PPHY
Award in Preparatory Programme for Physical Education

MQF Level: 6

Duration:
24 Sessions

ECTS Value: 12 ECTS

Contact
Hours: 60

Self Study
Hours: 144

Assessment
hours: 96

Mode of Delivery: Face to face

Home/EU fees: €200
International fee: €1680

 

Overall Objectives and Outcomes

The aim of this programme is to deliver comprehensive training that equips prospective physical education educators with the competencies, skills and knowledge required to work in a classroom setting. This programme is designed to address the main skills in the topics: Athletics, Outdoor Education, Fitness, Gymnastics and Invasion Games, to ensure that educators are fully prepared to foster a positive, dynamic and inclusive learning environment.

By the end of this module, the learner will be able to:

Entry Requirements

Applicants are required to be in possession of the following:

  1. An awarded MATSEC Certificate (MQF Level 4), or equivalent, preferably with a Grade C or better in Physical Education at Intermediate Level;
  2. OR
  3. A full MQF Level 4 Qualification (with a minimum of 120 ECTS, or equivalent) in the area of Sport, Exercise or Physical Education;
  4. OR
  5. An MQF Level 5 Qualification (with a minimum of 30 ECTS, or equivalent) in the area of Sport, Exercise or Physical Education.

Applicants applying under the Institute for Education’s maturity clause are asked to refer to the Admission Regulations.

Competences

  1. Demonstrate the proper techniques and skills in all fields (Athletics, Outdoor Education, Fitness, Gymnastics and Invasion Games);
  2. Design an outdoor athletic activity plan;
  3. Conduct an outdoor athletic activity using the appropriate safety rules and equipment;
  4. Design a safe, effective, and engaging warm-up routine which will help improve motor skills and prevent injuries;
  5. Use appropriate instructional skills and terminology to demonstrate the proper way of various fitness exercises, and specific areas such as games, gymnastics, and athletics;
  6. Design a series of progressive gymnastics activities;
  7. Create activities using small sided games and draw out the technical component from the tactical component;
  8. Perform and adapt all the four functions of the game: attack, negative transition, defence and positive transition.

Knowledge 

  1. Examine the components of fitness required for each athletic event;
  2. Identify and work on limiting factors that affect performance in various athletics disciplines;
  3. Develop knowledge on the principles of different activities and games related to outdoor education such as archery, trekking and backwoods cooking;
  4. Describe the importance of fitness and its impact on physical, psychological, and social wellbeing;
  5. Identify the importance of physical literacy (pl) and fundamental movement skills (fms) as a foundation for children to participate confidently in play, games, sport, and recreational activities;
  6. Describe the role of physical activity in supporting overall health and weight management recognising the influence of individual biological and lifestyle factors;;
  7. Know the importance of fitness for optimal health;
  8. Explain the importance of warm-up as an effective method to increase motor competencies;
  9. Identify the dynamics and structure of circuit training with or without weights and the possible progressions that can be made to make the circuit and each individual exercise more demanding;
  10. Identify the importance of endurance development through games and competitions in order to improve the cardiovascular level of fitness;
  11. Recognise selection of core artistic gymnastics movements and elements and identify relevant variations;
  12. Distinguish the phases and component movements in core floor and vault elements;
  13. Identify the main outcomes for each of the four functions of invasion games.

Skills

  1. Identify and correct common mistakes in execution of different athletic techniques;
  2. Examine safety when delivering lessons in physical education;
  3. Perform exercises which are specific to developing different muscle groups;
  4. Employ training progressions and conditioning exercises to promote good body management and support skill development;
  5. Create and facilitate the creation of gymnastics floor routines composed of at least 6 elements;
  6. Perform the skills required to run a tactical move.

Mode of Delivery

This module adopts a face to face approach to teaching and learning. Information related to the structure and delivery of the module may be accessed through the IfE Portal. For further details, kindly refer to the Teaching, Learning and Assessment Policy and Procedures found on the Institute for Education’s website.  

Assessment Methods

This module will be assessed through: Practical Tasks and Written Tasks

Suggested Readings

Core Reading List

  1. Bompa, T. and Carrera, M. (2015). Conditioning Young Athletes. US: Human Kinetics Publishers.
  2. Morgan, K. (2013). Athletics Challenges: A Resource Pack for Teaching Athletics. UK: Routledge
  3. Wormhoudt, R., Savelsbergh, G.J.P., Teunissen, J.W., Davids, K. (Eds.) (2017). The Athletics Skills Model: Optimizing Talent Development through Movement Education. London: Routledge
  4. Teaching Athletics | Kids Athletics | World Athletics – https://worldathletics.org/kids-athletics/teaching-athletics
  5. Stremba B. & Bisson C. (2009) Teaching Adventure Education- Best Practices. Human Kinetics.
  6. Prouty D. ,Panicucci J. & Collinson, R. (Eds) (2007) Adventure Education- Theory and Applications. Human Kinetics.
  7. Gilbertson K. , Bates T. , McLaughlin T. & Ewart A. (2006) Outdoor Education – Methods and Strategies. Human Kinetics.
  8. Beames, S., Higgins, P., Nicol, R., Smith, H. (2024). Outdoor Learning Across the Curriculum. Theory and Guidelines for Practice. Routledge
  9. Cooper Institute. (2013). Fitnessgram & Activitygram Test Administration Manual. Updated 4th Edition. Human Kinetics, Chapagn Illinois. Found on https://www.cooperinstitute.org/vault/2440/web/files/662.pdf
  10. Virgilio SJ. (2012). Fitness Education for Children – A Team Approach 2nd Edition. Human Kinetics, United States.
  11. Kirkham-King M., Brusseau TA., Hannon JC., Castelli DM., Hilton K., & Burns RD. (2017). Elementary physical education: A focus on fitness activities and smaller class sizes are associated with higher levels of physical activity. Preventive Medicine Reports. 8 pp.135-139. Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211335517301419
  12. Plowman SA., Smith DL. (2011). Exercise Physiology for Health, Fitness, and Performance 3rd Edition. Lippincott Williams & Wilikins.
  13. Perry BW. (2012). Fitness for Geeks. O’ Reilly Media, Inc., United States.
  14. Heyward V. H. (2006) Advanced Fitness Assessment and Exercise Prescription (5th Ed). Human Kinetics, Champaign Illinois.
  15. Hands BP. (2013). Physical activity, physical fitness or physical education: Are we betting on the wrong horse? Active and Healthy Lifestyle Magazine, 20 (2), pp.5-7.
  16. Readhead, L., 2017. Coaching Youth Gymnastics: An Essential Guide for Coaches, Parents and Teachers. Crowood Press
  17. Gymnastics Skills Coaching Handbook. 2018. Gymnastics Skills Coaching Handbook. [ONLINE] Available at: https://sites.google.com/site/gymskillbasics/Home. [Accessed 23 May 2018].
  18. Griffin L.L. & Butler J.I. (2005) Teaching Games for Understanding – Theory, Research & Practice. Human Kinetics.
  19. Butler J.I. & Griffin L.L., (2010) More Teaching Games for Understanding – Moving Globally. Human Kinetics
  20. Mitchell, S.A., Oslin, J.L., Griffin L.L. (2013). Teaching Sport Concepts and Skills: A Tactical Games Approach for Ages 7 to 18. Human Kinetics.
  21. Bonaccorso, S. (2001). Coaching Soccer: Planning Technical & Tactical Training: 10-15 year olds. Reedswain
  22. Wein H. (2001). Developing Youth Soccer Players – Coach better with the soccer Development Model. Reedswain
  23. Wein H. (2004) Developing Game Intelligence in Soccer. Reedswain
  24. Snow, S. (2011) Coaching Youth Soccer. 5th edition. Human Kinetics
  25. Capel, S., Cliffe, J., Lawrence, J. (2020) A Practical Guide to Teaching Physical Education in the Secondary School. Routledge
  26. UK Coaching. Developing Core Movement Skills for Children Aged 5–12. Online resources and eLearning.
  27. Lloyd, Rhodri S., Oliver, Jon L. (2021) The Youth Physical Development Model: A New Approach to Long-Term Athletic Development. Strength and Conditioning Journal 34(3):p 61-72. DOI: 10.1519/SSC.0b013e31825760ea
  28. Dobbs, Ian J. (2020). The Development of Movement Competency, Strength, and Power in Male Youth Athletes. Cardiff Metropolitan University. Thesis. https://doi.org/10.25401/cardiffmet.13787161.v1
  29. Nicholls, D.A. and Vieira, A. (2023) ‘Physiotherapy, movement, and action’, Physiotherapy theory and practice, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), pp. 1–19.
  30. Hughes, J. D., Ayala, F., Roberts, W. M., Wing, K., & De Ste Croix, M. B. A. (2024). Coaching the coaches: exploring the effectiveness of the ‘Move Well Be strong’ youth injury prevention programme for grassroot coaches and PE teachers. Annals of medicine, 56(1), 2408456.

 

 

 

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