbeing and engagement in the primary and early childhood years.  This includes teaching Health and Physical Education, promoting social and emotional learning, enhancing healthy active lifestyles, and supporting wellbeing for students as members of schools, families and communities. This subject references the Australian/Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Frameworks and Curricula. This subject aims to explore how the Health, Physical Education and Dance curricula can be designed to help students understand health as a crucial enabler for learning and development from birth.

Teacher Candidates will learn to plan and teach lessons informed by the understanding that children’s wellbeing from birth is both a prerequisite for and an outcome of learning. Emphasis will be placed on effective teaching and learning practices and partnerships in Health and Physical Education with a particular focus on student agency, questioning, critical thinking and communication strategies that foster supportive relationships and active skill building for children, as well as adults in their family and community which are central to children’s wellbeing. Teacher Candidates will consider how wellbeing can be embedded with other curriculum areas and in contexts beyond the school classroom. They will explore the important role technologies play in transforming, restoring and sustaining their communities and will look at strategies for supporting themselves and their students to be healthy, active and well. The subject includes a focus on effective collaborative pedagogies for wellbeing education; strategies to cultivate positive teacher-student relationships; and use of proactive policies, practices and partnerships to advance student wellbeing.

Intended learning outcomes

On completion of this subject, Teacher Candidates should be able to:

• Plan, structure, sequence, assess and evaluate evidence-informed learning programs for Wellbeing, Health and Physical Education to support and challenge children's participation and promote their physical, social and intellectual development.
• Select, implement and evaluate resources for teaching wellbeing, health and physical education at different developmental stages from Birth to Year 6 to manage and support the diverse needs of all learners.
• Produce and use teaching strategies informed by curriculum and/ or approved learning frameworks for content in the areas of Health, Physical Education, and Dance. This subject references the Australian/Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Frameworks and Curricula.
• Engage in assessing learning using a range of approaches and interpret student data to evaluate student learning and modify teaching practice.
• Formulate explicit plans for developing and sustaining respectful relationships with students, colleagues, parents and carers and broader community agencies informed by a Health Promoting Schools Framework.
• Use effective teaching strategies informed by curriculum and/ or approved learning frameworks for content in the areas of Health and Physical Education, and for the safe, responsible and ethical use of ICT.

Generic skills